Translation For Lawyers

We've blogged about the importance of professional legal translation services for international estate planning. When one owns property in a foreign country and they are a resident non-citizen, this will have an impact on both their US and foreign estate taxes. Under US law, three factors effect estate tax: citizenship, residency and the location of the property. All US citizens are subject to taxation on all property located anywhere in the world. Needless to say, this opens the door to the risk of double taxation, as the property located in the foreign country may also be subject to taxation by that country's laws. More so, estate taxes often fall outside double taxation treaties.

Continue reading "Professional Translation Services, International Estate Planning and Tax Considerations" »

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.

Continue reading "Language Translation Services and Estate Transfers to Non-Citizen Spouses" »

We've blogged about foreign language translation for attorneys and law firms, and international conflict of laws. When Rome II Regulation comes into play in a general or specific format, it will undoubtedly require foreign language translations of the laws of the various states. The purpose of Rome II is to interpret the laws of Member States and decide how to apply them to a specific situation.

Continue reading "Legal Translation and Unfair Competition Under the Rome II Regulation" »

We've blogged about the role of professional translation services in determining the scope of  U.S. employment discrimination laws in international setting.  When confronted with the question of whether a U.S. employment discrimination law is applicable to an international employer, one must begin the determination by looking at where the job is located, employer and employee status and international law defenses.

In general, US law will be held applicable when:

Continue reading " Professional Translation and Determining Applicability of U.S. Employment Laws in International Setting" »

We've blogged about legal translation and international conflicts of law; about legal translation and legal interpretation services in international arbitration, and about court interpreter and legal translator services for the claims brought under the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA).  Legal translation services are important for all American companies doing business abroad.  Legal translations become vital when an American company doing business abroad is accused of human rights abuses.  One of the immediate legal issues that arise is a choice of law question.

Continue reading "Legal Language Services, Legal Translation, Choice of Law and Doing Business Abroad" »

Earlier we've blogged about document translation in the context of foreign regulatory evidence in products liability cases and about the role of professional translating and interpreting services in enforcing U.S. judgments in Europe. As the business world becomes more and more global, there are increasing instances of conflict of law questions. Essentially, a conflict of law arises whenever a business transaction spans two different countries.

Continue reading "Foreign Language Translation for Attorneys and Law Firms, and International Conflict of Laws" »

As securities-fraud lawsuits go global, the need for professional foreign language live, print, and written translation services is on the rise. Late last year the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey entered a ruling that essentially excludes all non-U.S. purchasers of Shell securities from becoming a party in a class action lawsuit for security fraud filed in the United States.

Continue reading "Cross-Border Litigation Increases the Need for Professional Foreign Language Legal Translation Services" »

With the highly publicized Royal Dutch Shell class action suit, the field of global class actions is once again being redefined. And with this and similar suits, multilingual foreign language live, print, and written translation becomes an essential issue to successfully litigating and negotiating these actions.

Continue reading "Legal Document Translations in Light of Royal Dutch Shell Global Class Action and Collective Settlement Agreements" »

As more and more people invest in foreign real estate, the legal question of what happens to that property during the probate process is struggling for an answer. The issue is complicated by the laws of the jurisdiction where the property is located, where the will is made and probate occurs, as well as by tax planning considerations. And that's where certified translation of foreign laws and translation of foreign wills comes in handy.

Continue reading "Certified Translation of Foreign Laws and Wills, and the Law of Trusts and Estates when Foreign Real Estate is Involved" »

When negotiating a contract for a client involved in the entertainment sector, including authors, actors and directors, one issue that needs to be resolved is foreign language translations and adaptations of your client’s work. As many movies and books are translated and released for foreign sales, specific contract clauses must address your client’s financial interests in these foreign language adaptations.

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A recent Thomson West Report states that the global economy has caused a grand shift in the approach to legal discovery. Whereas traditionally discovery involved the requesting and gathering of information within a jurisdiction, with the increasing use of electronic data storage and multilingual communications around the globe, today attorneys struggle with the need to pursue evidentiary discovery across borders.

Continue reading "Language Translation Services, Multilingual Electronic Discovery, and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure" »

Conducting quality legal research is a complex, time consuming and often frustrating task. When your legal research involves foreign language statutes and case law, the task becomes even more challenging. However, as more and more commercial contracts, settlements and litigation involve foreign nations, transnational legal research has become a vital part of any legal practice.

Continue reading "Professional Legal Translation Services, and a Brief Introduction to Transnational Legal Research" »

Legal document translation services are important to litigators. During cross-cultural litigation involving legal aspects from both the United States and a foreign country, litigators and attorneys in general are often required to prove foreign points of law.

Continue reading "Foreign Language Document Translation, and Using Foreign Law as Evidence" »

As linguistic and cultural diversity in the United States continues to grow, American courts will increasingly deal with cross-cultural disputes, as well as with the intersection between foreign and domestic law, and, often, with the intersection between cultural or religious customs and domestic law.

Continue reading "Ohio Appellate Court To Rule on the Interpretation of Islamic Marriage Contract- Mahr" »

The law holds a party bound to a contract's terms, regardless of comprehension or understanding, absent coercion, duress, fraud, inducement or some other independent ground that justifies recession.

Not being fluent in the language, in which the contract is written, or being unable to understand the language of the contract is not an independent defense to the contract's enforcement. See Merril, Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc. v. Benton. 467 So.2d 311, 10 Fla. L. Weekly 225 (Fla. App. 5 Dist., 1985); Kahan Novoa v. Safra Nat. Bank of New York, 313 F.Supp.2d 1347 (S.D. Fla. 2003).

Continue reading "Multilingual Contract Translations, Cultural Savvy and Effective Client Relations" »