(Not So) Quick No-Nonsense QA/QC for Legal Translation

This will be one of the apparently very few posts here that do not involve the 'politics' of the translation 'industry'.

So, this is to give you some pointers as to what and how to check for, hence a sort of QA/QC checklist, for legal translation:

• Unless you have perfect memory and consistency, write down a glossary, either a general one or a specific one for every larger project, to make sure that you translate the same term or significant, meaningful expression (not necessarily legal, by the way) consistently throughout the text. This includes especially making sure that, as far as it makes sense, you use no more than one equivalent of the same term and translate no more than one term with the same equivalent. The goal is not to impoverish your translation repertoire or slavishly stick to word-for-word translation but to simply avoid the kind of unnecessary inconsistency that results from randomness. And randomness typically results from short memory.
• Go through numbers, addresses, dates, prices, etc., at least but not necessarily only once, to make sure that they follow the correct format and always indeed the same format. There may be an exception where the original uses different date formats in different places, for example because of varying the register or quoting from some other document, in which case you should not be overzealous, as the 'industry' wrongly tries to teach you, to standardize.
• Make sure you got them all right, numbers and formats e.g. no confusion between decimal separators and thousands, no zeroes (or other numbers) added or missing, that you've got the right currency or unit of measurement etc.
• Make sure numbers written out verbally in your translation agree with the verbal numbers in the original, not with the digits you've only just typed. Note that this means the words in the translation have to agree with the original, not that the words have to agree with the numbers in the translation if they did not in the original. Use CTRL+F for this purpose and check them all one by one. Iconsistencies between the digits and words are not for you to fix, no matter what the 'industry' would have you believe in its embarrassing lickspittle desire to employ translators as (ever underappreciated) ghost editors and janitors for original writers.
• Apply similar steps to the names of parties to the contract or dispute or whatever else you're translating, such as Buyer and Seller but especially something like Lessor and Lessee (use Tenant and Landlord if possible; afterwards you can Find & Replace All by CTRL+H), interviewer or interviewee etc. Just to be sure, CTRL+F all occurrences one by one, going by the original or by the source or both, using some sort of formula that makes sure you always get them right.
• It's probably worth checking specifically for any missed negations. 'Not' is about the easiest word there is for a tired translator to miss. You can trust me, it happens to the best of us and more often than you'd think. I translate and revise this stuff all the time.
• Speaking of which, things need much more checking and much more scrupulous attention if you are (or were) tired, sick, hurried, distracted or thrown off your usual balance in any other way.
• Actually read everything, every sentence, every word, out loud if you can. Make sure the syntax is correct and clear. Sometimes being clear is more important than being correct, let alone aesthetically pleasing. Many graduates these days, including BA/MA grads and professional writers, struggle with syntax and grammar, largely because of how the education system fails to teach such old-fashioned and unnecessary subjects correctly or at all. You don't have to be perfect, but you do in fact need to do better than most. But the main problem is not correctness per se, as in compliance with the rules, but the way in which non-standard communication impedes or outright prevents understanding.
• Avoid producing gibberish, sometimes known as 'translatorese', especially if the original is both correct and clear. Check with the client if necessary. Your client won't bite, or at least shouldn't. An agency that shuns questions from translators and won't forward them to the client to avoid having to ask for some attention is not acting professionally. Professionals don't act like scared puppies. Acting like a scared puppy can have serious ramifications because being intimidated by your client is no defence against accusations of malpractice.
• Pay especial attention to subjunctives, conjunctives, conditionals, future-in-the-past sort of structures, formulaic expressions, customary archaisms and anything else you don't use in everyday speech, especially if you never even read that kind of language. If in doubt, stick to familiar structures, however less elegant. Simplicity is always more elegant than trying to use sophisticated language and failing miserably.
• If you can do so without altering the meaning, keep it simple, keep it real and even (gasp!) cut the crap. Don't sacrifice content for form, but do think whether you really need all those words. Leave anything in that you think could have some meaning (presume you can never be certain), don't spend too much of your time sanitizing an overly verbose original, but resist the urge to translate mere meaningless ornaments word for word, and avoid real pleonasms and tautologies (if in doubt, leave them in).
• Don't, however, fall into the trap of thinking — or being made to think — that an extremely challenging original, complex and convoluted, requiring a lot of education, both general and field-specific, somehow has to result in a translation that is easily understood by a child. That's not your job but the lawyers'. Non-legal editors in LSPs who argue with you on this point are wrong. And in fact delusional. They could in fact pose somewhat of a threat to the project due to their lack of the kind of specific intellectual rigour that is needed in legal translation and precludes going full-on social justice warrior on the original.
• Try to get familiar with modern drafting in the target language, but don't go on a crusade and translate legalese into an honest working man's language.
• Identify any spots where you are about to markedly depart from the last vestiges of formal equivalence (viz. your choice of grammar, syntax and vocabulary is completely different from the original while hoping to preserve the actual sense). Make sure you aren't suffering from a disastrous bout of boredom that prevents you from listening to your self-preservation instinct.
• Speaking of which: do listen to your self-preservation instinct. It exists for a reason. At least hear what it has to say, and make an intelligent decision.
• If you're catching yourself being afraid of intelligent literal translation and going to great lengths to avoid literal translation even where it does in fact supply the best of all equivalents possible, then you should probably avoid legal translation and switch over to literature or marketing. Legal translation is not uncreative, but sacrificing too much fidelity out of a sort of primordial fear of being wrongly accused of overly literal translation malpractice, plain and simple.

Hope this helps. If it makes you think of legal translation as something only a special sort of nerd would enjoy, you're spot on. Consider that most translators — and I'd say most legal translators — aren't in fact cut out for legal translation. You'd better just like the job, and if not, then avoid it. There are days or even weeks I have to do something else to avoid going insane.

Disclaimer: This is not intended to be legal or professional advice, and in any case it does not establish any lawyer-client or consultancy type of relationship.

Legal CATing Checklist

Here are some ideas as to how to make it easier for you to stay on top of large legal translations in CAT software. It's the same with tech translations and anything else which just might be litigated. Or just might kill someone or run up huge damages. Obviously medicine comes to mind. And finance. But it can be anything, not only because of the subject but also and especially because of the intended use.

First of all, forget widescreen CATing unless you're positively certain that paragraphs stretching all the way horizontally are actually easier for you to manage than narrower and tighter, more densely packed boxes (preferably in a small font size). In Windows 7, you can just drag the CAT window to the left or right edge of the screen to make it take the left or right half of the screen.

If using your CAT on one half of your screen only, make sure you don't have a distracting wallpaper, such as a highly detailed photograph (like the nebulae from Spitzer which I used to use). Rather, go for a soothing medium green with a hint of blue, such as R 13 G 104 B 107. Okay, this is a bit more blue than it is green, but I wouldn't have guessed. It's probably close to 'cadet blue' and traditional Windows desktop colours. This:

Next, crank font size down. Down to size 12 on a huge >20'' monitor in 1920x1080 screen resolution. Larger fonts are easier on the eyes — too easy, in fact!

In essence, you're forcing yourself to pay attention and to follow details instead of just following the flow. Stuff that doesn't matter in literal or even marketing translation can wreck a legal contract or tech specification.

It depends on the eye, and 12 does hurt mine. But 14 and 16 makes me feel like I'm reading a novel or something, basically a literary mood which invites fantasy. Which is not what we want here. Better this little headache than the worse headache when you miss something that doesn't make much difference, ever, except in that one particular situation your client is or gets himself in.

If it hurts, you won't be dozing off.

You gotta read very carefully. The more slowly you can, the better. Naturally, this doesn't make you happy at six cents per word or something, you basically gotta charge some solid rates to make all this nitpicking pay for itself.

Use the CTRL+F a lot. If you have a couple of separate but related documents on your place, don't put things off until later. Just go and fix the problem you've just found in all other documents. Don't presume it isn't there. If you're sure it isn't there, still go check. It will take more than a minute of your time to set things straight if you miss something at this stage.

Don't make notes and put things off until later — unless you really are comfortable working that way, keep saving the notes in case electricity dies or your Windows decides to restart when you're away from keyboard. Better turn off any such automatic restarting, with or without prompt and wait — I've had the thing reset on me after leaving it unsupervised for more than 10 minutes. And make sure you actually do anything you put off till later.

Don't allow it to become an excuse and a hope that you just might forget and spare yourself the hassle. Just go do it. Like a good labourer. Because this is like physical work at a construction yard, but it still needs to be done. It will become easier and more 'native' to you as you force it to become a habit.

Oh, and just in case: challenge any presumptions and generally don't put things off till later anyway.

And keep track of everything you do.

As for specific things to look for, try to keep a list. If you end up correcting something or having a proofreader or client spot it for you, note it down, make sure you check for it specifically. Even if your checklist grows to be long, it's still much shorter than thinking about all those things would be if you didn't have the checklist.

You don't need to show that checklist to the client or PM or anybody else, so it isn't as potentially humiliating as the checklists you perhaps receive along with POs, some of which are pretty obvious or sound like patronizing.

Numbers. Always get the numbers right. Money, and phone numbers, and any other numbers. And measurements. Measurements along with units. And any unit conversions you want to or are expected to do.

Get the punctuation right. In some languages you are allowed to use optional commas to 'assist the reader'. So do. It will assist the reader.

Don't go high fantasy on the legalese. Subjunctives, inversions etc. have their place, but you often want to KISS. Just make it legible and transparent so that it's easier to revise (for you, among other people), update or follow. Or understand — if the reader is not a native speaker or college grad. Or a tired person. Tired translators, too, misunderstand and misinterpret things. And you might be doing just that right now as you're translating — if this is your eleventh hour or something.

By the way, don't hurry, and know your limits. Go to bed, wake up in 8 hours, resume. There are still only 24 hours in a day, you can't make more. Get some rest, you'll be more efficient and less error-prone. And your motivation will improve, which is crucial when you need to look at thousands of boring paragraphs scrolling down before your eyes.

Slow down and don't be too schematic. This is a bit challenging because you need to be just schematic enough to follow patterns and stay consistent — and simple — but you really need to avoid false cognates and other false, too easy associations. Watch your homophones. Try to have the entire scope of meaning of those words and phrases in mind, not just the one you supposedly need or the one you think the source has in mind.

Think about misunderstandings. Avoid them. Don't translate in ways which are open to misinterpretation. KISS helps, but don't overdo it. When you really go too simple, it no longer is simple. (Just like the 'plain language' which some drafters use and which makes sure nobody can understand the drafting any more and pinpoint the meaning.)

I didn't mention any specific words, but keep a list of them, particularly anything you might be prone to forgetting in your translations in general or the one project you're doing right now. Those will be different words from person to person and from project to project, so I won't cite any to avoid anchoring.

Just remember to CTRL+F the thing until it no longer exists anywhere (CTRL+H for 'seek and replace' in some other software).

Finally, you may want to read up on economics, healthy work habits (taking breaks, looking out the window every now and then, washing the coffee down with some water etc.).

And turn down projects if you aren't in a good shape or if the situation gets risky and you aren't sure you'll manage to set aside some time for contingencies.

What Does a Lawyer Need from You?

This is a question I can attempt to answer for you on the basis of my experience from both sides of the fence. As far as theory goes, I know much more about the law than about business or marketing or even translation itself. So this is not a theoretical analysis but a friendly head-to-head where you can pick my brain (or rather I open it for you).

Any lawyer needs you to be punctual. Unlike some other clients lawyers understand that their deadlines are extreme and may be more prepared to compensate you adequately for the rush. However, as far as they go the 'dead' in 'deadline' is there for a reason.

Consequently, they also need you to be available. They understand that you have physical limits (although they will respect you more when you push those limits as hard as they do), but they need someone to be there when they need a translator. Needing someone to translate a motion with a limited filing window or a ruling that needs to be challenged quickly or urgent client mail or a ton of corporate work with a deadline is different from looking for someone to translate their website or something else that can wait. Also, they may still respect your professional standing despite needing you to be responsive and even somewhat flexible at times, as they themselves often take responsive and flexible to an extreme, even as highly valued and highly compensated specialists in their own field.

They need you to be faithful and exacting. What linguists may refer to as 'clumsy syntax' is often there for a reason. Style — while important (we'll get there later) — takes precedence after fidelity and content. They don't want you to be streamlining the things which you consider redundant. Lawyers are also linguists in their own way, and they are acutely aware of the different shades of meaning in words and phrases which most linguists normally consider interchangeable. They also tend to be conscious writers, and so you can presume that whether they repeat something ten times over or distinguish it they know what they are doing.

They need really good QA from you. No wrong numbers, no cross-translations (e.g. Buyer and Seller getting mixed up), no missing or added negations (which happens to tired translators), no confirming of 95% after nary any reading (which happens to translators who are trying to be too fast), nothing should be missing and nothing should be added, either. In case of doubt, ask the lawyers (and better sooner than later). The good news is that you can probably charge them appropriately for the QA because they of all people understand the importance of it. They probably know first hand how exhausting and ungrateful a task it can be — they are writers, after all.

They need consistency. This is a matter of both QA and fidelity. Those CAT tools you have will prove useful, but you may still need to look things up depending on how segmentation works in your CAT tool. For the record, you can probably mention your CAT tool as an asset (and mention that it wasn't freeware).

They need you to ask them rather than taking risks. Okay, some lawyers can be rude if they think you should know the answer, but feel free to ask them what happened the last time a translator didn't ask but decided to figure out the points of law on his or her own. When asking questions you can use the opportunity to reinforce your professional image much like doctors do, which lawyers themselves are learning to copy. They also need you to ask them sooner than later.

They need you to be tolerant of legalese. One translator will not change what generations of lawyers have passed on to their successors. Keep the campaigning for conferences, blogs, even your head-to-head time with your lawyer client in a more relaxed atmosphere. But not when the clock is ticking and the firm is a besieged city (you can tell from the size and deadline of the job among other clues). On the other hand, simple language should stay simple. It's probably simple for a reason.

Finally, they need you to keep your imagination in check. This relates to fidelity and to asking them questions. Research the subject, look things up, ask the lawyers, but no guessing, no hit or miss attempts, no reinventing the wheel (unless what you're doing for them is a marketing job). Rather, the outlet for your creativity should be in seeking ways to preserve equivalence.

What about style?

I mentioned style in the beginning. Strong writing skills and a good style are a valuable asset for a legal translator to have. This holds true especially for letters, correspondence, articles, memos for clients, not to mention the lawyers' websites and marketing materials that you translate. If you can deliver legal writing on par with the best of them, then you will be a gem among translators as far as they go. However, when in doubt you should be simple and clear. Don't start what you can't finish. Again, no letting your imagination out of control. Also, lawyers may already know how to edit a layman's writing for style and lingo, and they have likely been editing their own sidekicks and assistants for quite a while (junior lawyers, secretaries, paralegals, possibly even some of their clients).

While not being a necessity, good legal style can be a boon to any firm which takes its image seriously. While at it, you can probably offer some educational and consulting services or just informally coach your lawyer clients who communicate in their non-native languages. Lawyers tend to be smart and dedicated learners. Also, if they remember you as the guy (or gal) who facilitated their success (e.g. by coaching them up on the writing they use to make or keep clients), they will have a harder time replacing you with someone who is cheaper (or a senior partner's cousin or a translation agency who is a client).

As for where to start working on your style, I'll write more about that some time next month.

How else can I benefit from what I've just read?

In consideration of your staying with me and not falling asleep by now, I thought it would be a good idea to let you know that you can use this knowledge in building a good rapport with your current and prospective lawyer clients. If you show them that you understand their problems, you will have a better chance convincing them that you can solve those problems. If you prefer to — and know how to — switch your presentation from problems to challenges or opportunities, then all the better, but you still need to understand them. In any case, come with knowledge and use that knowledge to solve their problems and facilitate their opportunities. And feel free to come up with other things you can solve or facilitate for them — my list is not exhaustive.

Okay, I am a legal translator with some experience, I know this stuff, how do I put my point across?

I'm not a marketing person, but if you have no better idea by now, you can even do something simple like:

As a law practitioner you [need/require/face/value/appreciate/must have/depend on/can't live without/absolutely can't live without]. (...)
As [a qualified/experienced/seasoned/aspiring] legal translator I [know/understand/provide/facilitate/can (...)/cause/make sure] (...).

Thereafter you can follow with an innovative approach and phrase your value proposition more along the lines of: 'I [help/assist/enable/facilitate – adjust your grammar] lawyers do X (for their clients) by doing Y (for them).' You can even insert a why or how, or both, before you say what you help them do. But be brief. You don't have infinite time, and lawyers don't have infinite time spans. If you'd like to find out more about how to say all this in a short time, you can read my Proz.com article about elevator speech. The article references sources where I got the idea from, which is potentially a lot of reading and watching material if only you're interested. And no, none of that material was authored by me, I'm a green rookie compared to those guys. I'd be like a paralegal in a partners' meeting if I tried to keep up with them.

Please feel free to share this article with fellow current and aspiring legal translators or those who consider transitioning into the field (bloggers feel free to repost this with a simple acknowledgement of the source). It is important for me that lawyers have good translation service, which is also crucial to their clients' receiving good legal assistance. Plus, it's important for that legal translators know how to present their case adequately (or better) and win the hearts of their lawyer clients.