What is Legal Translation?

Legal translation is a branch of translation which uses specific terminology and structures.  You may ask: “What is legal translation?”; “Why is legal translation important?”; “What are types of legal documents to be translated?”; and “Who need legal translation services?” You may be also confused upon selecting a highly-experienced legal translation provider. The answers for all these questions can be simply summarized in this blog. Individuals, corporations, and agencies who involve in any legal transaction are in need to legal translation. Legal papers contain sensitive information based on which decision makers can make decision or comply with obligations.

Why is Legal Translation important?

Accordingly, correct and accurate legal translation is needed. Agreements, laws, contracts, regulations, corporate documents, judicial papers, arbitration awards, memoranda, conventions, maritime documents, labor documents, and tender papers are examples of legal documents which need legal translation. By reviewing such types of legal papers, you can easily realize the importance of legal translation services. All these documents are sensitive and govern the relations between business parties. So, any wrong translation will have catastrophic consequences.

Who needs legal translation?

The following entities need legal translation services:

• Individuals,
• Agencies,
• No-profit organization,
• International institutions,
• Multinational companies,
• Law firms,
• Courts,
• Public prosecution,
• Embassies,
• Consulates, and
• Multinational companies

The legal system penetrates every aspect of life. When two parties which different languages involve, they definitely need the legal translation services.

What are examples of legal documents which need legal translation?

There are many types of legal documents which need legal translation. We can classify them as follows:

• Corporate Documents: Articles of association, memoranda of association, regulations, bylaws, policies, contracts, agreements.
• Judicial Documents: Judgments, statements of claims, statements of appeals, challenges, petitions, rejoinders, memos of defense
• Identification Documents: Passports, IDs, licenses, commercial registers, birth certificates, death certificates, marriage certificates
• Arbitration Awards
• Experts’ reports
• Audit reports
• Maritime documents
• Insurance policies
• Labor documents (Employment contracts, visas, etc)
• Tender documents (terms of reference, proposals, bids, etc)
• Laws
• Regulations
• Constitutions

As we can see, legal documents are in every aspect of our life; work, travel, migration, etc. That is why all professions need this branch of translation. Universities and colleges provide legal translation courses because the legal industry has specific structure and terminology.

How can you pick a translation provider?

As explained in this blog, you might be confused when you select a highly-qualified translator or translation agency. iTransling for Legal Translation Services provides you with specific factors under which you can decide which translation agency or translator you should hire.

• As legal papers are specialized, you must focus on specialization. You have to make sure that you pick specialized translators for your documents. They must have knowledge and expertise in legal industry.
• The translation process consists of three phases: document analysis, translation and proofreading. Consequently, you have to agree with the translation agency or freelance translator to apply this three-stage process.
• You translation agency or translator must abide by the deadlines. You must make sure that they are committed to deadlines and are well-known for such commitment.
• The cost of translation is an important factor; especially for clients who have limited budget. However, if you need a high-quality human translation, you can expect to pay high fees. For more information about the cost of translation, please read more
• Reliability: You have to choose a reliable translation agency for translating your legal documents. You can verify its reliability through Google reviews and personal references; especially if you are going to translate sensitive confidential documents. In this case, you have to pay attention to confidentiality too.
• Languages: You have to choose a translation agency or translator whose mother language is the target language. For example, if you are going to translate from English into Arabic, you should choose a translation agency or translator based in any Arabic country.

Conclusion

In conclusion, legal translation is a sensitive important branch of translation where high skills, expertise, and qualifications are required. As a client, you must be careful upon hiring a translation provider regardless of the high cost because quality matters rather than low price. At iTransling, the legal translation process passes through three stages: analysis, translation, and proofreading. Whatever the type of legal document, we apply this translation process.