Are legal translation services misunderstood by international business?

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 »  Articles Overview  »  Business of Translation and Interpreting  »  Are legal translation services misunderstood by international business?

Are legal translation services misunderstood by international business?

By Translations2u | Published  10/29/2013 | Business of Translation and Interpreting | Recommendation:RateSecARateSecARateSecARateSecIRateSecI
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Quicklink: http://vie.proz.com/doc/3925
Many people, including business people from many sectors and industries and even legal professionals who are UK based or elsewhere in the world require accurate document translation services for a wide range of official company and legal paperwork. It is often surprising how unaware such people are of the workings of legal translation services which are increasingly essential to international trade and international litigation nowadays.

There are those who still maintain that if a person has some knowledge of the language in question, this qualifies that person to translate important documents. In many parts of the world and in the UK, legal translation services should be and for the most part are undertaken by serious professionals. However, potential clients from the business and legal sectors too often let themselves down by seeking out and accepting the lowest bidder and showing little knowledge or respect for the language professionals who have worked as hard as they have to gain their degrees and develop their experience in the provision of legal translation services for the UK and other regions.

Many such individuals overlook this fact and forget that if someone were to come along expecting budget services from them, they would laugh that person out of the room, virtual or otherwise on top of feeling offended by such an insult.

To translate a topic pertaining to a particular sector requires knowledge, understanding and experience of that sector either through direct involvement therein or indirectly through translation experience. Any UK based document translation services provider worth its salt will only hire and work with translators who have proven experience in the particular field of the translation topic and certainly where any legal matter is concerned, will only allocate qualified translators experienced in UK legal translation services.

It is easy to forget that not everyone outside of your own market is fluent in the terminology and jargon of your business area, or for it not even to enter a non-language professional’s mind that not every native speaker of a language understands many common industry or business specific terms and this applies equally if not more so to legal terms. Therefore, why would you expect just anyone, UK based or otherwise, to successfully perform the document translation services your business requires for legal or official purposes when they have no demonstrable knowledge of the subject matter.

Naturally, within the UK legal translation services must always be performed by someone who understands not only the legal terminology of the area of law specific to the UK, pertaining to the English law system or another, but also that of the other language and jurisdiction to which the foreign language document pertains to ensure the standard required for UK based business and legal professionals who require document translation services.

Whatever brings an individual or a company into contact with overseas associates, a reliable UK legal translation services provider is an essential partner for those who have no option but to be taken seriously in their domestic and international dealings.


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