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The translation of agreements and contracts

The translation of legal texts, typically including agreements and contracts, is one of the most often requested services. Such texts are characterized by formalism, strict cliches, and distinct requirements to the text style.

The adequate translation of the original text is often a hard job to do. The translation of agreements is rated higher than general subject translation, since law is a specialized field.

One of the main obstacles that a translator is facing with when translating contracts and other legal documents is the absence of equivalents (the so-called lexical gaps) due to the difference of the legal systems in different countries.

Therefore there is a conflict when the text written within the legal norms of one country has to function within the legal frame of another. The translation of a contract is always connected with finding the right terminology and must be carried out by a linguist who has profound experience of dealing with contracts or majored in law, because the mistakes that might occur in the translated text can lead to unfortunate consequences all the way to the court. With that level of responsibility, such translation must only be assigned to the company that can provide experienced and skillful translators.

The translation of legal texts usually includes the following:

  • Laws, bills, statutory and regulatory acts.
  • Agreements.
  • Apostille and notary certification.
  • Letters of authority, constituent documents.
  • Contracts.
  • Legal opinions.

While translating legal texts, specialists usually resort to glossaries, often bilingual. However some dictionary terms might be inaccurate, because the legal field they belong to may be missing from the article. The incorrect usage of terms is a big issue which often leads to mistakes in translation. Translator's qualifications, their experience in the field and their majoring are the guarantee of the translation's quality.

In many cases in a translation agency a lawyer edits the documents translated by a specialist with no legal background. This allows to ensure the translation equivalence.

With the increase and strengthening of intercultural contacts, there is a critical need for competent linguists, specializing in legal documents. In the last 10 years the translation of legal texts has mostly been carried out by practicing lawyers, whose linguistic competence allows them to translate. There are many theories which help a specialist organize his work on the project (theory of formal correspondence, of situational equivalence, etc.). The agreement translation allows the legal mechanism to function in two or more languages at once. The translation of bills, statutory and regulatory acts, judicial acts, agreements, conventions and contacts has legal power only if they are drafted according to the legal system of the corresponding country. In this case the finished product isn't exactly a translation, since a new document is being drafted, equivalent to the original in sense but different in form.

Legal translation rates

We offer attractive prices for legal translation. For instance, a standard page of translated from English text is only 295 rubles and 755 rubles for Chinese. For details on other languages please go to Our Prices.

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