Make Contract Translation More Efficient With These 5 Tips…
Operational Excellence is often thought as an area dedicated to manufacturing, healthcare, or financial services… have you thought about its relevance beyond that? Contract translation is another field where Opex is more than relevant… and here is why.
When working with multiple languages in global markets, legal contracts are a critical tool for businesses. Accurate translations into local languages that take into account the precision of legal terminology and understanding of local contract law are a must. Contracts provide clarity, and even a minor error in translation can lead to significant misunderstandings as well as costly mediation and legal complications.
Fortunately, language service providers (LSPs) offer specialized services in the legal field. Professional translators with contract translation experience can help avoid unnecessary miscommunications and legal costs. This high level of service does come at a price, but you can minimize those costs and boost efficiency by keeping the following ideas in mind:
Keep It Simple
By their nature, contracts are often cluttered with legal jargon that can confuse people in their own language. This terminology can further complicate accurate translations into another language. Keeping your contracts in “plain language”–simple and straightford–not only maintains clarity, but also makes the translation process faster and cheaper. This is common sense, one of the basic principle of Operational Excellence.
Choose Useful Legal Terms
The legal profession often utilizes traditional terminology called “legalese”when writing contracts. The issue when translating these type of word-choices arises when no real equivalent words exist in the local language or they don’t have the same meaning. Avoiding this terminology whenever possible can make for clearer communication and reduce translation errors.
Sometimes standard or traditional terminology is unavoidable or even desirable. Regardless, as you write your contracts, make sure you minimize use of these terms as much as possible. It will make for faster translations and clearer understanding.
Use Standardized Contract Models
Different legal systems often have different contract formats. The way a contract in the U.S. is organized might be completely different than a German contract. By understanding the expectations in the local market, you can create your contract documents to meet those expectations for better translation.
By creating contract models with the local jurisdiction in mind, you can save time and money on translation costs on standard sections. When reviewing your contract language from this perspective, you can then focus on those sections that do require a more critical eye for clarity.
This standardization sticks very much to the Operational Excellence mindset, in the 5S tool, which can become a management technique.
Use Translation Memory Tools
Many LSPs use translation memory for ease and speed of translation. Translation memory works by capturing and storing translations into a database for future use. It is particularly useful for standard text sections that appear again and again in contracts as translation memory provides consistency of translation. Additionally, it reduces costs by eliminating the necessity of re-translating the same material over and over.
Streamline Word Choices
In an effort for precision, contracts often incorporate “doublets”, or words that have the same or similar meaning with a subtle difference. For example, you might see “X is hired, employed and retained”. Ultimately, these repetitions can complicate translation and are usually unnecessary. Reducing this redundancy also reduces costs since LSPs typically charge on per word basis.
In the world of Operational Excellence, similarly, you would learn how to eliminate the wastes.
Save Time Now, Save Money Later
Legal contracts are critical tools for successful business relationships in the global marketplace. When translating contracts into local languages, you want to ensure that they are understandable and enforceable.
Professional language translation firms with expertise in the legal field can help you reduce costs through simplicity and clarity. They can effectively manage future costs through translation memory, and produce high-quality-clear contracts.
By planning ahead and considering the challenges of translations before securing services, you can produce a contract that will reduce your own costs with faster turnaround times, more precise contracts, and clearer communication for all parties involved.
With these 5 tips, highly inspired by the Operational Excellence mindset, you ensure that not only you end up with a clear contract in its original language , but you also make them easy to translate in the future… an indispensable start to grow your business in the interconnected world in which our businesses thrive today.
The Process Excellence String of Ariadne 