Translation or legal consultation?
-There's more to tell-
Translation or legal consultation?
#05
In any translation, the translator is always expected to be thorough, professional, and well-informed, since everyone wants the translated text to convey the original meaning as accurately as possible. However, there are certain cases where the stakes are even higher than usual, and a single misinterpreted sentence or a single typo can determine fortunes, destinies, and even human lives. The translation of legal texts clearly falls into this category, since a court ruling, a sales contract, or a will can determine the fate of people’s lives. The translator must proceed with the appropriate level of thoroughness, but this is not always a simple task; when it comes to legal texts, there are numerous factors that must be taken into account that are not considered in other contexts.
It's hard to understand even in Hungarian
Legal texts are often accused of being incomprehensible, unnatural, and overly complicated. Legal language strives for clarity; therefore, it is always logical, yet highly condensed, avoids unnecessary circumlocutions, and frequently repeats words, resulting in an extremely dense text. For a layperson, these legal texts are not understandable—or only barely so—upon first reading; it takes many years of practice for someone to be able to interpret them immediately. This is precisely why the overwhelming majority of legal translators are lawyers themselves; however, knowledge of the Hungarian legal system and its language alone is not enough to become a legal translator.
Differences Between Legal Systems
Anglo-Saxon law differs from Hungarian law not only in its language but also in its approach; therefore, the translator must be familiar with both in order to produce an accurate translation. Often, the translator must adapt expressions or concepts—which exist only in the source language and have no exact equivalent in the target language—to the other language and legal context. Many people are unaware of these challenges and do not realize that when they want a legal text translated, the initial assessment of the text is essentially equivalent to a legal consultation.
A Famous Blunder
Of course, not everyone entrusts the translation of legal texts to a professional; it’s common for people to ask an acquaintance who is fluent in English or to rely on a translation program instead of turning to a translation agency. Surprisingly, this happens not only among laypeople but also at major companies. A few years ago, for example, the international press reported on the case of a soccer player whose transfer fell through because his contract was rushed through machine translation to the target language as quickly as possible; however, the program also translated the player’s name, rendering the contract invalid, and by the time the error was noticed, the transfer window had closed.
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