The advent of globalization enabled businesses to expand their businesses beyond geographical borders. In turn, it has increased the need for a legal translation that is complex. It does not just involve translating the content plainly but also translating the legal terminologies and keeping their accuracy intact.
As per an interesting fact, Businesses who invested in translation were 1.5 times more likely to observe an increase in revenue.
In this case, every country has a different set of rules and regulations that make the legal terminologies distinct and precise translation of legal contracts becomes difficult. Also, it becomes significant in cases of immigration documents that need to be translated and filed in international companies.
What is a Legal Translation?
The word ‘legal document translation’ implies a text translation that falls within the legal system. As these documents are used for legal purposes, the documents are submitted to government officials or courts. It can be witnessed statements, court orders, financial records, official reports and much more.
The subject and content of legal documents are different with precise legal terminologies to avoid any case of misunderstandings. For this reason, legal translation is done by legal specialists with a lot of attention to detail.
What is the Importance of legal translation?
Language translation is significant for business and legal cases in international cases and businesses. It removes language barriers overseas for legal work and ensures transparency and precision. In addition, legal translation is vital for a good business strategy that gives a basic insight into the legal requirements avoiding any conflict in future.
Characteristics of legal Translation
In some cases, legal translation is just for information and understanding purposes, but it can have legal consequences in other cases. Therefore, it is significant to study and research legal frameworks for executing legal frameworks for accurate legal adaptation.
- The function of a legal document is based on its use: There are multiple kinds of legal documents in business, juridical and other fields; the function of the legal document is not based on its inherent content but its specific use.
- It differs from other translations: Legal text has different purposes. Every language has a particular set of unique terms and legal terminologies. Unlike other translations, it does not involve just replacing words because it can change the meaning of a sentence from one language to the other. Such mistakes can be very costly to firms and clients.
- Interpretation: The legal, political and judicial content terms are based on the specific national Language. For this reason, it can easily create misunderstandings with Ambiguity. So, interpretation of a legal document is complicated work.
- It differs from country to country: Every country has a particular rule for legal translations. Some countries consider licensed legal translators and require a particular degree in the field, and others don’t. So every country has a different legal system, different not just the language and terminologies but also the context and formation of the legal content.
What are the different kinds of legal translations?
Every legal translation has a different requirement to match, distinct context, kind of document and language that the documents need to be translated into. There are 4 key kinds of legal documents that need to be translated are:
- Terms and Conditions: T & C apply to consumers, organisations and businesses. The users that deal with brands should understand the Terms and conditions related to services and general policies. The government must inform consumers about T & C to have transparency. Otherwise, the consumer can take a legal step against the brand.
- Intellectual property translations: There are intellectual property translations for technologies and products. There are various Intellectual property translations relevant to a global brand like patents. A patent is an exclusive right granted by a state for a particular product. It ensures that there is no copy.
- Legal market research: legal market research has gained significance because every industry has regulations for local and foreign businesses. Therefore, any brand that operates in a foreign country needs a legal market research translation.
- Contract translation: Contract translation involves the translation of work contracts. Every company that has employees in a foreign country needs a contract translation.
Why does a company need legal translation?
Every business working across borders needs business translation regularly. There is no place for error in these specialised documents that can have costly consequences. Let us tell you 4 reasons why a company needs a legal translation service:
- A wrong legal translation can be very problematic: A big reason that makes legal translation vital is that a wrong legal translation can have dire consequences for your company. For example, there can be hefty fines, expensive delays, and a minor error that can change the entire context of the legal document and void its purpose. In addition, there can be damaged reputation, few business opportunities, loss of clients, and even jail punishments in other cases.
- Legal requirements differ from country to country: As mentioned above, there is a difference in the legal system from one country to another. So, every country has distinct legal requirements and translations need to meet specific standards of that particular country. So, it needs professional legal translators who are well-versed with international laws.
- There is a need to localise legal documents: Apart from precise legal translation, there is a link to localise the concept and ideas. For example, a legal translator needs to know that particular words are culturally sensitive, and legal translation needs to be done keeping a view of a region’s tradition.
- There is a need for certificate accuracy: Many companies, courts and government offices demand a certificate for legal translation to move forward without any accuracy gap. Also, it confirms that there are no discrepancies and misunderstandings.
Summing up,
Now we have reached the end of this article. We hope that you will have got to know all about legal translation. Let us take a quick recap.
Legal translation is a translation of special legal documents that require professional legal translators for the purpose. It is important for cross border businesses, and any mistake, in this case, can prove expensive with legal problems.
For this reason, you need professional legal translators like Alpha Data Leads to ensure precise translation of legal documents and legal terminologies into different languages. It has a team of expert legal translators that will ensure that you don’t get into a conflict the next time to use legal translated documents.
Frequently Asked Questions
(1). What does legal translation include?
Legal Translation services involve translating contracts, agreements, immigration documents, patents, witness statements, Terms and conditions, among others.
(2). What does a legal translator do?
A Legal translator works with on translation of legal documents like patents, contracts, medical documents etc., and needs more time than a regular translator. Also, translation differs from case to case.
(3). What are the features of a language used in legal translation?
A common characteristic of legal translation language is formal and impersonal writing style with complexity, passive voices, and extensive prepositional phrases.
(4). Is language translation hard?
Language transition has a difficult approach. It differs from country to country in legislation and legal systems. Therefore, it needs professional, precise legal translators for the job who are well versed with the legal terminologies and context.
(5). Can I translate a legal document on my own? The translation involves the translation of the name, address, signature, date, and legal terminologies. So, it will be unethical if you translate legal documents. There are certified legal translators for the job.