Legal Document Translation

<p>Legal documents are translated for readers who will rely on every word - a judge, an opposing party, a registry, a counterparty. The translation has to be complete, it has to be defensible if challenged, and it has to be signed by someone willing to stand behind it.</p>

What we translate

• Court documents - judgments and orders, pleadings, foreign court records filed as exhibits, and judgments to be recognised or enforced in the US.
• Contracts and agreements, including the other language version of a bilingual contract.
• Powers of attorney and affidavits, in both directions.
• Corporate documents - articles, resolutions, certificates of good standing - for foreign registries and counterparties.
• Evidence in immigration, family and civil matters.

Translation for the court, and interpretation in it

Written documents filed as evidence need a certified translation with a certificate of accuracy, which names the translator and states their competence. That certificate is what an attorney relies on if the translation is challenged, and ours is signed by a State Court Certified Translator.

Interpretation of live testimony at a hearing is a separate service, normally arranged through the court's own language-access office. The state pages below name that office for each state.

A translation does not change which version governs

Where a contract exists in two languages, the contract itself says which version prevails. A certified translation makes the other version readable; it does not alter that clause. If the governing-language clause matters to your matter, point your attorney to it.

Documents going abroad

A power of attorney or corporate document used abroad usually has to be notarized, then apostilled by the state's apostille authority, and then translated into the destination language. Several countries - Brazil, Poland and Mexico among them - require that last step to be done by a sworn or court-registered translator of their own, and no US translation substitutes for it. Tell us the destination first and we will say whether ours will be accepted.