Particular Features of Legal Translation Services
Legal Translation Services - a Job for Professionals
Whenever you need a legal translation, such as a translation of legal correspondence, important contracts, agreements or court decisions, it is always a good idea to entrust this challenging task to an experienced legal translator with relevant qualifications in the relevant field of law. As a rule, legal documents have significant financial, private and commercial consequences. Even the slightest mistakes, like typing errors in proper names or figures can have serious consequences. A delay in handling resulting from a request of corrected documents is one of the harmless consequences. In the worst case, the document will not be acknowledged. A certified translation is often required in case of legal texts, which I can also make for you in my capacity as a court translator.
In addition, some particular features are to be observed in connection with legal translations. Whoever has been confronted with US contracts and agreements, knows that compared to German contracts and agreements, there are fundamental differences in form. They do not only differ with regard to syntax and terminology but also present difficulties concerning the respective institutions and official functions so that comprehensive special knowledge and sometimes time-consuming research for terminology are required. Especially in connection with this kind of texts, a machine translation will always prove to be a complete failure, when considering that in US contracts and agreements a single sentence can cover several pages! My job as a legal translator is therefore to dissolve the complex structure of sentences for you and to render legal facts in a way that in the end an understandable, clearly worded and materially correct contract is available to the contracting parties in the target language.
Translation of Law Texts, Contracts and Agreements
A perfect translation of contracts and agreements hence implies a linguistic and intellectual performance that cannot be rated high enough, all the more so as every country has its specific legal, judicial and administrative system of its own that cannot be compared to that of any other country. This is why there is often no 100-percent equivalent to the institutions and functions of the other country. Often a legal term that is commonly used in one country does not even exist in another country. Furthermore, the functions and official titles of judicial staff and authorities are quite different from those used in other countries. Thus the legal translator often has to find adequate names or descriptions so as to exclude misunderstandings in legal translations.
In addition, different formalities are to be observed in many countries. For example there are essential differences with regard to the kind of editing contract documents in German, French, British and US agreements. Formal elements which are e.g. mandatory in US contracts so as to be valid, can and must even be omitted in the German translation.
Another aspect is the confidential nature of legal translations. Of course, when commissioning a translator, it is of vital importance that any and all documents of the client are treated as confidential, as rather sensitive areas are often addressed in contracts and legal disputes involving data and information not intended for the public, in particular in the field of patents, copyright and the like. It goes without saying that such documents are treated as strictly confidential but of course, your confidentiality agreement can be signed prior to the start of work.