How to Save on Translation Costs

Every purchase and every managerial decision is determined by one thought only: to spend as little as possible. In the pursuit of saving and cost cutting, many fall into nasty traps I was warning you against in the previous post (5 Myths of Cheap Translation). Time to move on and see if there is anything you can do to spend less on translation.

Stick with one translation provider

Take some time to do a proper research and find a solid and reliable translation provider, then hold on to them till your pension do you part.

Why?

5 Myths of Cheap Translation

They say that the bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten. When it comes to translation, be careful with choosing cheap options, because you might end up paying much more than you expect. Here are the most common traps that translation buyers fall into.

Certified translation of official documents

They say that the bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten. When it comes to translation, be careful with choosing cheap options, because you might end up paying much more than you expect. Here are the most common traps that translation buyers fall into.

Why your translator needs to be an expert.

Specialisation is part and parcel of the translation profession. Every good translator specialises in a few areas, which means that they are able to provide a professional, accurate translation that reads like an original text written by an expert in a particular field. Why is it so important and how can you make sure your translator is a specialist in your industry?  Let’s find out. 

Specialised terminology

Specialisation allows translators to handle complex, industry specific terminology that cannot be found in a general dictionary. It enables them to identify specialist terms and provides resources to accurately translate them. Only an expert can distinguish if - in a given context - a term has a specialist meaning or a general one. For example ‘fixed fee’ generally means stała opłata  (fixed-rate fee) in Polish, however, in specialised legal context it can also mean zastaw rejestrowy  (registered pledge). Only a good legal translator will be able to spot this.

Legal specialisation is particularly tricky, because of the differences between the legal systems, and this is exactly the case in English to Polish translation. It is hardly possible to provide an accurate translation of a legal text in this language pair without sound knowledge of the Polish and English legal systems. This is mainly because some of the legal notions simply do not exist in the legal system of the other country.

Jargon

 Almost every industry has its jargon, slang and idiomatic expressions that are understandable only to the specialists who use them internally to communicate with other experts in the same field. A translator who is not familiar with the industry will not be able to identify the meaning of the jargon terms, which will effectively lead to their mistranslation. It is worth pointing out that mistranslations – especially in highly specialised documents – cause considerable confusion, misunderstandings and can cost the client dearly.

Specialised style

All industries differ not only in terms of terminology but also of their style of writing: technical, marketing and legal texts, among others, have their own characteristic style, tone and register. In order to convey the same style to the translated text, you need to master it. When specialising, translators read extensively in a given field not only to acquire the necessary knowledge, but also to familiarise themselves with the writing style characteristic for the industry. Why is it important? Imagine that as an expert , you are reading a document that has been appallingly written: the register is completely wrong, sentences are weirdly structured and you need to read a paragraph several times to make heads or tails of it. It does not feel right, does it? You lose your time and patience only because someone has not done a good job. This is why mastering the industry specific writing style matters. We could say therefore, that legal translators need to be able to write like lawyers, technical translators should write like engineers etc.

How translators specialise?

When it comes to specialisation, every translator has a different story to tell. In general, though, there are three different routes to specialisation: some translators complete a course at a university, some have previously worked in the industry, while others decide to self-study and also learn by experience. Whichever route they’re taking, good translators make sure they become experts in a given field and that they continue to develop their knowledge and expertise via numerous courses, workshops as well as attending conferences and speaking to other specialists.

How to make sure your translator is a specialist?

We’ve already seen that it is very important that the translator who will work on your document specialises in this field. But how do you know that your text will be translated by an expert? Can you actually check this?

If you are using translation agency’s services, you don’t really know who is working on the project and you will not be able to directly contact the translator. If you are dealing with a good agency, you can be sure that they will always check internally what the areas of their translators’ specialisation are and will never assign them any translation that is outside that area. However, a number of agencies do not care whether a project is within the translator’s speciality and you might end up with having your document translated by someone who has little or no knowledge of the subject.

With freelancers, it is easier to check their specialisations and there are a number of ways to do this.  The most straightforward is simply checking their website - sometimes even their copy will give you a hint whether they know anything about your industry. Take a look at their testimonials, blog and find information about any qualifications they have. It is also worth checking what they tweet about – many translators share links and information on the topics they are experts in. Because I specialise in business and legal translation, I often tweet about law and international business as well as marketing. On my website, you can find legal and marketing translation as separate subpages; the same pattern is maintained on my blog – both specialisations have separate pages with articles on each of them.

Over to you

 If you are looking at giving a highly specialised document for translation, it is worth making sure that your translator is an expert in this field. No professional translator can claim that they are able to translate complex documents on every topic, as you can’t be an expert in everything. A cardiac surgeon will never perform a neurological operation, because of a simple reason - he does not have enough knowledge of neurology; similarly, a commercial law solicitor will never take on a criminal case for the very same reason. As an expert in legal and marketing translation, I will never undertake to translate a text in IT, because I would not do a good job. Therefore, if a client asked me to translate a complicated IT document I can barely understand, I would kindly explain that I do not have enough knowledge of IT to perform the translation and I will recommend a colleague who I trust is an expert in this field. 

English and Polish Courts Explained

The knowledge of the legal systems, when translating legal documents, e.g., judicial decisions, includes also familiarity with the hierarchy of courts. And here, we can spot considerable differences between civil and common law.

The Polish administration of justice consists of courts and tribunals[1]. While the Polish Constitution (Chapter VIII) distinguishes only two tribunals: Constitutional Tribunal and the Tribunal of State, the structure of the court system is of much more complexity. The Constitution of the Republic of Poland enlists four major kinds of courts:

The administration of justice in the Republic of Poland shall be implemented by the Supreme Court, the common courts, administrative courts and military courts.

        [The Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 2^nd April 1997; art.175(1)][2]

     More often than not, legal documents that translators work with are issued by or for the common courts, and therefore, we will focus on them, leaving administrative and military courts perhaps for another blog post?

  As far as the common courts are concerned, at the top of the hierarchy[3] of these courts there is the Supreme Court (Sąd Najwyższy), it is the highest instance court in Poland and has its seat in Warsaw. The court handles cassations, i.e. appeals from sentences or decisions of the courts of second instance. It does not consider cases but examines whether the judgments are compliant with the law. The court consists of twelve judges and a chairman. The courts of appeal, second instance courts (Sądy apelacyjne II instancji) are next below in the hierarchy, then there are regional courts, first/second instance courts (sądy okręgowe I albo II instancji), district courts, first instance courts (sądy rejonowe I instancji) and at the very bottom are municipal courts (sądy grodzkie).

This greatly simplified presentation of the Polish common courts structure can be juxtaposed with the English courts in the Civil Division. The House of Lords, however different from Sąd Najwyższy, is the highest court in England; hence it can serve as its counterpart, although these terms are never (and should not be) used as equivalents by translators. The House of Lords, together with the Court of Appeal, which occupies a lower position in the hierarchy, deals exclusively with appeals, although the House of Lords is concerned only with ‘matters of law of general public importance’ (Alcaraz & Hughes 2002:53). The Court of Appeal hears the cases passed on from the High Court, which is a court of lower instance or in special circumstances from the county courts (translated as sądy okręgowe).

One of my previous posts shows the full structure of the English court system; it is presented in English as well as in Polish to provide some suggestions for the translation of the courts’ names.

Resources:

 Alcaraz, Enrique; Hughes, Brian. Legal Translation Explained. Manchester: St. Jerome

Publishing, 2002.

Jopek-Bosiacka, Anna. Przekład prawny I sądowy. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe

PWN, 2006.

The Constitution of the Republic of Poland.

http://www.sejm.gov.pl/prawo/konst/angielski/kon1.htm

The hierarchy of English courts of Her Majesty’s Court Service

http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/aboutus/structure/index.htm

The Hierarchy of English courts in Polish http://ec.europa.eu/civiljustice/org_justice/org_justice_eng_pl.pdf

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[1] ‘Tribunal’ does not seem to be congruent with the Polish ‘Trybunał’, although Polish institutions use these terms as equivalents on their official websites (cf. http://www.trybunal.gov.pl/eng/index.htm). Trybunał is a court of higher instance than the Supreme Court (Sąd Najwyższy) (Jopek-Bosiacka 2006:220), whereas English tribunals are the lowest courts in the hierarchy of the justice system (see: Table 2 below). This terminological incongruity shows how important the knowledge of the courts hierarchy is, especially in the translation of court names.

[2] Source: the Polish Parliament’s web page: http://www.sejm.gov.pl/prawo/konst/angielski/kon1.htm

[3] Based on Table 7.5A and 7.5B in Jopek-Bosiacka (2006:220-221)

Terminology issues: Sąd Apelacyjny vs. the Court of Appeal

      ‘Sąd apelacyjny’ is commonly used as an equivalent of ‘the Court of Appeal’. Let us examine if   these courts can be regarded as each other’s counterparts. The Court of Appeal consists of two divisions: the Civil Division and the Criminal Division, while Sąd apelacyjny also distinguishes a third one, namely labour and social insurance division. In both courts the general assumption is that the facts found by the trial at the lower instance court are correct and the appeal takes into consideration only the main points i.e. the matters of law. In the English tradition this is done at a ‘national hearing’, which is virtually a new trial based on the previous one. In contradiction, Polish sources (cf. Kalina-Prasznic 2007) stress that an appeal is a continuation of the proceedings of the first instance court and sąd apelacyjny plays only a supplementary role. Yet, just like other civil law courts, it is capable of conducting a re-examination of the case, scrutinizing not only the questions of law but also the questions of fact (Geeroms 2002:229). Finally, the decision is made; in the English court by three judges, either unanimously or by majority, though each judge has to speak to express his opinion; in the Polish court, the decision is given by a presiding judge or in the case of his/her absence by his/her deputy. Sąd apelacyjny may either dismiss the appeal, which will mean concurring with the court of first instance, modify the appeal and make a ‘new’ decision or simply overturn the previous decision and order a re-examination of the case. Another vivid incongruity between the appeal systems in civil and common law is that in the continental tradition, the appeal case is passed from the court of lower instance to the next court above in the hierarchy, common law courts, however, are capable of giving the judgment to the court two instances higher, e.g. from the High Court to the House of Lords.

        Even though sąd apelacyjny and the Court of Appeal are not fully compatible, there are no serious reasons why the translator should reject these terms as functional equivalents.

Resources:

Geeroms, Sophie. “Comparative Law and Legal Translation: Why the Terms Cassation, Revision and Appeal Should Not Be Translated...” The American Journal of

Comparative Law. 50:1 (2002). 25 August 2008  http://www.jstor.org/search

Kalina-Prasznic, Urszula. Encyklopedia prawa. Wyd. 4. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo C.H. Beck 2007

the Polish Parliament’s web page: http://www.sejm.gov.pl/prawo/konst/angielski/kon1.htm

How to translate a divorce petition? Basic terminology of divorce proceedings in translation.

English legal terminology differs across each type of the area of law. Therefore, we may find diverse terms for the same notion e.g. in tort law and in family law. Equally, each area of law has its characteristic phrases and collocations. In this post, I will examine some of the terms, phrases and collocations used in divorce proceedings.

The Parties

In English law, the party who files a divorce petition is called a petitioner- in Polish rendered as powód (female: powódka). It is worth noting that Polish powód is also used in other civil cases and means claimant. Hence, while in English the term petitioner is reserved only for cases that involve filing a petition e.g. divorce or bankruptcy, its Polish translation is applied across all civil cases. Similarly, Polish pozwany (female: pozwana) refers to a defending party in all civil court cases, while its equivalent – respondent is used only in cases involving petition and in appeals.

The Marriage

It goes without saying that in order to get a divorce, a couple needs to be married. Undoubtedly, the marriage must be legal, and the collocation used in English law is lawfully married to... which should be translated as zawarł(a) związek malżeński z...  Note that the term ‘lawfully’ added to the English version to underline the legality of the marriage is omitted in Polish, since the very entrance into marriage already implies its lawfulness. Therefore, in the Polish Family and Guardianship Code (Kodeks Cywilny i Opiekuńczy) we find only zawarcie związku małżeństwa (entering into marriage).

The Divorce

When submitting a petition for a divorce, the petitioner claims that the marriage has broken down irretrievably which is rendered into nastąpił nieodrwacalny rozkład pożycia. Polish law goes further and tells about zupełny i trwały rozkład pożycia Article 56 (1) of the Family and Guardianship Code, where zupełny means complete, and trwały implies an irretrievable breakdown.

Having met the condition of the marriage being broken down irretrievably, the petitioner may ask the judge to dissolve the marriage, which translates into rozwiązać malżeństwo.

Prayer

The prayer of a petition is a request to the court in relation to the decision, costs and ancillary relief. Translation of the term itself should not pose any problems, although there is still a room for error, as translators might be tempted to use a common term prośba, which denotes a general request, yet given that the context is strictly legal, żądanie is a much more appropriate equivalent. With reference to Article 187(1) of the (Polish) Civil Procedure Rules (Kodeks Postępowania Cywilnego), żądanie is one of the obligatory parts of the petition. It would not be a mistake to translate the term into treść pozwu (literally: main body/content of the divorce petition), as – in this context - the term is sometimes used interchangeably with żądanie.

Ancillary relief defined as “a court order incidental to another order or application”refers to a financial provision order or a property adjustment order. These two are treated separately in the Polish law, and hence there is no umbrella term for both. Having said that, for the purposes of rendering the ancillary relief term, translators can reach for zaopatrzenie małżonka, which is the closest equivalent, although not widely used by Polish solicitors. When it comes to the financial matters of a divorce, the two main issues a Polish decree will cover are obowiązek alimentacyjny – maintenance order and podział majątku – division of joint property. The court has also jurisdiction to rule on sposobie korzystania z mieszkania - the use of the residence. When faced with the alimenty term, it is tempting to resort to a calque alimony, which is entirely appropriate if the target language is American English, yet if the translated document is for a British client, the equivalent to be applied here is maintenance. Strongly related to this term is another legal phrase found in a divorce petition, namely a maintenance pending suit – initially misleading, as one may concentrate on the ‘suit’ and consider ‘maintenance pending’ as determiners. On the contrary, ‘maintenance’ here is the main lexical unit and its determiners ‘pending suit’ mean (during/for the time of the suit). The closest equivalent in Polish is alimenty na czas trwania sprawy rozwodowej.

Legal terminology of divorce proceedings has its own specific terms and collocations. In order to render them appropriately into Polish, translators need to be familiar with the basic rules of the divorce proceedings both in English and Polish law.

Translator as the "law-maker"?

     Before you dive into the post, I suggest you browse through the previous one (“Legaltranslation: differences in common and civil law related to judicial decisions”) as both are strongly related.

In relation to the arguments in the previous post, it can be claimed that judges are law-makers, since the judgments they issue are authoritative legal texts. Likewise, as Šarčevič (cf. 1994:301) argues in the context of multilingual law, the translated text shows no inferiority towards the original, hence both the source and the target texts are often referred to as authoritative, i.e. they have the same legal effect. At this point a question arises: if judges, as the original text producers, are called law-makers, can translators be considered law-makers as well, since they produce a text of the same legal effect, though in the target language?

However disappointing it may sound for the translators, the answer is simply negative; the text production by the judge differs considerably from the one of the translator, and the difference lies in the process of interpretation. Alcaraz and Hughes (2002:24) provide a clear explanation of this issue:

For the translator, the purpose of interpretation is to decide on the closest possible linguistic equivalent in the target language, while for the judge it is to match up the resulting propositions against the definitions established in existing law. The difference, of course, is that the translator’s work is over once the semantic hurdle has been negotiated, whereas the judge must go on to apply the results of the linguistic analysis and announce a decision in accordance with the rules and principles of law.

Bibliography

 Alcaraz, Enrique; Hughes, Brian. Legal Translation Explained. Manchester: St. Jerome

 Publishing, 2002.

Šarčevič, Susan. New Approach to Legal Translation. The Hague: Kluwer Law International,  

1997.

Legal translation: differences in common and civil law related to judicial decisions

Legal translation is one of the most difficult areas to specialize in. Translators need to overcome not only linguistic differences but also discrepancies in the legal systems, namely common law and civil law (e.g. in the case of English – Polish translations). The main incongruity between common and civil law, which directly influences for example the judiciary and their decisions, exists on the level of legislation, i.e. the sources of law.

The continental civil law system, which has its origins in Roman Law, is a strictly codified law, thus it derives its authority from codes and statutes (Alcaraz and Hughes 2002:48). The judiciary then plays a role solely of applying the law while common law judges may state the law. This “authoritative source by virtue of the rule of precedent which obliges judges to observe the decisions made by their colleagues of higher courts” (Šarčevič 1997:12) is called case law. As stressed by Griffith (1997:5): “The common law is made as judges decide cases and state the principles on which they are basing their decisions, this accumulation of principles building into a body of law”.

Both the legislator and the judge are lawmakers. Nevertheless, the legislative (statutory) law-making is basically different from judicial law-making, and the statutory form of regulation prevails (Cappelletti 1989:54). Judicial decisions will never be of the same legal force as statutes. The basic rule which governs the case law is that judicial decision making is determined mostly by previous judgments (precedence) made by other judges (Gibbons 2003:6). Such practice though, is inconceivable in the civil law system, where judicial decisions appear “as standard and almost mechanical ‘applications’ of the law” (Cappelletti 1989:53). There seems to be no place for any flexible interpretation, nor for creativity, which by contrast can be observed in the common law jurisprudence; in case of doubt the judges decide how to interpret the statute and as a result, they define its meaning. Such authority, together with their creative function, make the judges’ work of considerable importance, since whenever the question of law arises, their decision will determine the subsequent cases (Griffith 1997:6). The functions of English judges were defined by Philips (2003:52), who, apart from the role of interpreting the law, recognized the function of declaring the law, which is the same as the creative function mentioned by Griffith, and of applying the law, i.e. fitting it to the particular situation.

Bibliography

 Alcaraz, Enrique; Hughes, Brian. Legal Translation Explained. Manchester: St. Jerome

 Publishing, 2002.

Cappelletti, Mauro. The Judicial Process in Comparative Perspective. Oxford: Clarendon

Press, 1989.

Gibbons, John. Forensic Linguistics: An Introduction to Language in the Justice System.

Blackwell Publishing, 2003.

Griffith, J.A.G. The Politics of a Judiciary. London: Fontana Press, 1997.

Philips, Alfred. Lawyers’ Language. New York: Routledge, 2003.

Šarčevič, Susan. New Approach to Legal Translation. The Hague: Kluwer Law International,  

1997.

English - Polish Translation of English Courts Names

As a predominantly legal translator, I decided to share with you some knowledge on law and legal language. This is why this blog is going to seethe with English and Polish legalese and with advice on how to deal with it. Hopefully, it will be of some use to those of you who struggle with the language of law as well as to novice translators who will find it as a good source of reference.

The first post of the series will feature the names of the English courts, their jurisdiction and Polish translation. The names will be put in hierarchy from the highest court to the lowest.

Here we go!

Hierarchy of English Courts (source: www.hmcourts-service.com)

English Courts hierarchy and their jurisdiction in Polish:

Little subtlety – big difference.

Language is full of ‘innocent’ subtleties, which may or may not have a significant impact on the meaning. While the difference could be rather obscure in everyday language, in the language of law, however, this may become a crucial matter.

As a translator, I simply crave for finding and resolving these tiny distinctions between one word and the other. It is my everyday bread to discover what impact on the reader this phrase would have and would it make any difference if I used that one...? Yes, these questions are endless.