Translating legal documents includes document types such as contracts, corporate or government proposals, court transcripts, confidentially agreements, laws, witness statements, regulations, wills and testaments, birth certificates, bank deposits, immigration documents, and notarized documents, among others.
Useful Tips for Legal Document Translation
In my experience, there are five main points to consider when working on legal translation:
- Make sure that the original document is clearly structured and organized and that the translated document is completed similiarly.
- If necessary, seek advice from lawyers in the target audience’s location. Contacting professionals in the field will prove invaluable, especially for witness testimony and government-related documents and terms.
- You should be familiar with your own country’s terminology and rules concerning the ones mentioned specifically in the document.
- Before beginning your translation work, understand how and where the translation will be used. This will affect how you go about your work and will give you a more refined approach to the translation.
- Translating legal documents should always be done accurately, and should follow the particular writing style of the target language. The slightest mistake could lead to a complicated or reversed legal process, which makes it unlike any other type of translation work.
