Legal translation and interpreting is one of the most complex, yet sought-after language services, requiring utmost care, attention to detail and precision to ensure that the source text does not become lost or misconstrued in translation since it may affect people’s legal outcomes.
What is a legal translation?
A legal translation is a type of translation service sought out for any texts pertaining to or to be used within the legal system. This can include business contracts, affidavits, patents, wills and correspondence, as well as witness reports, recordings of hearings or footage to be used as evidence in litigation or by law enforcement agencies.
Legal translations can also include any document required to be recognised by an official government agency in Australia or abroad, including consular certifications, apostilles, powers of attorney, notarisations, authentications or any other personal documents to be used for a legal purpose.
A legal translation can be used in courts and tribunals, during mediation and arbitration, police investigations and immigration procedures.
What should I look for when choosing a legal translation service?
NAATI certification
It is imperative that your document is in the hands of someone who is a NAATI-certified translator. Not only is this a requirement for any legal translations performed in Australia, but this will ensure that your document is translated with the utmost accuracy and quality.
Experience
Legal translation is different from other forms of translation because of the specialised knowledge required by the translator. Your legal translator should have extensive experience and a comprehensive understanding of both the source and the target language, as well as the relevant legal systems. This is especially important as rules can differ significantly between jurisdictions.
Our translators have at least 5 years of experience translating legal texts for all kinds of settings and many have legal backgrounds and training. Moreover, our legal translators are passionate language professionals, able to navigate complex legal terminology, which sometimes can feel like a language of its own!
Reliability
For documents to be used in court proceedings or other legal matters, it is essential that your chosen translation service can deliver on time, even under the tightest of time frames and the most challenging of languages. You also want to ensure that your translation service provider has the capacity to fast-track your project if it is urgent, and adapt to any pressing needs that may arise or change in the course of your legal matter.
Responsiveness
Communication is paramount to a positive experience with your translation service, and you should be reassured at all stages of the process that your translation is in progress, in safe hands, and will be ready by the time you need it. At Polaron, all customer queries are answered within 15 minutes and we do offer urgent turnarounds.
Ethical practices
You want to ensure that your sensitive legal documents can be trusted by someone who understands their legal and ethical obligations to respect privacy and confidentiality. Your language service provider should have strict data privacy and confidentiality requirements and processes and should make this clear to you at the start of the translation process.
In fact, Polaron strictly complies with privacy policies and regulations across various jurisdictions, including in Australia, US and across Europe (GDPR). Since our work is performed in various challenging legal settings, from family violence to international crimes, requiring extra care, impartiality and competence, we endorse the AUSIT’s Code of Ethics, redeveloped with Polaron’s expertise in 2012.
Quality assurance
Accuracy is essential to any legal translation, as there can be significant repercussions for any misinterpretation, ambiguities or errors made in an official translation. The last thing anybody wants is for an already lengthy and costly legal process to be delayed or prolonged due to a legal translation becoming void, and poor translations can have a significant impact on people’s legal outcomes.
This is why Polaron implements strict quality assurance processes, involving a review by an in-house translation team after the translation is carried out by our NAATI-certified translator, and then a final quality review by our in-house quality management team.
Why choose Polaron for your next legal translation?
Polaron’s Multilingual Litigation Support Service consists of a team of carefully selected legal translation professionals who are ready to handle your legal translation, regardless of its complexity, volume or urgency. We offer certified legal translations in over 170 languages, suitable for all jurisdictions.
All of our translations are made right here in Australia by NAATI-certified professional translators, ensuring that your document will meet Australian legal requirements. Our translators are available in over 170 language pairs and can be trusted to deliver your document with a 100% accuracy guarantee or your money back.
Polaron also understands the tight turnarounds that are expected in the legal industry. This is why we also guarantee a 48-hour service at no additional cost for any standard document translations in our list of over 50 fast-tracked languages. Think of us as your external translation department, ready to take on any legal translation challenge, in any language.
Furthermore, with a dedicated project manager to oversee your translation, you can be reassured at every step of the way that your document is in safe hands, and that your final product is not only accurate, but that it was produced ethically as well.
We take security and confidentiality seriously, which is why before the work starts, we will provide you with a Non-Disclosure Agreement, and our NAATI-certified legal translators have current police checks and work over secure networks. Where required, our translators have appropriate security clearances, from baseline to NV1. Our translators also have access to free professional development activities, debriefing and support services.
Get in touch with us today to make Polaron your trusted language service provider for legal translations. Contact our team of specialists by emailing us at translations@polaron.com.au or by calling us at 1300 88 55 61.