Legal Translation

Legal Translation

Legal translation is the conversion of legal documents from one language to another, conveying not only the meaning but also maintaining purity of legal terminology and register in the target language. Legal principles must be kept in mind while translating, not just from the linguistic point of view, but also from the angle of legal equivalents between the countries. 

Legal documents include contracts, court documents, patents, leases, lease abstracts, divorce petitions, court orders and similar such documents. 

Legal documents have far-reaching implications and accuracy in the interpretation and the recreation of the texts is therefore crucial. For this reason alone, it is important that translations are checked and reviewed, and that a fool-proof quality assurance process is followed. A translation agency that specializes in legal translation is equipped to deal with the legalities and ensure accurate translations of legal texts, as it has methods, processes, and best practices in place for the process of legal translation. 

The quality assurance process involves firstly the engaging of professional legal translators. Not all translators can be legal translators. Specialization and expertise in the legal field is an essential qualifying criterion for a translator to be hired as a legal translator, in addition to a professional qualification in linguistics and translation. 

The next important step is teamwork, and lexicographical consultation with experts and senior translators. An agency has multiple resources and banks on the collective knowledge of a team and not an individual. Research of an individual is restricted and no match to consulting with knowledgeable resources with experience in the legal field.

Next, the TRP process of translation, review and proof reading ensures that the translation goes through at least two pairs of eyes, if not more. This reduces the chance of errors substantially. 

Confidentiality is of utmost importance in any professional field, and even more in the legal field. All matters pertaining to legal issues require a level of confidentiality. All agencies are bound by ISO data security policies and are legally bound to maintain confidentiality in their work, and protect data shared with them. 

Certification is also a common and necessary part of legal translation. It is customary for agencies to provide certified legal translations, wherein they undertake that the work is accurately translated, identifying the source document, and that they are qualified and equipped to undertake such translation. A certificate of translation is created in the form of an affidavit wherein the translation agency undertakes Certification accords weightage and validity to a translation while submitting to a statutory, corporate or government body. 

Read another article on quality assurance in legal translation. 

Read an article about legal translation and its intricacies.