Certified Legal Translation Services - An Insight & Comprehensive Guide

 The domain of legal translation services is quite vast, intricate and complex, requiring professional training, language skills, domain-specific knowledge and vocabulary, while translating a document from one language to another. Most importantly, without distorting facts and ‘legal technicalities’ of the said content. The main beneficiaries of one such service are law firms, legal chambers, attorneys, lawyers and customers. Legal interpretation or translation of documents can be of various types, ranging from:

• Immigration paperwork
• USCIS document
• Divorce papers
• Visa documents
• Business contracts
• Property deeds
• Inheritance agreements
• Marriage certificates
• Driver’s license, to
• Patent laws, treaties and litigation proceedings.

 

Who Does It and What are the Skills Required?

 It is carried out by a certified translation agency that has a dedicated team of qualified linguists, native language translators and voice-over interpreters who are able to seamlessly translate any document, irrespective of its complexity and length. The certified legal translator must be:

 

1. Adept and fluent in both the languages.
2. Skilled enough in understanding the technical terms & phrases related to contracts, licenses, business agreements, immigration documents and deeds.
3. A subject-matter-expert in legal document translation with years of industry exposure.
4. A native linguist, with exceptional command over English, along with one or more languages.
5. A professional, maintaining high standards of service quality, sans any errors or time-overrun.
6. A certified, qualified and accredited legal translation expert.

  

Some Common Legal Document Translation Examples

o       Immigration or USCIS Documents - Here, the set of documents that require accurate translation,        while you’re migrating from one country to another that does NOT speak English or the language of     your country are: 

Ø  Visa Papers

Ø  Passport

Ø  Work Permits

Ø  Medical Documents

Ø  Birth Certificate

Ø  Criminal Records

Ø  Citizenship Application Documents, and more.

o       Business Documents - Some of the most common types of and prominent business documents that     require professional translation are as following:

 

Ø  Contracts

Ø  Licenses

Ø  Patents

Ø  Agreements

Ø  Copyrights

Ø  Disclaimers

Ø  Financial Statements, and

Ø  Terms & Conditions.

o   Court-Related Documents - There may be multiple types of court documents that require translation, but let’s understand the most important ones that are commonly translated for serving the needs of courts, law firms, attorneys and clients.

 

Ø  Testimonies

Ø  Court Hearings

Ø  Witness Statements

Ø  Court Transcripts

Ø  Order Notices

Ø  Client Files

Ø  Litigation Paperwork

Ø  Briefs, and so on.

 

Types of Legal Translation

A.   Certified Legal Translation - In any certified legal translation service, the said document is translated from one language to another, word by word. It is done by precisely maintaining the grammatical sense and key technicalities, without disturbing the original essence and meaning of the content. The end-result must be accurate, complete and ‘typing error-free’, thus helping both the parties, viz; the attorney and the client. Here in the US, when submitting foreign language documents to any educational or government institution, it must be a certified translation.

 

B.   Notarized Legal Translation - In a notarized translation, though falling under the ambit of certified translation, here you need one additional piece, and that is the seal or signature of the Notary Public or Notary Department. This acts as an extra layer of authentication, but it does NOT certify the quality of translation work. Here, the seal of the Notary Public is to confirm the person who has signed the translation, thus clearly indicating him/her.

 

How to Professionally Translate Legal Documents?

When you’re partnering with domain-specific experts like “AlphaCatalogs”, be rest assured about the quality of translation, as they’ve a pool of qualified linguists, with expertise in certified legal translations. In fact, all native human translators, with in-depth knowledge about a particular language, other than English, apart from know-how of legal phrases, terms and various other key technicalities.

 In order to translate accurately and correctly, this certified translation agency has shunned the use of translation Apps, tools & software; instead completely relies on a formidable and dynamic team of in-house native language translators that possess the requisite qualification, skills, accreditation and certification. After all, lives, businesses and professions are at stake.