Translation For Lawyers

Foreign language translation and language interpretation issues often come up in class action litigation. We've blogged about the role of certified translations by professional human translators in the process of certification for a class action. Kellogg, the nation's largest cereal producer, is facing a class action suit based on its Cocoa Krispies brand's claim that the cereal helps boost children's immunity to illness. Filed in California, the suit states that the company has made "false and misleading statements about the chocolatey, sweetened rice cereal".

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We've blogged about foreign language translation and interpretation and foreign income and taxes. Regardless of why a foreign national is living and working in the United States - perhaps after being transferred to a U.S. subsidiary by a foreign-based parent company or having been hired directly by a U.S. firm - understanding what exactly is required of them for tax filing purposes is tricky. The first step is to decide under which of three categories the foreign national falls into:

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We've blogged about language translation and language interpretation issues in international family law cases. Determining the jurisdiction of your child custody case is an essential step in divorce process. Once jurisdiction is determined, one cannot move the child from that jurisdiction without express permission from the court. This may not seem like an issue at the time, but years later if one parent moves to a different country and wants to take the child with them, jurisdiction will prevent the move until a court order is granted. If you currently do not have a custody order, you need to first determine jurisdiction, which is typically the place where the child has been living for the past six months.

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Popular opinion argues that many cases of medical negligence could have been prevented with more attention to workplace training, policies and procedures. Although true, the reality is the medical field is an industry-leader when it comes to researching and developing new safety mechanisms and effective remedies. Yet despite this innovation, it is also an industry leader in malpractice suits. One reason for this imbalance is the lack of foreign language translations of medical records and foreign language interpretation of doctor-patient communications. Unlike other fields, understanding symptoms and history are essential to proper treatment. And as the number of non-English-speaking patients continues to rise, so will the number of foreign language translation-related lawsuits.

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We've blogged about translating employment contracts and foreign-born worker safety. Agricultural workers present a unique situation in the workers' compensation setting. For instance, many states do not require workers' compensation benefits or insurance for agriculture-related businesses. However, this is a field often regarded as one of the most hazardous industries in the U.S. Add to this that most of these workers - 2.5 million - are migrant and seasonal farm workers, typically unable to speak English.

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Medical translation and medical interpreting services constitute just one of the facets of the ongoing health care debate. As debates about health care reform continue in Washington, D.C., many Americans participate in the popular trend known as medical tourism. Essentially, medical tourists are individuals who seek specific medical care or treatment in a foreign country - taking advantage of that country's lower costs. Popular destinations include Mexico, India, and Thailand. What many of these Americans fail to understand is the risks they take on in the case that something goes wrong.

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We've blogged about professional legal translation services and the non-personal service of process in the age of Twitter. Professional translation and interpreting services continue to play an important role in transnational service of process which, in most cases, is governed by the Hague Service Convention.

Mexico joined the Convention in 1999, with entry into force occurring in 2000. According to accession protocol, Mexico designated the Directorate-General of Legal Affairs of its Ministry of Foreign Affairs as its Central Authority. This in effect designated this DG to receive and forward all request for service of both judicial and extrajudicial documents from other Hague Convention participating states. However, in doing so, Mexico rejected the alternative methods for serving documents as outlined in Articles 8 and 10.

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Professional translation services and legal translation and court interpreting services are essential when dealing with a non-citizen spouse and global assets, as foreign languages and foreign laws often come into play.

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Foreign language translation and legal translation and interpreting services play an important role in international business and financial transactions. Recently the International Accounting Standards Board released its book of accounting rules for SMEs.

This publication was highly anticipated because how a SME is defined will have significant legal and tax consequences, particularly as more and more SMEs go global - thanks to the advance in technology. The issue arose because every country had a different definition for SME and were essentially creating tax havens for these companies by writing definitions that could include even the largest corporations.

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