The Important Details : Legal Documents

           When providing document translation services to others, it is essential for any translator in Singapore while doing this to pay careful attention to the key details of the documents in question. In the case of legal documents, reviewing and confirming the accuracy of critical aspects of the document are especially necessary.

Granted, in the process of a legal translation, a translation company would review the entire document multiple times to ensure that all the details are correct and that the formatting and language of the document is of an appropriate nature. After all, such a business must maintain its reputation for providing certified translations with quality in Singapore. However, there may be situations where one is short on time and/or energy and will only be able to review a few parts of the document before it is submitted and used for its intended purpose. To that end, it is then essential to single out the most crucial elements of the legal document to verify.

Names of people and places are one such element. Similar to how translators are closely attentive to the use of names in PR application translations and notarized translation, so too must one be vigilant that a name is accurately translated and written down. This can be straight-forward if it is written in an English alphabet but can be more difficult when a name is written in Japanese Kanji or the Arabic alphabet.

Numerical Figures that can represent sums of money, dates, identification numbers, and so on. This may seem like an easy detail to transpose while rendering a translation service, it can also be easy to mistakenly enter the wrong number when it is long with multiple different digits. Furthermore, any certified translation company in Singapore must be aware of the fact that different countries can have different conventions for how they use numbers, such as France and Germany (as well as many other countries) which use commas instead of a decimal point to separate their dollars and cents.

Phrasing is an area that can be given some leeway when it is a document used for certain other purposes. If it is a document meant to prove a person’s identity and status, then as long as crucial details such as the person’s name and citizen status are properly translated, the phrasing of headings or notes or other details considered tangential could be overlooked. However, with legal translation, the phrasing of particular terms or whole paragraphs can be essential to the document’s purpose, with business negotiations and legal liabilities being at the mercy of the quality and accuracy of a legal document’s translation.

A legal document can have a weighty impact upon its creators and its recipients, whether it carries out its intended purpose or it inflicts consequences when mistranslated. With such knowledge in mind, it behooves one to ensure that certified legal translation in Singapore is performed for such a document, to make certain that no misunderstandings are had,and that the document’s original objective is achieved.