Translation For Lawyers

Legal translation services play an important role in e-Discovery. In the case Accessdata Corp. v. ALSTE Tech. GMBH, 2010 WL 3184777 (D. Utah Jan. 21, 2010), plaintiff's (a U.S. company) motion to compel a German company to produce responsive third-party personal data - despite their objections that such a demand was in violation of German law - was granted by the court. The plaintiff's motion to compel the re-reproduction of previously produced electronic discovery was also granted as the defendant's original production failed to meet the requirements of Fed. R. Civ. P. 34.

Continue reading "Legal Translation Services, International Contract Cases and Motions to Compel " »

Rosado's shortcoming is that it says nothing about who should pay the costs of production. As to this question, one turns to the case of Schroeder v. Centro Pariso Tropical which, briefly, states that the defendant in the litigation was not required "to help a third party defendant defray the costs of its own discovery". From here, one must also look at Rubin v. Alamo Rent-a-Car, which, on appeal, stated that "each party should shoulder the initial burden of financing his or her own suit" and based upon such a principle, it is the party seeking discovery of documents who should pay the cost of their reproduction.

Continue reading "Which Party Pays the Costs of Document Disclosure, Including Multi-Language Translation?" »

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.

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With the growing economic and political strength of the European Union, more and more transatlantic business is being conducted. This leads to an increase of transatlantic business contracts. Such contracts need to be translated into the language or languages of the European country, with which the U.S. company is conducting business. And, the more international business transactions there are, the more blurred the law that governs the enforcement of contracts becomes.

Continue reading "Legal Document Translation, and Enforcing U.S. Judgments in Europe" »

When talking about foreign language translation and interpretation and foreign languages in the legal sense, it is natural to think in terms of the act of translating a legal document or testimony from one language to another. However, when used in the context of international law, this concept also means translating and interpreting foreign laws from one legal language to another.

Continue reading "Legal Document Translation, Translated Laws and Documents- the Other Side of Language Translation Process" »

The debate regarding human foreign language translation versus machine-based foreign language translation during foreign language electronic discovery is one that may never be decided. However, one issue that is rarely thrown into the mix is how these two approaches handle translation of mixed language documents, i.e. documents written in more than one foreign language.

Continue reading "Translating Multilingual Language Documents for Litigation Departments and Litigation Case Managers during e-Discovery" »

Depending on the quality of the original, source text, foreign language translations may sometimes be perceived as ambiguous. According to the Law of Contracts, one method for interpreting the terms of an ambiguously written contract is to look at any terms of trade used within the document. This refers to any terminology that has a special meaning within a given trade that is the subject of the contract. However, this can become an even more complicated task when the terms of trade are in a foreign language.

Continue reading "Language Translation and Contract Interpretation: Foreign Language as Trade Use Evidence" »

We've already blogged about foreign language translations in the context of reverse mortgage loans. But when it comes to foreign language translation in the context of real estate transactions, it helps to remember that there are two basic steps in conducting a valid real estate transaction - creating a valid deed and properly filing the deed. More so, each step may be affected when a foreign language real estate deed is involved.

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Irrespective of the availability of foreign language legal document translations, various issues may come up in the context of foreign language evidence. What happens if an opposing party uses a foreign language document in an unethical manner and receives a favorable judgment because of it? Can the ruling be challenged, based on the unethical use of the document? If so, what is the standard of review?

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Sometimes during multilingual discovery an attorney will inadvertently file a privileged document. This can happen with foreign language documents, especially when the English translation is not available. When this occurs, the receiving attorney has various ethical obligations as to how to handle the filing. However, every state has very different approaches to what these ethical obligations are.

Continue reading "Language Translation and Ethical Issues of Filing Privileged Foreign Language Documents: The Receiving Attorney’s Side" »

In the absence of English translation of foreign language documents filing mistakes can happen. During multilingual e-Discovery it is conceivable that privileged foreign language documents can be made available to the receiving party. Regardless of whether it is done inadvertently or on purpose, when privileged documents are disclosed during discovery, ethical issues not only rise for the receiving party but also for the disclosing party.

Continue reading "Legal Document Translations, and Ethical Issues of Filing Privileged Foreign Language Documents: The Filing Attorney’s Side" »

Even if a life insurance policy is written in a foreign language, it is enforceable unless a specific ground of unenforceability is found. When litigating the enforceability of a life insurance policy, the issues are essentially controlled by the law of contracts. However, when either the policy, or a clause in the policy, is written in a foreign language the additional step of obtaining a foreign language translation is required. With a foreign language translation attached, the life insurance policy can be submitted as evidence.

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When dealing with a foreign party during transnational litigation, the discovery and deposition process is often more tedious than it is when dealt with domestically. When conducting multilingual foreign language discovery and cross-cultural depositions requiring professional foreign language translation and interpreting services, keep these tips in mind:

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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.

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The management of electronically stored information (ESI) created and/ or stored on a company’s computers presents challenges, when such data is in a foreign language. And I am not talking about the challenges related to foreign language translation of the electronically stored information during discovery, also known as foreign language e-Discovery.

Rather, I’m talking about the decision to either preserve or erase multilingual ESI on a work-owned computer, which can have significant legal consequences for both the employer and the employee, if the need to produce foreign language evidence later were to come up in litigation.

Continue reading "Foreign Language Translation & the Consequences of Preserving or Erasing Foreign Language Electronically Stored Information from a Work Computer" »