Why is Legal Translation so Specialised?

Legal translation from German to English or vice versa may involve any sort of text that is used within the legal system or systems in the two countries that are corresponding. Given the fact that there are several countries where German is spoken, each with their own legal system and specific terminology and correspondingly there are several ore countries where English is the principal language, you can see straight away that German English translation of legal documents is a highly specialised task.

The variety of legal documents that may need translating is impressive:

• patents;
• transcripts;
• witness statements;
• depositions;
• official reports;
• financial documents;
• identity documents;
• wills and testaments

The documents in the list above are just some of the sorts of documents that may need to be translated for one reason or another. The fact that most western countries are becoming more multicultural through increased migration means inevitably there are more documents that have to be made available for things like student and employment visas, residence, marriage, birth, divorce and citizenship.

Many businesses and government agencies are finding that they need to deal with a variety of organisations in another country where the language is different and legal documents must be made available.

Legal document translation must be in the hands of not just translators who have an excellent command of German and English but must be specialists in the legal field as well as having an excellent understanding of legal terminology in both languages.

In many instances, even small mistakes in English German translation can lead to costly misunderstandings, lost or delayed contracts and other significant legal consequences.

In some countries, translators must be accredited to a nationally recognised body which means that their training and qualifications are suitable for most translation tasks. In some European countries, translators must swear before a court that their legal translations are accurate and in other countries (e.g. Italy), a legal translation must be accompanied by a certification that it is an accurate legal document. This level of accreditation is not uniform and in Britain and the U.S., for instance, accreditation and sworn statements are not mandatory by government authorities but they may have their own trade recognition which should satisfy the client who wants some confidence that they have chosen the right translator to work on their legal documents. 

Do Your Potential Customers Know You Exist?

  

Perhaps it’s the arrogance of the native English speaker that everyone else in the world should or could understand English well enough to think they don’t need to bother with learning another language themselves. In the business world, this arrogance, or misunderstanding, means that an astonishing number of companies think they can communicate with the rest of the world in English. 

For some businesses, it’s more about a false economy than arrogance or ignorance. The thinking is that all a business has to do is to advertise its products or services on its website and millions of people around the world will be glued to their screens in anticipation.

To be honest, this is a failing of English language based businesses more than any other language. It doesn’t take too much persuasion for a German company, for instance, that is considering expanding its market beyond the borders of Germany and a few other European countries where German is widely spoken. Few people really are able to understand German, so there is an obvious need to include German translators in the budget when it comes to expanding a market, even if it is just having an English, French or Spanish website version available.

Some startling gaps in the business plan of U.S. companies, for instance, illustrate where some businesses are failing to grasp their mistakes. One translation firm did some research into what languages a sample of 160 U.S. based businesses translated their marketing material into. The answer was that nearly half of them did not even bother to translate into Spanish, despite the huge Spanish speaking population in that country and that the same language is spoken throughout Central and South America, which is a key international market target for U.S. businesses.

German companies, by contrast, accustomed to having to communicate in other languages, are at a distinct competitive advantage in having no compunction in hiring German English translation services if they are targeting English language based markets and no doubt finding professional translators to translate their marketing material into other key languages, too. There is an old saying that you get what you pay for and in terms of paying out for translation services, international wannabe businesses that allocate part of their budget wisely will reach the people they intend to reach while others will never be heard.