Before focusing on why effective legal transcription services are important, it’s necessary to understand what a legal transcriptionist is, what it aims for, and what its general concept is.
It’s also called legal translation. The simple name will surely resonate in your mind and give you an idea of what it’s all about, but now you can check if your thoughts are correct.
A legal transcriptionist’s purpose is to legally translate a legal document from one language to another. This legal document can be public or private. In both cases, extreme care must be taken to avoid errors that could lead to legal problems.
What does it take to perform an effective legal transcription?
After understanding this section, you might think that effective legal transcription only requires a knowledge base in two languages. That’s not the case!
Linguistic mastery is essential, so why deny it? It could be one of the pillars for beginning the task. But it’s not everything. Even being an expert in translations won’t be enough.
In this case, it’s necessary to have a thorough understanding of the legal systems involved in the transcription process. These are those of the original text and the country of the translated language.
Each is handled similarly, but with certain differences that only an expert in the subject can fully verify.
How complex is this procedure?
If we look at it from the perspective of anyone attempting to draft these documents, the difficulty level will likely be enormous. Chances are, they’ll find it impossible to complete the task.
Why? Because the texts are written by a legal assistant, not only in writing, but also in legal matters.
But not just any lawyer, a paralegal, or virtual assistant for lawyers could be assigned a role like this, as it requires other skills, such as those we have described above. A high level of understanding of legal terms is needed, which, for obvious reasons, are not used by everyone on a daily basis.
So, how complex is this procedure?
It’s very difficult for those not immersed in the law. They may not be able to complete the task. For lawyers who are familiar with legal terms and know how to write transcripts properly, it will be straightforward (although the turnaround time depends on the number of texts to be translated).
What is the true importance of effective legal transcription services?
This type of translation won’t seem so important for those who haven’t had the opportunity to deal with legal matters. But if you’re reading this article, it’s probably because you’ve been told to find a good legal transcriber.
Of course, he’s an important figure in the field of law. Thanks to his work, he can adequately analyze, transform, and interpret any text submitted to him.
But, of course, this won’t be just any text. We’re talking about drafts embedded in contracts, judgments, lawsuits, and any other document in this field.
The legal context of these elements, including every word within them, is of utmost importance in effective legal transcription. The terms typically used in these cases are very different from those used in, for example, a civil lawsuit.
Every detail, no matter how small, counts a lot.
Depending on the language used, each phase of the legal process may require the correct use of terms. Once the process has begun, this cannot be ignored.
Something that, at first glance, seems as simple as this isn’t entirely so. The terms used in the phases of a commercial process differ from those in this case.
Knowing the right words to address the context of the message is important, but maintaining the text’s central idea is vital, and not every legal translator can achieve this.
In this sense, just one word misplaced can cause serious problems that could even affect a case’s final decision.
This is why it’s not enough to simply carry out the translation task without much care. The person in charge needs to review a document as many times as necessary, part by part, to minimize potential errors.
So, we can say, in general terms, that the importance we’re talking about lies in the translator’s knowledge and experience, but also in the details, care, and level of responsibility they have.