Translation For Lawyers

Professional legal translation and legal interpreting services are critical to successful international business and corporate transactions. According to a recent Wall Street Journal (Europe) article, in recent years the U.S. government has "dramatically stepped up its pursuit of bribery in other nations by American-based or listed corporations." This crackdown is based on the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and has the intention of prohibiting U.S. companies or companies traded on U.S. stock exchanges from paying, or offering to pay, foreign-government officials or employees of state-owned companies to gain a business advantage. It also covers nonmonetary gifts.

Continue reading "Online Language Translation and U.S. Anti-bribery Law in the International Arena" »

We've blogged about physician's liability which arises when a non-English-speaking patient is treated without a proper informed consent, in the absence of a competent medical translator.  We've also blogged about employer's vicarious liability, which arises in linguistically and culturally diverse workplaces.  Interestingly, the lack of foreign language translation and language barriers can even lead to personal injuries.  In order to prove liability in a personal injury tort case, one must show that the other party was negligent.

Continue reading "Legal Interpretation Services for Attorneys and Courts in Denver, Colorado, and Nationwide, Legal Language Translation, International Language Interpreting and Duty of Care to Non-English Speakers" »

Earlier we've blogged about online legal translations, professional translation services, instant translators and product liability claims under the Alien Tort Claims Act.  Competent human translators play an equally important role in the process of identifying the products, which qualify for the "Made in the USA" label.  Everyone has seen the label "Made in the USA", but few know what it actually means, especially in the legal sense. However, courts and the Federal Trade Commission have outlined a bright-line rule to define this iconic term.

Continue reading "Expert Language Translations and Translating "Made in the USA" and "Made in America" Labels" »

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.

Continue reading "Corporate Translation, Legal Translation Services for Corporate Litigation Lawyers, and International Arbitration" »

Earlier we blogged about language translation in the context of products liability claims in the presence of the English only warnings. Foreign language translation becomes even more relevant in product liability cases when the issue of foreign regulatory evidence arises in pharmaceutical lawsuits, mainly due to the international scope of pharmaceutical sales.

Continue reading "Translations for Lawyers & Litigators, and Foreign Regulatory Evidence in Products Liability Cases" »

Foreign language document translation and language interpreting play an important role in the investigation and defense of money laundering cases. Money laundering occurs when an individual or organization attempts to disguise the origin of proceeds which stem from a preceding criminal act. In other words, it is the act of transferring the proceeds made from a criminal act in order to conceal their criminal origin. In the setting of international commercial arbitration, the following elements of the offense of money laundering need to be established:

Continue reading "Legal Translation, and Asserting a Money Laundering Defense in the International Arbitration Setting" »

When a party relies on a piece of documentary evidence written in a foreign language, they must have the document translated into English and file an affidavit attesting to the accuracy of the translation.

So what happens when both parties submit separate affidavits by two different document translators attesting to having submitted an accurate translation?

Continue reading "Certified Language Translator's Affidavit, and Professional Translation & Interpreting Services for Litigation, Court Proceedings & Arbitration Proceedings" »

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.

Continue reading "Foreign Language Translation in Context of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act" »

As more and more countries are opening up to Western trade, there is an influx of securities and related litigation matters, often requiring professional translation services. A prime example is China. As more and more of its products come to foreign shores, it is beginning to feel the pressure put on by a foreign legal system. In other words, when a Chinese product or company has connections to the U.S., it can quickly become snared in the U.S. legal system - which is an entirely different dragon to what China is used to.

Continue reading "Language Translation Services for Attorneys & Law Firms, and Securities Litigation" »

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" »

Recently the European Union issued a new, fast-track review process for approving foreign made pharmaceuticals to be sold in the European Union. Since the European Union operates under numerous languages, it is important that any application for pharmaceutical approval under the EMEA fast-track system be submitted with the proper foreign language translations. This becomes particularly important when trying to demonstrate the unmet need or improvement requirement under the Accelerated Assessment Procedure.

Continue reading "Pharmaceutical Translations, Medical Translations and the European Union's Fast Track Approval Process for US Pharmaceuticals" »

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" »

Foreign language translations play an important role in insurance law, as well as in domestic and in cross-border litigation. It’s not uncommon for an insured party to receive a reservation of rights letter from one’s insurer. Similarly, a limitation of liability coverage is a standard clause in insurance agreements and other business contracts. However, just because they are there and the client signed on the dotted line does not mean they are enforceable. That is especially true when the insured speaks a foreign language, and is not fluent in English.

Continue reading "Legal Document Translation, and Waiving Liability in a Foreign Language" »

Earlier we've blogged about the ethical challenges for bilingual attorneys who attempt to provide translation and interpretation services to their foreign-born clients. Numerous ethical questions may arise in the opposite situation as well, when an English-speaking attorney, who doesn't speak the client's language, represents a non-English-speaking client.

Continue reading "Foreign Language Translators & Interpreters, and Competent Representation of Non-English-Speaking Clients" »