Quality Assurance in Legal Translation

Quality Assurance in Legal Translation

Translation in general, and legal translation in particular requires special attention at various stages and aspects of a complete TEP process. In the text that follows, we will discuss the various checks that are necessary to ensure accuracy, propriety, and punctuality.

Most audiences would understand that translation quality is largely dependent on the translator alone. Although the translator plays a major role in the process, and hence the quality of the output, we must not forget that translation is a team effort, and many people including non-linguists will play a role in improving it.

Among the linguists, we have translators, terminology experts and the reviewers. Among the non-linguists, the recruiters, project managers and the process designers also contribute
largely to quality assurance.

Fig. 1. Division of Q-A Responsibility in Legal Translation

Let us now analyze the roles of the various participants.

A. Procurement and Human Resource Management in Legal Translation

The procurement manager is responsible for identifying the right candidates for the core- team of linguists. They will primarily look for expertise and qualification in legal translation and law as a discipline. Further, interpersonal skills to ensure diligence, thoroughness,
responsiveness, and punctuality are also required to be checked for.

B. Project Management in Legal Translation

The project manager must oversee the work and must understand the global requirement and define the workflow. The PM may need to define instructions and guidelines either in consultation with the client or the linguist or both. Templates to facilitate the translation and presentation to the client and understanding how the format of the submitted document can benefit the next person in the workflow, are things the PM must take into
consideration to improve efficiency. Style guides, glossaries must be provided, and processes may need to be defined and designed. This support and definitions not only improve efficiency of the team in general, but also contributes to accuracy and punctuality of the translators.

Upon completion of a translation project, the PM must have the translations checked, and facilitate a smooth handover to the reviewer. She must then do a due diligence to check adherence to guidelines and instructions. A mechanism of communicating observations and corrections, and managing versions is also an important part of the quality management process.

C. Linguists Suitable for Legal Translation

Under linguists we understand three roles that often overlap. At first, we have the terminology consultants, or subject matter experts. In most cases the translators themselves prepare the glossary, and in some cases the client may provide their own. It is also possible that a team hires a specialist who is usually a subject matter expert, who will throw up a list of words, phrases, acronyms, and loan-words and provide an authoritative glossary for the same. Sometimes the glossary building may be a collaborative process between translators and the client coordinated by the project manager.

The translator executes the core-work. She is not only responsible for the linguistic skills of translation, research, and legal writing, but also technical know-how of the CAT tools. She must be conversant not only with both the languages but also with the laws of the relevant countries to interpret texts correctly, provide corresponding equivalents, and resolve
discrepancies in the provisions of law.

The reviewer has the responsibility to check for consistency and errors in translation. A protocol for communication, discussion and resolution of suggested changes is followed.

D. DTP, Voiceover and other Post-translation Activities in Legal Documentation and Translation

Once the translated document is received, other stakeholders may put it to several uses such as data entry, DTP or voiceover. Several process may rely on the translations provided
by the team.