So What is so Different about Legal Document Translation?

Legal document translation is as different to any other type of translation as the legal language is to any other technical language. It’s a bit like asking a French translator to translate an English document into German if you ask a marketing translator to deal with a legal document for you.

German translators who are capable of handling legal documents and legal document translation should be experienced first and foremost in the two languages of English and German, of course, but also should have working knowledge of the two legal systems as well and preferably have experience in translating legal documents. You will probably pay a bit more for this sort of specialised service, but if you want your Mercedes looked at by a mechanic, you don’t necessarily want to employ a mechanic who has only been used to Volkswagens, do you?

Legal documents include things like birth, death and marriage certificates, deposition records, financial statements, patent confirmations and certificates, letters of application, wills and covenants, business contacts and litigation material amongst others. The German translation service you choose should be aware of what these documents are all about and have had experience in translating them. This means they are well versed in legal terminology but have a working knowledge of the intricacies of German law as well as that of the English speaking country you are based in.

It hardly bears stressing that the outcome of even the slightest mistake in a legal translation might have important and expensive ramifications, so the English German translators used must be professionals in terms of their standards of accuracy and their editing and proofreading. Legal document translation should never be left to a bilingual staff member or, worse still, an online translation tool, whatever may seem to be the savings in cost of doing this.

Finally, two more important aspects of legal document translators are the speed of delivery and the requirement for confidentiality. While you are not expecting a German translator to rush through an important legal document translation you will most likely have deadlines of your own and you will need to know whether the translator can deliver by the specified date. In addition, you will want to be assured that the document contents are totally secure and cannot be made known to any other person or organisation because of lax confidentiality standards. Most businesses or organisations that regularly require legal document translation will usually work with the same trusted translation service once they are happy with the level of service they offer.

Preparation is Definitely Needed for Quality Machine Translations

Many machine German translations are actually quite good, particularly when translations take place between German and the most commonly used languages. Sometimes, complaints are made about the poor quality of machine translations. With a bit of pre planning you can normally sort these out yourself. All you have to do is study the original text before the English German translation begins and then make a couple of quite simple changes.

Firstly, keep the text simple and ensure it is well thought out and a pleasure to read. Complicated sentence structure and ideas that are written in a more complicated way than they need to be, but do not necessarily have the desired effect on the audience. In fact, it can be quite the opposite. Machine translators work well with simply written text. If your business wants your product descriptions translated into German for your international audience, keep to simple text which means short sentences and straightforward vocabulary.

Secondly, correct any typos as a machine German translator has difficulty focussing on typos and other small grammatical errors. If there are words without spaces between them a machine translator will not be able to translate properly. It’s important to use a spellchecker before presenting the information before a machine translation too.

Thirdly, sentence structure needs to be considered as well and the preference is to use the active voice as it is common in many languages. The active voice has similarities in many languages and machine translators are often able to read and fit in the correct translations for active sentences. In contrast, the passive voice does present more of a challenge because it does vary between languages.

Finally, choose vocabulary carefully as sayings and idioms often do not translate correctly across other languages and neither do words that have more than one meaning.  

Using the points mentioned above will help you get the best return out of a machine translation. However, in the long run, if it is quality you are after and you need your translation to be spot on and perfect, then there is no substitute for a professional translation done by a professional German translator.