Translators are professionals who work with a wide range of texts, from websites and manuals to personal and official documents. Many translators, once they establish themselves in the translation industry, choose to specialise in a particular field. Common areas of specialisation include marketing translation, literary translation, legal translation, and scientific or technical translation.
Legal translators, for example, are not usually qualified lawyers, but they often have prior experience in roles connected to legal processes. This may include work related to legal transactions, paralegal duties, document handling, research, or professional correspondence. Experience gained in these areas can be highly valuable when transitioning into legal translation.
What do legal translators translate?
Legal translators work with a wide range of documents that have a legal context. These may include one or more of the following:
Personal documents, which are commonly required for visa or employment applications. These can include educational qualifications, certificates, diplomas and degrees, professional credentials, police or criminal checks, and financial or medical records. This type of work is very common and often forms a significant part of the workload for both translation agencies and individual freelance translators.
Documents related to property and asset transactions, including transfers, distribution, and sales. This may also include wills and testaments.
Business documents such as patents, contracts, licence applications, correspondence between international organisations and clients, and documents connected to legal disputes.
Court documents.
What are legal translation skills?
There are several important qualities that contribute to effective legal translation. Above all, legal translators must have a strong working knowledge of the language or languages they translate, particularly in a legal context.
Most translators have completed specialised training in translation, although the exact pathways vary by country. In Australia, many translators hold professional certification that demonstrates they have met defined competency standards through formal assessment. These certification assessments apply to individual translators and provide evidence of their skills. Similar, though not identical, certification frameworks exist in other parts of the world, particularly in Europe.
Fluency in two or more languages must be combined with the ability to understand and accurately use legal terminology. This is where prior experience with legal documents and processes becomes especially important.
Legal translators must also understand the importance of confidentiality. Legal documents are often sensitive, and any breach of information can have serious consequences for clients, as well as for the translator or translation service involved.
General translation skills are equally important in legal translation. These include the ability to edit and proofread translated material, as well as make necessary adjustments to formatting and style. Formatting is particularly significant in legal documents, where structure and presentation can affect interpretation. An in-depth understanding of the relevant legal systems is also valuable, as legal concepts do not always transfer directly between jurisdictions without contextual knowledge.
Where do legal translators work?
Legal translators work in a variety of settings. Some are employed directly by companies or government bodies that have ongoing translation requirements. This type of role is often referred to as in-house translation.
Others work through translation agencies. Some agencies are large and employ translators with different areas of specialisation, while others focus specifically on legal translation.
Many legal translators also work as freelancers, often operating online. This flexibility allows translators to work remotely, with their home serving as their primary workspace.
