The certified translation of court documents

In the globalized world of today, cooperation between courts and authorities on an international level is becoming increasingly important. Therefore, it must be ensured in every multinational judicial or official procedure that all participants can effortlessly understand each other even though they are native speakers of different languages. These procedures require detailed understanding of all kinds of legal documents, which is why court judgments and decisions, statements of claim, minutes of court proceedings, court summons, expert opinions, applications and notifications are translated into other languages by qualified legal translators. These translations are for the most part delivered as certified translations. Only translators who are publicly appointed and sworn are legally permitted to do this kind of document translation.

In order to translate a legal or official document correctly and precisely, translators require strong language skills and expertise. They have to have excellent command of specialist legal terminology in their working languages and, what is more, they require in-depth knowledge of the legal systems of the other countries in question. Furthermore, translators are obliged to treat legal documents strictly confidential and to meet deadlines and keep appointments.

In many cases, the translation of a court judgment or decision must also be certified. If not certified, it is not sufficient for submission to certain authorities and institutions. Especially in the areas of marriage and family law, e. g. in decisions on divorce or custody, certification is often necessary. The certification of a translation can be done by a sworn translator (e. g. in Germany, France and Spain). In certain countries, however, translations of documents are certified by notaries (like in Portugal, Russia or Switzerland). An apostillation or legalization is required by certain authorities in addition to the certification, when a document is to be submitted to a foreign authority .

Among the most important court documents which frequently require translation are:

Regarding the high demands placed on the translators as well as the qualification and specialisation necessary to deliver a high quality translation of your court documents, we at the Nuremberg translation and court interpreting agency AP Fachübersetzungen recommend the commission of a qualified translator who translates into his native language and has many years of experience in translating legal documents. We offer professional translations of all kinds of legal and official documents into numerous languages, e. g. into German, English, Farsi, Romanian, Polish, Russian and Spanish, which meet all quality standards. To achieve this goal, we cooperate with an international network of state-certified translators with in-depth legal knowledge who exclusively translate into their native language. What is more, we frequently work with expert lawyers when proofreading the translated documents in order to guarantee that the legal text in the target language complies with the legal norms of the respective country.