At Bubbles, we work with an extremely wide spectrum of organisations. Whether we are assisting a business with localising their marketing efforts, helping them overcome technical language challenges, or providing support to create new versions of legal documents, our goal is always a satisfied client.
We have spent many years assisting multinational organisations in translating and updating a variety of legal documents for overseas markets. We translate and adapt a variety of contracts and legal documents quickly and accurately, including employment contracts, trade agreements, and manufacturing contacts.
In this article, we will explore the best practices for translating legal documents, which we have picked up through direct experience.
Why is it essential to get legal documents right?
Legal documents, such as supply or employment contracts can represent significant sums of money. When they are inaccurate, the liability will rest on the shoulders of your company, which could mean you face financial setbacks. Dealing with legal challenges is also very time intensive, meaning you could waste a lot of time and money, simply by making mistakes in the wording of your contracts.
This can all be avoided with accurate and compliant contract translations with the assistance of a reliable translations partner.
Do the same regulations apply in your new market?
The regulatory landscape which impacts employment law, contract law, tax and tariffs differ from market to market. This means the content of your original legal document might not be transferable to your overseas market.
If changes are necessary, this could mean entire sections of your legal documents will need a rewrite, so that they apply to the law in the target market.
We have more than 19 years experience in contract translation services in many different languages and markets. This means you can be assured of our track record providing compliant, concise and clear contracts for all manner of business needs from HR and employment to legal matters.
As we’ve mentioned before, translation isn’t just about adapting one set of words into another language. Our legal translation experts truly understand the content and context of the material and will ensure your documents are translated accurately and ready to be checked by your local legal representatives to ensure they meet local requirements..
We can provide official, certified translations in the target language if required, and official Certificates of Translation, which confirm that the translated documents we produce are true and accurate translations of the original versions.
Our Certificates of Translation include our accreditation details with the Association of Translation Companies (ATC) so are an indication of our quality and professional standards.
Using the right legal terms and jargon
In some cases, a direct word for word translation can be useful, although we would always advocate that a trained translator who possesses native language skills and legal knowledge is employed in the case of translating a legal document.
With legal documents, jargon and technical language may be untranslatable. This can occur when another language does not have an equivalent word, or a legal concept or a specific piece of legislation doesn’t exist.
Moreover, sometimes the language used in legal documents isn’t what you would consider everyday speech. Esoteric words may feature and even words borrowed from other languages. Look at the UK as an example: many legal documents and contracts will include Latin phrases on a regular basis.
Common Latin phrases in legal documents:
- Ab initio – from the beginning
- Bona fide – in good faith
- Bona vacantia – vacant property
- Caveat emptor – buyer beware
- Consensus ad idem – an agreement on an idea
Our professional translators are aware of these quirks within the world of legal documents, and not just in the UK. Any translator we assign to your project will have specific experience translating legal documents in your market(s).
Discretion is the best part of valour
A professional language translator can help your company maintain confidentiality – our services are always discreet and secure, while freelancers may risk exposing your private information through carelessness or perhaps a data security vulnerability.
On the other hand, we have the experience and judgement to keep your confidential company information under wraps and away from prying eyes.
How to choose a legal translation specialist
There are many reasons why Bubbles should be your trusted partner for contract and legal documents.
Primarily, we provide a fast turnaround service for short deadlines. Our quoting process is even quicker! Get a quote for your project, follow the link and enter a few short details about your project, including a document related to the task if you have this accessible. One of our dedicated project managers will be in touch immediately.
“Really helpful team, quick turnaround.” – H. Green – Trustpilot
Precisely because we offer bespoke quotes for each individual project, we are able to offer the best value price, with the summary of services agreed from the outset; no nasty surprises or hidden costs. That’s our project promise and it’s part of the reason our client satisfaction levels are so high. We’re rated 4.8/5 on Trustpilot from over 100 reviews. This score is officially classified as ‘Excellent’.
Secondly, our translations are accurate, with language translation experts translating into more than 280 languages. We can do this because we work with 3,800 translators across the globe. That means we have the language skills you need at our fingertips, from Mandarin to Malay. Our translations are backed by our quality assurance for your reassurance.
Thirdly, over almost 20 years of operation, we have picked up an intimate understanding of different sectors from manufacturing to biotechnology. Browse our sectors to get an understanding of how we can use our specific industry experience to help you in your business challenge.
