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How to Be a Legal Translator

Author: Es Ahmed
by Es Ahmed
Posted: Jun 18, 2021

At the outset, Translation is so important because you convert and transfer content and meaning from a language to another from a culture of a country to another, so the process of translation is important.

Legal translation is the most important and specialized field among other fields and types of translation and legal Translators are the top smartest person in the team of translators in Dubai.

Legal translation includes the translation of laws, regulations, rules, certificates, patents, contracts, agreements, conventions, wills, certificates, and cases, legal translators should understand, learn, read all these kinds of documents.

Also, the Legal Translator must be careful upon dealing with legal documents, finding errors in the translation shall put the translator and the company working for in trouble.

Steps of Legal Translator Journey

  • First, the legal translator should get an in-depth understand of the document he or she is translating to avoid mistakes, he shall read it slowly several times to understand it before commencing to translate. As well as, the translator must know where the translation shall be submitted because the translation of a specific term may be different from one country to another.
  • The source document must be clear to the translator to be able to translate and transfer the same meaning, content, and spirit of the original document so read it carefully.
  • If you do not understand the meaning of a term, there are several means to avoid misunderstanding it as follows:
  1. Looking for bilingual and monolingual specialized dictionaries.
  2. Searching for similar files with the same subject may be useful.
  3. Seeking and asking advice from lawyers, judges, or consultants to be able to translate the term well, so you can convey the correct meaning to the audience.
  4. Seeking the help of his colleagues with a legal specialization and those who have considerable knowledge can be a welcome means of support.
  5. Legal sentences and paragraphs can be lengthy. So, you can read the whole paragraph and each sentence carefully and divided it into short sentences to give a clear meaning
  6. Coherence in writing is the logical bridge between words, sentences, and paragraphs to connect ideas within each sentence and paragraph.
  7. Unification of terms also is so important so, the reader of the document shall not be confused. You must be familiar with grammatical rules.
  8. The target file should be a mirror of the source as anyone reads it does not know what the source from the target file is.
  9. Review and proofread the translated file, you may forget something has not been translated. If possible, request another professional to re-check the translated file before submitting it as completed.
Legal Documents

Here are some of the common legal documents that need a certified legal translation Dubai office to be translated :

  • Birth Certificate
  • Marriage Certificate
  • Passport
  • ID (Identification Card)
  • Contracts
  • Divorce Decree Certificates
  • Immigration Documents
  • Financial reports
  • Parents
  • Educational transcripts and certificates
Translators Skills

If you are passionate translators who seek to be a full legal translator, here are some required skills to have:

  • Creative
  • Knowledgeable
  • Update
  • Bilingual
  • Excellent written skills
  • Excellent Computer/ Internet users
  • Advanced Language level
  • Aware of the country’s Law and Rules
  • Terminology
How Can you find your job as a legal Translator?

There are two ways; being a full-time worker in a translation office or being a Freelancer.

To be a full-time worker, you need to search for translation offices in your country and you shall seek to contact them via email and follow their official social media platforms to know about their job availability.

To be a freelancer, you need to build a full professional profile in some of the top freelancing websites as :

  • Up-work
  • Fiver
  • Freelancer
  • PeoplePerHour

You have to present your previous experience in a creative way to attract clients to choose you among several translators. You have to highlight your knowledge, experience, and skills in how to be distinguished and different. Also, you could publish parts of your previous translation to prove your experience and how much you are qualified to take his job.

You need to guarantee your fees through having an online payment method like Paypal or pioneer…etc. Many fraud clients want to take your work without time.

Finally, translating legal documents is a complex task that requires language skills, legal knowledge, and reading a lot in the legal documents and books to be able to convey the smooth and accurate meaning of the original file.

About the Author

An ambitious girl seeks to get more. Love Reading and eating Fish more than you.

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Author: Es Ahmed

Es Ahmed

Member since: Sep 02, 2018
Published articles: 2

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