Legal translations are the core of multilingual communication because they allow citizens, businesses, legal and governmental institutions to communicate despite language and cultural differences, within and outside the borders of the states. Who should translate a legal document? A professional Independent Translator or a professional Translation Company?

1. Legal Translations - Independent Linguists or Translation
Agencies?
Legal translations are the core
of multilingual communication
because they allow citizens,
businesses,
legal
and
governmental institutions to
communicate despite language
and cultural differences, within
and outside the borders of the
states.
We are all aware of the
increasing
importance
of
qualitative translations, especially in the legal sector. The incorrect translation
of a legal document can lead to misunderstandings and frustrations; not to
mention the following delays and higher costs.
Legal expertise
Legal translation is a specialised area of translation that requires thorough
knowledge of the legal systems of the source language and the target
language(s) as well. The phrasing used within the framework of this type of
documents are very accurate and must under no circumstances be ambiguous.
More to that, a professional linguist in charge of a legal translation needs solid
legal drafting skills.
Considering all these requirements, a professional translation agency might be
a better option than an independent linguist, as such agency usually has access
to a complete database of skilled translators. A marriage certificate is different
from a criminal case and from a corporate negotiation, therefore different
skills are required for an accurate translation of each of these documents.
Finding an independent translator that would be a perfect match for all these

2. types of legal documents is a time consuming and difficult activity. Relying on
the services of a translation agency instead can prove to be more efficient, as it
can more easily match the needs of a client with the legal expertise and
experience of more translators and provide the final documents as accurate as
possible.
Security of information
In case of a highly important document, a translation agency can arrange that a
whole team of translators to be assigned to provide the translation, so none of
them becomes in the know of the entire document. This is a basic measure
that translation companies use in order to provide standards of security. Not
only that, but when a team of translators work on the same document, it will
be finished more rapidly. Can one independent translator do all this? It is
doubtful.
On the other hand, one translator may be preferred by a client if the needed
documents to be translated keep the same register. Having one linguist
translating them all assures consistency between documents. But agencies can
also assign the same translator for the same client if required and in cases
where that linguist becomes unavailable, they can find another one with the
same skills in no time.
Quality of legal translations comes first
No matter the source of the translation, the quality of the final document is
the most important thing one should consider when in need of a legal
translation. Both independent linguists and translation companies can provide
qualitative translated legal documents. However, trusting an agency for this
kind of job is more effective, as they usually have serious recruitment criteria
and, more importantly, they can find a linguist with a specific set of skills more
easily. Therefore, the client benefits from a higher quality service.
To learn about our legal translation services, click here.