Where jargon goes beyond language
ISO-certified processes for quality & information security
ensure the accurate rendering and the confidenciality of your data throughout the supply chain
Accurate legal & financial translations
No other industry gives so much attention to detail than the legal industry. When it comes to translating contracts, patents and legal documents, precision and accuracy are of the utmost importance. Over the years, many organizations, companies and law firms have depended on Commit Global to deliver top quality legal translations and rest assured that their content was completely understood and correctly translated. With the strict deadlines the legal industry involves, a litigation process for example can be a challenging undertaking for our clients.
Nevertheless, we are able to respond immediately to urgent and sensitive requests and can provide rush services at competitive rates for legal documents that need to be translated on short notice. At Commit Global we only use experienced, certified and professional translators to fully meet our client’s most complex legal translation needs.
Our linguists undergo a strict pre-selection process, are native to the target language, have substantial experience translating legal documents and have a background in law, political and social studies.
We can help you with:
- Antitrust Litigations, Claims
- Intellectual property, Patents, Trademarks, NDAs
- Corporate, Banking & Commercial litigation, Mergers & Acquisitions
- Government Contracts
- Labor & Employment agreements
- Personal Injury, Medical Malpractice claims
What is legal translation?
Legal translation is the translation of texts within the field of law. Globalization, the development of international markets, and migration have created a constantly growing need for legal translations. But how common are legal translations, do they require specialized professionals and technical terminology? To answer these questions, the different types of legal texts need to be considered.
What kinds of legal texts are there and why the need to translate them?
Legal text is defined as any document used in a legal system and drafted in accordance with the applicable laws of a country. Legal texts cover an extensive list of documents depending on the services and the needs they serve. Some of the most popular ones include certificates (marriage, birth, etc.), proxies, employment contracts and agreements, testaments, affidavits and confidentiality agreements.
Now, why would someone need to translate these documents? Relocation to another country for work or studies is one of the main reasons. Establishing or moving company offices to a foreign country also requires the translation of documents to enable its legal operation. In short, any legal transaction in another country requires the translation of the relevant documents.
Who performs legal translations?
One might think that legal translations are relatively simple as most texts use the same terminology, which is often repeated. However, legal translation is far from a simple process. A mere numerical mistake, a wrong name or a term’s misinterpretation can result in serious penalties. In the case of contracts, wills or documents submitted in court, such errors are unacceptable and can result in expensive misunderstandings and avoidable lawsuits.
Still, while accuracy and attention to detail are to be taken very seriously, the legal and financial jargon is an equally big challenge, and it goes beyond language and into the actual discipline. That’s why you don’t just need a professional linguist, but instead you need a linguist with academic background in law and finance, so that your agreements are not open to interpretation. Following our ISO 9001 certification for quality we integrate proactive quality assurance even from the resource selection, while our ISO 27001 certified processes for information security ensure the confidentiality of your data throughout the supply chain.
Maintaining confidentiality
From litigations to contracts, we make sure all your translated materials are kept private and safe. We translate and protect the sensitive and confidential information of your documents as per our ISO 27001 certification and we provide a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) upon request. We also maintain NDAs with all our vendors and linguists.
The differences in the legal systems
The legal translation can differ greatly in each country. Aside from the language barriers and the legal terminology, the differences in legal systems can make legal translations very complex. In these cases, a legal translator should be familiar with the civil codes of both countries (source and target language). There are countries with the same or similar laws as well as countries with the same language but different laws. Greece and Cyprus are an example of this, as they share the same language, but have different civil codes. While the Cypriot civil code is based on the English common law, the Greek civil law is based on the Germanic civil law.
So, as well as understanding and precisely translating the legal rights and duties of the original text, legal translators must also bear in mind the legal system of the source text (ST) and the legal system of the target text (TT) which may differ greatly from each other: Anglo-American common law, Germanic civil law, Islamic law, etc.
Since law is a culture-dependent subject field, legal translation is not necessarily linguistically transparent. To avoid intransparency in the translation, the linguist should always translate according to the applicable laws of the country where the text is drafted. If translated according to the laws of the target country, there may be misunderstandings and mistranslations. Therefore, the translator should always follow the source language terminology and use Latin legal terminology, where possible.
What is GDPR and how does Commit Global protect your personal information?
What is GDPR?
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2016/679 is a regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy for all individuals within the European Union. It takes effect on 25 May 2018 and standardizes data protection law across all 28 EU countries as well as imposes strict new rules on controlling and processing personally identifiable information (PII).
GDPR applies to all organizations holding and processing EU resident’s personal data, regardless of geographic location. Many organizations outside the EU are unaware that the EU GDPR regulation applies to them as well. If an organization offers goods or services to, or monitors the behavior of EU residents, it must meet GDPR compliance requirements.
What is considered personally identifiable information (PII)?
PII is information that can be used on its own or with other information to identify, contact, or locate a single person, or to identify an individual in context. The types of data considered personal go beyond just name, address, and photos. GDPR extends the definition of personal data so that something like an IP address can be personal data. It also includes sensitive personal data such as genetic data, and biometric data which could be processed to uniquely identify an individual. So, keep in mind that files from your legal, finance, life sciences or HR department are likely to contain personal information.
What has Commit Global done to protect your personal information?
- We have trained our inhouse teams and informed our partners in order to create a personal data protection culture.
- We have incorporated the Privacy by design/by default principles into our systems to promote privacy and data protection compliance from the start.
- We are collecting only the necessary data needed to perform the services you requested, and we are limiting the storage periods for that data.
- We are compliant with ISO 9001, 17100, 13485 and 27001 certifications and we are following all relative codes of conducts.
- We are performing periodic internal inspections to make sure we are GDPR compliant.
- We have a Risk Management Plan in place to try and avoid vulnerabilities and data breaches and violations.
- We are providing the following personal data rights to our clients and partners in accordance with the GDPR: the right to be informed, the right to access, the right to rectification, the right to erasure, the right to restrict processing, the right to data portability, the right to object and the right to withdraw consent.
We are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. For more information on the kind of data we collect from our partners and clients and why and for a detailed description of rights, please read our Privacy Notice here.
