Frequently Asked Questions
Is there anything you would like to know about our services or the way we work? Our FAQs section has many answers to commonly asked questions.
Simply click on the question for more information.
We specialise in the German-English / English-German language combination. If your translation or interpreting enquiry is for a different language combination, we will gladly recommend you a professional service provider from among our large network of fellow linguists. As active members of the north German association of professional linguists, ADÜ Nord e.V., we have wide-ranging, long-standing contacts within the language translation and interpreting industry. By the way, you can also perform your own independent search for language service providers at any time, by using the search window on the home page of the www.adue-nord.de website.
After you have sent us your inquiry, the first step is for us to have a joint discussion to determine the precise language services you actually want from us, as well as any necessary additional services that you may need (such as obtaining apostilles or other such documents).
In the case of translations, we will need to see your source materials to enable us to prepare your itemised quotation. Please send us any source materials you have not already submitted. These may be in the form of Word or PDF documents, for example, and you can send them by email or by using our inquiry form. If you wish to use an even more secure form of document transfer, please talk to us.
Once we have thoroughly examined your documents to determine the number of words/lines, degree of difficulty and possible reformatting requirements, we will promptly issue you with an itemized quotation, including your delivery date. Our quotations are issued within one working day, apart from in exceptional individual cases.
For certified translations, we will need to inspect the relevant original document in plenty of time ahead of our own scheduled delivery. We can explain the details of the process to you as part of our contract consultancy service.
Practically all of our language services are in the legal field. We are specially trained in this area, and it’s where we feel truly at home. From our own training and experience, we know that there is hardly any facet of life that does not have some kind of legal connection.
So, we translate materials related to almost every conceivable specialist legal area, even if the focus of much of our work lies in the civil law arena. Our regular project activities involve all types of documents connected with company and commercial law, sales and distribution law, cartel and competition law, real estate law, inheritance law, intellectual property law, employment law, insolvency law and insurance law, litigious and non-litigious, as well as the relevant procedural law.
We are also extremely well-versed in translating materials covered by public law, including the field of criminal law. This particularly includes documents relating to criminal proceedings, as well as administrative procedures of all types, including tax law. Another of our specialities is translating European law documents, especially references for preliminary rulings and conclusions for the Court of Justice of the European Union.
When we encounter extensive, highly specialised texts concerning non-legal disciplines — as sometimes occurs in the schedules and annexes to legal documents, for example — we can turn to fellow professional linguists with the necessary experience and qualifications to help us translate the parts in question. Examples of these specialist non-legal texts include technical and engineering specifications, architectural and building plans, information technology documentation, medical reports, and pharmaceutical protocols.
The time required to complete a translation project depends on a number of factors. Apart from the time needed to complete the actual translation, there are additional and sometimes optional activities to perform, such as file preparation (e.g. file conversion), layout and research activities, proofreading and reviews, the insertion of footnotes and the preparation of copies of official documents.
Because legal texts can indeed be highly specific and have a greater degree of linguistic and substantive density, their level of difficulty is frequently higher, which is something that almost inevitably extends the time needed to complete them. Here at LegalSection, we think that quality assurance is an essential aspect of every project we do, and that unnecessary speed should never take precedence over thoroughness.
This is why we always advise our customers to contact us promptly, and incorporate us into their own work flow at the earliest possible juncture, so that we can schedule their translation requirements and meet their specific requests in the best possible way for them.
Just as with the abstract question about the time needed to complete a translation project, it is likewise impossible to realistically state the concrete costs without first seeing the actual source material. The scope, degree of difficulty, possible special requests and any necessary additional services will vary greatly from one project to the next, and from one customer to the other.
But you can be certain about one thing: we will always make you a fair and attractive offer, and one on which you can rely. We base the billing and actual fees for our translation and interpreting services on the invoicing system and charging framework described in the German Judicial Remuneration and Compensation Act (the JVEG). Additional services are generally charged according to the time expended and based on standard hourly rates for freelancers. If you every require any further details, we will give you all the information you need as part of our free, no-obligation contract consultancy service.
Any more questions?
We will be happy to answer them.
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