Legal translations. A special category of linguistic activities. Law experts know just how crucial these translations are, especially when it comes to top companies with turnovers in the tens or hundreds of millions of euros. We spoke with lawyers from our team of collaborators who revealed how they handle these life-changing documents.
As a lawyer, you need reliable translations for documents that are critical to your clients daily. At Swiss Solutions, we handle the full range of legal documents that often require translations. From commercial contracts to litigation documentation, regulatory acts, or visa applications, we can translate them into any language.
This article isn’t about us. It’s about you and the documents you use at work. In this article, we’ve compiled a list of the most commonly used legal documents that need translations. We discussed them with our colleagues (and yours) who told us how these very important documents are approached and translated.
1. Commercial Contracts
Marius Pantea is a lawyer and mediator. He works with our agency in the specialized legal translations division. Simply put, any legal translation that passes through his hands reaches the client in the best possible form. Quality is paramount, and the secret is attention to detail.
“A single comma can change the meaning of a legal document. In my career, I encountered grammatical constructions where a comma radically changed the meaning of the entire document. This was something a respected civil law professor taught us in the early civil law courses in the mid-’90s…
Another fact is that Romanian and English, which are the most used languages, are very semantically rich. There are differences in nuance, meaning, and so on. Attention to detail is the recipe for success,” explained lawyer Marius Cristian Pantea.
Commercial contracts are made between companies that change the world. When you have a 100-million-euro contract in front of you, attention to detail is essential, followed by expertise in the field, which is also mandatory. The success of the translation is reflected in the signing of the contract between the two parties.
2. Litigation Documentation
The world of translations uses technological solutions to help translators deliver orders faster. This in fact happens everywhere, in every industry. Even at the supermarket, the cashier’s place is often taken by a smart checkout. In translations, there is currently a symbiosis between human translations and those done with specialized programs.
For litigation documentation, the only intelligence we rely on is human. We never use artificial intelligence for translating expert reports, evidence, confidentiality agreements, or any other important court documents. The precise translation of these documents is essential to ensure our clients’ success.
3. Regulatory Documents
A democratic country operates with laws. Yes, Romania (as many other countries) often gets bogged down in bureaucracy. However, the regulatory documents that reach our experts are treated with the seriousness they require. We translate with well-trained teams of translators for any situation. We ensure that the delivered product is of the highest quality.
“The most important thing in translating legal documents is the legal significance of the text; that is, phrases and expressions must be translated and adapted to the legal concepts of the country of the target language.
Legally, there are specific peculiarities for each country, even if we are talking about EU member countries. Therefore, it is important to have legal knowledge, not just Romanian law in our case, but also Czech law in my case,” explained lawyer Antonia Mleziva, a translator and interpreter specializing in Czech.
4. Employment Documentation
When you get hired, either domestically or abroad, it is important to have all the necessary documents translated properly. Whether it’s certificates, criminal records, employment contracts, or diplomas, attention to detail is crucial. Sometimes, these documents come from other countries or are used abroad, you will work with a translation agency. You need to translate these documents, and then authorize, legalize, or apostille them, as needed.
Again, we rely on 100% human translation, which avoids errors that a computer program might make. It is crucial that the translation of these documents is accurate to avoid legal misunderstandings and procedural errors. For document legalizations, we have staff who handle them daily at our offices in Timișoara, Arad, and Bucharest.
5. Fiscal Documents and Patents
Translating financial reports or other documents related to significant amounts of money is extremely delicate. This must be done with experts experienced in legal and fiscal matters. Why? Because even one specialized term translated incorrectly can lead to a “scandal” worth tens or maybe hundreds of millions of dollars.
No one wants that, be it the translator, lawyer, or any party directly involved in the legal action.
To avoid any issues, we pay special attention to this type of document. How? By passing it through several quality filters, from translators experienced in the legal field to the most capable reviewers we have at the agency. Even the most uninteresting term can matter in a 100-page multilingual contract concluded between leading corporations in the country.
“When translating legal documents, it is essential to pay close attention to details and to translate all information and concepts with precision and accuracy. Additionally, a good knowledge of the legal field and prior familiarity with the specific terms of this domain are absolutely necessary, as well as an understanding of the legal systems and procedural norms of both countries.
Other important elements include consistency in the use of terminology and in the formatting of documents, as well as the identification of equivalent concepts in the target language. Finally, from my point of view, a very important aspect is the thorough review and final verification of the translated documents to eliminate any errors or inconsistencies,” explained our colleague, lawyer Raluca Furcoiu, who specializes in Spanish and Catalan.
The translations we do for patents, trademarks, copyrights, and others are the foundation of changing the world around us. With every new idea, a part of us lives easier and better. And with each translated document, people’s trust in these innovations encourages others to invent and innovate more, making the world a better place every day.
Legal Documents
Instead of a conclusion, here’s a list of the most important and frequently encountered legal documents we translate for our top clients, usually law firms or companies working with the largest companies in Romania and around the globe:
– Service contracts;
– Commercial contracts;
– AGA decisions;
– Certificates of registration;
– Powers of attorney;
– Court summonses;
– Documentation for trials conducted domestically or abroad;
– Confidentiality agreements;
– Insolvency proceedings bulletins;
– Employment documents;
– Patents;
– Trademarks;
– Expert reports;
– Evidence;
– Regulatory documents.
Send us an email if you are looking for legal translations for your daily activities.
With us, you win the lawsuit against bad translations.
