Certified Translations from and into English
Certified Translations from English and French into German and from German into English
With good reason, certified translations may only be made by translators authorised by the court for the relevant language pairs. In many cases, the source texts are important documents, the certified translation of which is also acknowledged by the competent courts, authorities and organisations for official purposes.
This is why the court authorising the translator to carry out certified translations does not only check that the translator fulfils the personal requirements (like personal reliability, careful handling of the original deeds or instruments handed over to him/her) but also requires a proof of the translator's qualifications (e.g. in the form of graduation certificates, diplomas etc.) and a proof that the translator possesses profound knowledge of the respective legal systems. Only those translators who comply with all these requirements can be approved by the court. This also means that court approval is always bound to a specific person instead of an agency or organisation. In my capacity as a court translator, I would be glad to make certified translations in the language pairs German-English, English-German, French-German and French-English for you. Of course, I will also give you any advice and information about all matters concerning certified translations.
When entrusting a translator with a certified translation of your documents, I urgently recommend to make sure that the final part or last page of the finished translation handed over to you looks like the sample on the right.
To sum up, a certified translation must present the following features:
- it has to be identified as such (e.g. by a corresponding note in the header or title and a registration no. allocated by the translator)
- at the end of the translation, a certification stamp or note must be added by which the correctness and completeness of the translation is certified
- the certification stamp/note must bear the date of issuance and the translator's signatur
- the translator's official round seal must be affixed
- the translator's approval number and the approving court must be stated in the seal or certification note
What happens to mistakes in the source text, if a certified translation is required?
Any mistakes, errors, and flaws contained in a source text will as a rule be identified by a diligent translator. Mistakes are also made by public authorities and civil servants. This even happens more frequently than you would expect! Lately, an official certificate was presented to me for translation, according to which the mother was younger than her child!!! Also documents in which the sex was indicated incorrectly or balance sheets with different currencies or misspelled company names have been submitted to me.
So, it's a good thing if the translator detects such severe flaws in time, so that he/she can inform his/her customer or the issuing authority about this defect. For in the worst case, such a certificate would not have been acknowledged!
This is why I can warmly recommend to the translation client to check, whether the documents do not contain any mistakes or errors in the source language (e.g. spelling of proper names, sex, civil status, date of birth and of course, figures etc.).
The illustration shows the last page of a certified translation which can also be identified as such in the header.
Below the translation, the translator's certification with signature and round seal of the court translator must be affixed.