Don’t we all hate legalese? Some see the practice of writing in legalese
as an antiquated art, maintained alive only to keep the law firms in business,
charging exorbitant fees to decode legal jargon. Some lawyers would agree that
in modern times there is no real need for legalese and that plain language
contracts ought to be the norm. Others argue that legalese is an essential tool
that greatly increases the clarity of meaning in a contract. Whether you agree
with the former or the latter opinion, it appears that at least for the
foreseeable future, legalese is here to stay. Therefore, if you engage in legal
matters, you’ll have no choice but to navigate the maze that is legalese.
The challenges of working with this complex language are compounded when
the document to be prepared is in a foreign language. Most companies prefer the
advice of their own legal staff over the unknown element of hiring a local firm
in the overseas destination where they hope to do business, so instead of
outsourcing the drawing up of a foreign language contract, they compile the
document in English and have it translated.
A core mistake often made when translating contracts or other legal
forms is to simply hire a run-of-the-mill document translation service as opposed to seeking
out a firm that specializes in and has proven experience with legal translation. A successful legal translator not only needs to be
adept in legalese in more than one language, but also needs to understand the
potential consequences of misinterpreting portions of a legal document and
therefore look at their task from a unique point of view that goes beyond
simply modifying a document to read from one language into another.
Whereas
simple mistakes made in the translation of a non-legal document generally lead
to fairly inconsequential penalties, simple mistakes in a contract can have
dire financial implications. In fact, according to The Economist, 64% of
Britain’s business leaders say that their company is suffering negative effects
internationally simply due to language misinterpretations.
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