Translation For Lawyers

Professional medical and legal translation and interpretation services play an important role in personal injury cases. A motor vehicle accident can be the cause of numerous severe injuries, including a bulging disc, protruding disc and disc herniation - all of which involve a trauma to the spinal column and the vertebrae that surround it. With any motor vehicle accident, there is always the potential for a personal injury case. However, the key to building a successful personal injury claim is for the injured party to take specific steps following the accident, including:

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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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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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In a personal injury trial involving a non-English speaking witness, the court ruled that, according to section 755.5 of the Code of Evidence, "during any medical examination, requested by an insurer or by the defendant, of a person to a civil action who does not proficiently speak or understand the English language, conducted for the purpose of determining damages in a civil action", a foreign language interpreter shall be present to interpret the examination in a language that the person understands.

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We've blogged about medical interpreters, medical translators, foreign language barriers and informed consent. In Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health, the Supreme Court recognized the right of a competent individual to control their own medical treatment as being a fundamental liberty interest. Specifically, the Court held that where the prior expressed wishes of an incapacitated patient can be determined by clear and convincing evidence, those wishes should be honored. Thus, a patient has a right to provide instructions concerning their future medial care.

Continue reading "Medical Language Translation, Medical Language Interpretation in Denver, Colorado, and Elsewhere, and Non-English-Speaking Patients and Presumption of Competence" »

Language barriers which impede communication between the non-English-speaking patients and the English-speaking pharmacy staff can lead to medication errors, and can, therefore, have grave consequences. Last month, Rite Aid, following a trend among other pharmacies, began offering multilingual pharmaceutical translation services to its customers who do not understand or speak English well.

The telephonic interpreters will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week at the customers' request. This translation service costs the customer nothing and offers medical interpreting services in more than 175 languages including Arabic, Hebrew, Hungarian, Korean, Mandarin, Polish, and Spanish. The pharmaceutical translators will interpret all the relevant information, including medication instructions, side effects, and precautions.

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Competent medical interpreting services provided by trained and certified medical and healthcare interpreters and certified medical translators not only insure the needed language access to healthcare, but also help increase the limited English proficient (LEP) patient satisfaction and compliance.  According to civil rights laws in some states, equal medical treatment for all patients - regardless of their English proficiency - must be ensured. However, the law is not the only reason that foreign language interpreting and foreign language health care translation and interpretation services in the hospital or other medical settings are required.

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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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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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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.

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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:

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A very common occurrence in a hospital setting, particularly an emergency room, is the arrival of a non-English speaking patient. In such a situation the physician often struggles with trying to understand the symptoms and make a correct diagnosis. This becomes an issue when the patient can only communicate in a foreign language and no qualified foreign language interpreter is available. In the worst-case scenario, it becomes a medical malpractice problem.

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Foreign language barriers, which are easily overcome with the help of competent medical interpreters, can cause various problems when they are ignored in a medical setting. According to medical malpractice theory, a physician may be held liable if his inability to adequately communicate with a patient prevents him from obtaining proper informed consent. This line of legal liability stretches from the Quintero v. Encarnacion case. In this case, the patient was only able to communicate using a few Spanish words.

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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?

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