Why Your Firm Needs Expert Legal Translation Services
Words mean everything in the legal field. That’s because every legal translation word definition has to be accurate. Legal translation is needed for an untold number of criminal and civil systems documents.
Foreign documents need to be translated within the criminal and civil systems. Some of these translations are planned, and some are unplanned, attached to a legal case’s emergency need. If you don’t have a way to ensure legal translation takes place for those documents, there are times that choice impacts your case.
When you’re fighting the clock to get a translation done, some companies can help provide legal translation services in a couple of hours, if needed. Many civil and criminal legal translation cases need precise language used. You can only get that by using a professional translation service.
Read on for information on why your firm needs expert legal translation services.
What is Legal Translation?
When reading a legal document, the words can look foreign, even if it’s in your language. The legal narrative must be translated so readers and those hearing the words know what the word means. Readers and those hearing the words also need to know the meaning behind the word’s context.
The context can be discerned by how the word is used within the document. We live in a global world, and within the global world, there are regulated and precise mandates within the legal fields. No law firm has the luxury of ignoring translation benefits because sometimes, by not having or using translation services, you can have significant financial losses.
Even a single mistranslation in an international document for a legal case can lead to disaster. Every sensitive international word or sentence needs to be clearly understood so your legal arguments are precise and deliberate. No other discipline or speciality deals with the challenges of making sense of an international or other source country’s legal document.
A legal translator’s services can be used for a variety of different legal objectives, from wills, litigation, financials, and patents, to legal rulings.
The Difference Between Legal Translation and Legal Interpreting
There are clear and concise differences between legal translation and legal interpreting, yet both have crossover similarities. That’s because both require the use of a specialised subject matter expert to help in the communication of words, written and spoken. Once you integrate that need with the already complex legal terms and jargon, you’re almost at a legal standstill if you don’t use a translation subject expert.
The difference between needing a legal translator vs. a legal interpreter has everything to do with whether you are reading text or speaking words out loud. Spoken or written service language experts sound like they do almost the same thing, but it can be quite different. The similarities and differences between the two are below.
Legal Translation
The legal profession works with contracts, medical, class action, briefs, and many other types of court documents every day. It’s common for lawyers to spend hours poring over and reading those documents. But often, the lawyer will need a linguist who is trained in the nuances of the written words within the document.
That’s because legal translators can find hidden subtexts within words and sentences that mean something quite different based on the source language and its cultural differences. This subtext has to be identified very quickly by a translator’s use of their knowledge base, research and abilities.
There may be nothing more important when dealing with international cases or a particular subject matter relevant to another source country than having and using the skills of a legal translator. Legal-speak in and of itself within the English language can be challenging to interpret. Making that interpretation in another language is of paramount importance.
Legal Interpreters
Just like it is with legal translators, legal interpreters need to be ready to go at a moment’s notice once a legal discussion ensues in another language. Not only does the legal interpreter have to be able to interpret the foreign source language accurately and concisely, but they also have to be able to jump back and forth between two languages at lightning speed. One of the greatest skills a legal interpreter will have is strategic and critical thinking.
The interpreter uses these skills often in depositions, court cases, video conferences, interviews, and more. Every legal interpreter must be able to convey the speaker’s meaning and the word’s legal implications. What’s more, they need to be able to perform these skills as quickly as the speaker talks.
In your law firm, you may need to hire both types of source language legal matter experts because their knowledge and skills save you a lot of time and effort. It also provides you with knowledge and skills that prevent you from incurring unintended legal mistakes. Legal mistakes can and will create negative legal consequences for you or your clients.
Selecting What Legal Translation or Legal Interpretation Service You Need
In the legal field, regardless of the area in which you specialise, precise language has to be used in every document, every day of the week. To best determine if you need a translator or an interpreter, there are three questions you need to ask yourself.
- Do you need translation services to happen instantaneously, or do you have time for someone to mull over the words and give them meaning through the context in which they are being used? You may even have some technology tools and reference materials that can be used to help in figuring out which delivery system meets your needs best.
- Do you need the translation to be exact, precise, and accurate to the ninth degree? If you do, then you should use a translator vs. an interpreter because working in an instantaneous environment at lightning speeds doesn’t allow for exact and accurate word meanings that are always precise.
- Your need for fluency in both languages being used within a legal document can help determine if you need a translator or an interpreter. That’s because the application of a translator’s skillsets is when they can give you the precise meaning of a word in written text. But an interpreter has to not only give you the precise meaning of a word, but they have to do it quickly and accurately in two languages, representing the source’s language and your language.
The last thing you need to consider is when you are reading or hearing abstract words with an intangible meaning. In the legal field, you need the spoken word to give you more specifics to work with. Interpreters can hear the inflexion or the nuance of words and give you an accurate meaning behind the conveyance of the words.
The translator can give you the meaning behind the written word but may not be able to pick up the tone or inflexion behind the word as the word becomes ambiguous when it’s written down.
The Benefits of Using Certified Translations with Membership Through the Association of Translation Companies (ATC)
Using a legal translation service company that’s part of a professional membership association like the esteemed and reputable Association of Translation Companies (ATC) gives you a stamp of professional expertise in accuracy and integrity. ATC represents a membership association that is one of the leading voices for language translation companies in the United Kingdom. That’s because ATC dedicates itself to creating and developing an international standard for interpretation and translation.
There’s no other comparable association membership organisation that has the defined standards of excellence in language services. When a language service member provides certified translators, you get a translator or interpreter with superior language and industry standards expertise.
In the language service industry, you can also find globalisation strategies that help bind written narratives and the spoken word to the legal meanings behind the words. This helps to provide you with the tools and instruments you need to become successful.
Your Next Step in Moving Forward with Your Legal Translation Needs
Your next step may be your most important because you are creating a new and successful path to follow by using a certified translator hired through an ATC member association. Your legal translation needs are now being met with an efficient translator whose ability to give you expert global and subject matter translations helps you build your legal case with effective legal arguments. Now is the time you can create a legal legacy by providing international language standards that set you apart from the others.
When you’re ready to begin your global legal language translation legacy, reach out to Lingonika. We have been providing global legal language translation services for over two decades. They’ve worked on thousands of projects in over sixty countries.
Since words mean everything in the legal field, you need to use the best there is in creating your firm’s international legal legacy.
