To illustrate, a common legal translation job would be about the translation of contracts. Consider a firm with a number of international projects. Say, a Korean construction company, with highly important projects in Israel, France, or the United Arab Emirates. Each of those projects include with it an almost incredible amount of paper work, most of which must be translated into the local language. A single translation job of this magnitude could mean thousands of pages of legal text that are often “sensitive” in content or highly confidential in nature. So apart from the sheer difficulty of language translation, a translator also deals with a host of other things that are equally important.

That is why along with the rising demand for such a service is the increasing risk of law suits arising from a botched translation job. As this type of translation deals with documents whose words are exact and unambiguous, a legal translator faces a palpable paradox: how can one translate a legal document to a target language whose linguistic structure is totally different from the source? How can exactness be ensured and ambiguity kept out the door?

As it deals not only with mere words but also (and most importantly) the carefully defined intentions and rights of individuals or groups, legal translation presents a challenge that may seem insurmountable: how to bring everything intact to the target language? What if the rights and intentions do not exist in the target language’s culture?

But the obstacles are not totally insurmountable, as proven by the great number of companies offering legal translation services. The main ingredients to the “secret sauce,” as always, are experience and expertise. Yes, this kind of translation can be difficult and daunting, but not so if the firm handling the job has a wealth of experience in this field.

Team-based effort is better than a legal translation job assigned to a single person, no matter how good that translator might be. That is why it is usually best to hire a legal translation team that has worked with governments, financial organizations, law firms, or members of leading global companies. In that way, you are assured that the translators have “dipped their hands in the actual jar.” It is usual for translation agencies engaged in this particular field to carefully assign the translators handling each project, using a stringent set of criteria that may include such factors as being a native speaker of the target language and has actual experience in the specific work (for instance, if the job is translating court proceedings, the translator must have had experience in court).

Also, as they say, it takes two to tango: a good translation job requires a good source to translate. A poorly written document will make the job of translation even harder than usual, more so if it is a legal document. So before accepting a translation job, it is important to make sure the source document has the same quality required of the translated material.

The continuing drive toward globalization and increasing international trade have been leading to a rising demand for legal translation services. These days, a legal translation job may be considered a lucrative source of income, if you do it right, professionally, and deliver acceptable results.

Charlene Lacandazo works for Rosetta Translation, one of the leading providers of legal translation services. Within that area, Rosetta has particular strengths in contract translation and legal interpreting services.