Translation For Lawyers

Legal translation and interpreting services play an important role in antitrust litigation.  According to the US Supreme Court, US courts do not have jurisdiction over lawsuits brought by foreigners for antitrust injuries sustained abroad. The major reasoning for this decision was to prevent plaintiffs from "shopping around" for a proper forum and to "protect amnesty programs".  In the case, the plaintiff claimed jurisdiction due to the interdependence between "foreign and domestic harms". Specifically, in its decision, the Court held that US courts do not have jurisdiction "where the plaintiff's claim rests solely on the independent foreign harm." F. Hoffman-LaRoche Ltd. v. Empagran S.A. 542 US 155 (2004).

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Earlier we've blogged about the role of professional translation services in the global economy. As China continues to develop as a dominant international business player, it is essential for the international lawyer to understand China's antitrust review process, and the role of English-Chinese and Chinese-English legal translations in this process.

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Part of finalizing a foreign investment in the United States involves satisfying the procedures set up by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). Financial document translation, accounting document translation, and legal document translation of foreign language documents constitutes an important step in this process. The purpose of the CFIUS is to ensure that foreign investments do not have any national security implications.

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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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Earlier we've blogged about corporate translation services in the context of international arbitration. Although the purpose of arbitration is to allow for the amicable resolution of business disagreements, sometimes a party will be left unsatisfied with the choice of arbitrator. Both the arbitration done under the Rules of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) or via internal (ad hoc) rules allow for a challenge. When raising a challenge, specific requirements must be met:

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Professional translation services play an important role in arbitration. Nearly every industrialized nation has an International Arbitration Act on their books. Although every nation's Act is unique, all are similar in purpose - to facilitate the mediation and arbitration of international commercial disputes. Further, all states who have International Arbitration Acts agree to specific formalities as part of the International Arbitration Convention.

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As more and more people move abroad, many couples will face divorce in a foreign court. Such situations will require professional translation services. But dealing with professional language translators and court interpreters will not be as challenging as having the foreign granted divorce recognized by a U.S. court - if the marriage occurred in the United States. Typically this becomes relevant when one or both of the parties moves to the U.S. and issues regarding support or custody arise.

Continue reading "Professional Translation Services for Matrimonial and Divorce Attorneys, and Having a Foreign Granted Divorce Recognized in a U.S. Court" »

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.

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As the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) is aimed primarily at international transactions, the issue of accurate foreign language translation becomes essential to avoiding legal trouble. According to the FCPA, it is a crime to, among other things, to bribe a foreign official.

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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.

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Earlier we blogged about the role of foreign language translation in transnational litigation. When a foreign company is involved in U.S. litigation, regardless of whether it is against a U.S. company or not, there are several important factors to keep in mind. As an attorney representing the foreign company, of particular interest is the extent of attorney-client privilege. As both the U.S. and foreign country's Code of Civil Procedure may apply - knowing when communications are privileged and to whom this privilege extends to is essential.

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Although sometimes admissible, the use of telephonic expert witness testimony given by a foreign language translator or court interpreter is highly disfavored by the courts. In general, the courts are likely to apply the same standards of admissibility of telephonic testimony by a foreign language translator/ interpreter as they would to any type of telephonic testimony.

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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.

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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.

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Professional translation services, which embrace legal document translation and courtroom translation, come in handy when dealing with many potential points of litigation. Take, for instance, a gestational surrogacy agreement. Issues can arise in a surrogacy arrangement when the parties do not speak the same language.

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