SpanishLegalTranslation

Do the children really receive this?

2009-10-13T09:56:00.000-07:00

I have come across this wording in several Mexican divorce decrees where the family property goes to the children. I wonder if the children become the legal owners of the house or if this is just a way to phrase that the children are guaranteed that this property will be kept for their benefit so that they will always have a place to live.

Take a look and let me know what you think. Meanwhile, I'll do some research of my own.

Take one...or two for the road while you're at it

2009-10-05T12:05:00.000-07:00

Do you ever get the feeling that legal translations revolve around a single term or phrase, or several variations thereof? Take the word Tribunal. I regularly come across Juzgado de Primera Instancia, " de Letras. Or how about types of agreements, or types of tax?

What I like to do when I look up a dictionary entry that has several sub-entries with the same noun, such as the ones I gave as examples, is enter the whole list into my terminology database. Yes, I know it can be tedious, as there can be long (and I mean long) lists for certain key terms, but believe me, it will be worth the effort. A time will come when you can consult the terminology database on your computer and rarely have to go to your bookshelf or an online search.

I wish that I were twins

2009-09-29T15:49:00.000-07:00

So goes the title of a jazzy and carefree tune. I was just translating a Honduran birth certificate, and it has a spot for the registrant's order in a multiple birth. Not to split hairs here, but if you are a twin, are you not born in a certain order without being a party to a multiple birth? I take multiple to mean three or more. I guess I was born to contemplate these issues.

CAT meets PDF

2009-09-28T12:14:00.000-07:00

MemoQ is one CAT that makes a tasty meal out of PDF files. It is the only CAT that I know and trust that will successfully import PDF files* without a hitch. You may have to do some post-processing once you export the translated file, but you save yourself the hassle of doing any conversion before translation.

*Any document that was converted to PDF, not as scanned images.

If you can teach it, then you must know it.

2009-09-17T12:30:00.000-07:00

Are any of you teachers as well as translators? If you have done any language teaching to any extent, you will know that in order to teach a concept, however complex or simple, you must "know what you are talking about". Otherwise, how can you expect some one else to learn what you are teaching?

This reminds me of a college German course I took several years ago. The professor made groups of students teach grammar points to the rest of the class. I then realized how much I needed to know in order to teach.

An ideal situation for a budding legal translator would be to teach or perhaps coach an attorney in the translator's target language. By correcting the student's mistakes and helping him or her to express him or herself with legal terminology, the translator would get closer to his or her role as a legal specialist.

No es descabellada

2009-09-16T17:55:00.000-07:00

¿Están cansados de descifrar esos documentos escaneados y en estado regular y tener que preocuparse de no saltar ninguna línea? ¿Preferirían el ronroneo de una aplicación CAT a sus gruñidos y quizás otros ruidos de insatisfacción?

¿Alguna vez han intentado tipear un documento PDF en un archivo Word (al no ser posible pasarlo por una aplicación OCR) para luego ingresar el documento a una herramienta CAT? Yo, al principio de mi vida de traductor lo hacía a modo de ejercicio.

Sin embargo, siento que tipear el documento origen entero antes de traducirlo en una aplicación CAT es como hacer el trabajo dos veces. Seguramente hay una mejor forma de lograrlo.

Y bueno, la hay... Supe hace poco que hay servicios de secretariado en distintos rincones del planeta que ofrecen tipear tus documentos, ya sean en español o inglés. Esto obiveamente significa gastar parte de sus ganancias en este servicio. Pero por otro lado, tendrán más tiempo para estar con la familia o para esas queridas tareas administrativas que, por alguna razón, siempre se postergan.

Si deciden contratar este servicio, procuren borrar cualquier número de fax del cliente y averiguar los términos de confidencialidad con la empresa que recibe este tipo de trabajos.

U.S. citizens living in Mexico

2009-09-14T17:40:00.000-07:00

When speaking of U.S.-Mexican immigration, the migratory direction is predominantly from South to North. I for one, have always heard of and talked to Mexican immigrants in the United States. I had never heard of or even thought about U.S. citizens emigrating to Mexico. But it does happen!

I translated a DIF (Desarrollo Integral de la Familia)document in which an American woman and her child were living in Tijuana and the mother wanted to take her child back to San Diego. However, as her American husband in San Diego was abusive, it was necessary for DIF to step in and visit her and write a report (which is what I translated).

Some years back, I was talking to a Mormon who said that there are Mexican Mormons - English speaking U.S. citizens who lived in Mexico many years ago and are allowed to move freely across the border. Upon further reading, I learned that they moved there to escape prosecution for being polygamists.

Of course in Northern Mexico there are people of Mexican parentage who were born in the United States and therefore have dual citizenship, as there are many Mexican citizens living in the Southwestern United States.

Proofreading the work of others

2009-08-28T12:13:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know that proofreading and editing (two different kinds of work but often grouped together) legal texts is tedious and many times not worth the effort. It is much harder to know how long it will take you to proofread a document than to translate. It all depends on how many mistakes there are and whether or not you have to check it against the original source language document. It can also be boring when you have to check for properly formatted numbers, and it can grate on your nerves when you see horrendous mistranslations that make you want to scream like sentence for sentencia or Secretary for Secretario (del Juzgado).

Though I deny none of this, I think that if you are not too busy with translation work, it is good to squeeze in some proofreading from time to time. Even if the translation is terrible, you will find out how much you really know. You will always see terms and phrases you would have translated differently. On occasion, you will learn new strategies for translating a certain concept or expression. That is when you should immediately copy both source and target snippets into your terminology database.

As for the business angle, though it is good to specialize, it is also of great use to develop as many skills as you can so that you will be ready for almost any task sent your way.

Off Topic: I had a good laugh!

2009-08-27T12:52:00.001-07:00

The other day I was working away, thinking about finishing the task at hand so I could relax. It was a document with lots of numbers and accounting. All of a sudden, I came across the heading ORGASMOS PUBLICOS. I stared at the words for a minute and then just started laughing. These are things that make translating priceless!

Legal Fiction

2009-08-13T15:37:00.000-07:00

I am always skeptical about terms whose English translation looks too obvious. From experience, I have learned that a translator can never be too careful about double checking a translation against a reliable source.

So I was surprised to learn that the term ficción legal is indeed legal fiction. Indeed, there is nothing fictional at all about this concept, except of course the fabrication that gives legal fiction its name. The Oxford Concise Dictionary defines it as: an assumption of the truth of something, though unproven or unfounded, for legal purposes.

A few weeks later after I came across this term in a translation, I heard a lecture on it by Professor David Liebermann at UC Berkley by way of a podcast. Professor Lieberman gave the institution of adoption as an example of legal fiction. The law says that a person is the child of a couple, when biologically this is not so. Nevertheless, the adopted child is legally kin, hence the use of the word fiction.

Testing BlogJet

2009-07-30T17:01:00.001-07:00

I have installed an interesting application - BlogJet. It's a cool Windows client for my blog tool (as well as for other tools). Get your copy here: http://blogjet.com

"Computers are incredibly fast, accurate and stupid; humans are incredibly slow, inaccurate and brilliant; together they are powerful beyond imagination." -- Albert Einstein

Universal Class

2009-07-24T08:03:00.000-07:00

Taking an online class is one way to increase your knowledge of a particular subject without leaving the comforts of your own home. You can study at your own pace according to your schedule. I just finished my last test for my Legal Terminology 101 class at Universal Class. The course covered areas such as family law, corporations, bankruptcy, contracts and wills, each within the context of the U.S. legal system. Despite having dealt with some of these terms for many years in translations, I learned nuances that had never occurred to me before. I feel that the course has helped me to understand what is behind the meaning of the terms I translate, which is my ultimate goal. In addition, I am going to continue to review these terms and use them as a springboard for further studies in the years to come.

Please click here if you would like to see the certificate I was awarded.

Legal Size It

2009-07-23T14:26:00.000-07:00

Don't you hate it when you have to fiddle with font sizes so that the target text will fit on one page so that it matches the source text layout? I have been translating long enough to be able to gauge what font size to use in order to accomplish this task. One trick I use is to make the page a little longer. In Microsoft Word, go to File, Page Setup and click on the Paper tab. In my version of Word it says Oficio which, of course is Spanish for legal size. You can even set up a template that is already legal size so that you won't have to click through the menus every time you want to make this choice.

View your files side by side

2009-07-20T16:24:00.000-07:00

Some time ago, I had downloaded Accelman by Flexigensoft as a Giveaway of the Day. Besides being a handy file manager and audio and video player, it also has a built-in image/PDF viewer and text editor. Believe it or not, you can have an image viewer in one pane and edit an .rtf or .txt file in the other. This means that you can view image files and type the translation on the same screen without having to fiddle with two different windows. When I returned to the Flexigensoft website, I was surprised to learn that all Flexigensoft software is free. All you have to do is download the license key.

¡Te lo doy firmado!

2009-07-13T15:55:00.000-07:00

Después de traducir cientos de documentos legales, vale decir documentos notariales y judiciales uno empieza a fijarse en todo. Algo curioso que se repite en todos aquellos documentos es la forma de las firmas. Yo, por ejemplo cuando firmo un documento, firmo mi nombre más o menos como lo escribo en letra imprenta, solo que resulta algo más ilegible. Se pueden distinguir mi nombre y apellido por separado. En España y en Latinoamérica, sin embargo, la firma de uno se convierte en un símbolo, y como tal guarda quizás una semejanza simbólica al nombre y apellido del dueño de la firma. Lo otro que salta a la vista es que las firmas generalmente tapan parcialmente o el texto o algún sello o timbre, seguramente para hacer el documento aún mas "oficial".

Quick and easy templates

2009-07-08T17:33:00.000-07:00

I know that you can set up templates in Word, but I find the process somewhat complicated and unnecessary. What I like to do is create a Templates folder and fill it with translated files that have repetitive text (CAT tools are out of the question because the source texts are scanned image files). I also create blank Word files with just the formatting in them. Examples of these are: Arial 11 letter size, Courier New 12 legal size. Then I make them read only files so that they are not accidentally modified or deleted.

To do this, right click on the file in Windows Explorer and then select Properties. Then check the Read Only box. Now your template is ready to go! When you want to use a template, go through the same steps you took to make it read only, except this time, uncheck the read only box.

Lien II

2009-07-07T15:17:00.001-07:00

No, I did not mean for this post title to be a pun. I am too sheltered to do that. I guess it comes from working with so many words.

I just wanted to warn translators of another lien situation that may arise with agencies if you are not careful. Let's say you had a bad day and you did not translate a document the way you should have or you ventured into unfamiliar territory; or perhaps the agency's client just didn't like the way you used a certain word. Under certain circumstances, an agency can use the amount of outstanding invoices as a nonconsensual lien as compensation for your unsatisfactory work (whether real or perceived). The agency may withhold part or all of the money due to you. Whether or not this is a good business practice is definitely a matter to be debated. However, if you the translator are at fault in any way, it is difficult, often not worth the time and effort, to dispute this lien.

There are three ways of minimizing this risk. 1) Always do your best work. Check and double check. 2) Choose reputable agencies to work for. The ProZ Blue Board is a good place to check agencies' reputations. 3) Do not accept lengthy payment terms. Try to shoot for 45 days after issuing the invoice at the latest.

Lien on me!

2009-07-07T05:54:00.000-07:00

No legal term is clearer to me than those that describe situations that I have been in. I had always heard the word lien mentioned here and there. I knew from an early age that it was pronounced like the word lean but spelled differently. I had a foreboding ring to it, but I was never able to pinpoint its definition. Now, I am more than certain about what a lien is.

The Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary defines a lien as "A charge upon real or personal property for the satisfaction of some debt or duty ordinarily arising by operation of law." The Spanish word for lien is gravamen or derecho de retención.

And now for my own lien experience: When my wife and I bought a house a little over a year ago in Santiago, the former owner assured us that there were no debts, liens and no encumbrances on the property. He did mention that he had previously hooked up piped natural gas to the house and had subsequently disconnected it. Now there is a tank outside that needs to be filled by a truck every so often. There was mention of an outstanding debt to the gas company, but that this matter was in litigation.

Not so. The gas company called us and sent us notices. The current owner of the property was, unfortunately, the current debtor. So instead of letting the interest accumulate, we paid off the debt. End of story. There is nothing better than reality to learn about the law.

Translation Source on Twitter

2009-07-06T15:34:00.001-07:00

Translation Source is a solid, professional translation agency based in Houston, Texas. The Spanish<>English pair is one of its specializations. I recommend the Translator Source tweets on Twitter as they include legal and cultural issues that will be of interest to Spanish legal translators. You can sign up for them here.

RSS now available for Legal Spanish Translation

2009-07-02T14:59:00.001-07:00

Some of this blog's readers were asking how to subscribe to an RSS feed. Now this is possible by simply clicking on the orange button near the top of the page.

Word games

2009-07-02T14:31:00.001-07:00

Is it just me, or do all translators enjoy playing with words? I used to know someone back in college who would start a conversation with: "Let's talk about ____ " It could be any word, like trees, for instance. Then I would say something like "Trees have green leaves." and this person would add: "The leaves fall off in the fall", and the game would go on like that until there was nothing left to say.

Not too long ago, I started a similar game, only it is work-related, and I use dictionaries. Take a legal word like encumbrance. The dictionary says: "Any claim or restriction on a property's title." Now I find a word in the definition I either don't know or am drawn to. Let's look up claim: "A demand for money or other relief." And then I might look up demand or relief, and so on.

Has anyone else done this? Are there any variations you would like to suggest?

¡El que pestañea no pierde!

2009-06-25T13:14:00.001-07:00

...De hecho gana a mi modo de ver las cosas con respecto a los archivos PDF (¿Dónde estaríamos nosotros los traductores jurídicos sin este archiconocido formato informático?). Me explico: Adobe Acrobat Reader está en todas partes, y desde luego tiene su brillo, pero encuentro que ocupa mucha memoria RAM y que esta eternamente actualizándose. Por eso es que yo he optado por desinstalarlo e instalar Foxit Reader. Foxit Reader tiene todas las funcionalidades de Adobe Reader más pestañas. Así no tienes todos tus PDFs abiertos en un solo lugar.

The semicolon; a great invention

2009-06-08T16:21:00.000-07:00

What I am about to write is a generalization. From years of observation, I can say that simply put, Spanish uses long sentences and English uses short sentences. Of course, I could give you concrete examples to prove the contrary. Jorge Luis Borges writes in short sentences, and Charles Dickens writes in long sentences.

Now that I have given you the long and the short of it, I want to introduce my friend the semicolon to you. It is not a period, yet it is not a comma. It is a marker placed in the middle of the road that says we are taking a different course, but we are not stopping. A slight change of plans, but nevertheless loosely tied to what we were doing before.

Getting back to long Spanish sentences and short English ones, in a marketing text, I have programmed my brain to chop up the translated English sentences at the right junctures; otherwise I would have a word salad on my hands.

Legal Spanish is a different story; it has long, indivisible sentences which, if chopped up by periods, will change the meaning and flow of the text. Many times, the original Spanish document has semicolons that coincide with where a semicolon would be placed in English.

Cómo realizar una búsqueda con dedos flojos

2009-06-04T18:30:00.000-07:00

Es tarde, y tengo bastante que hacer. Sin embargo, quisiera aprovechar este ratito y compartir un descubrimiento con Uds. No es que yo tenga los dedos flojos. Muy al contrario, los tengo veloces y precisos cuando estoy escribiendo, mejor dicho traduciendo. Sin embargo, cuando uno busca un término o frase en, digamos, las respuestas de KudoZ una vez que hayan hecho la búsqueda inicial en el cuadrado del buscador, no es necesario escribir la palabra o frase completa. Si quieren buscar crédito hipotecario, por ejemplo, basta con ingresar Control + F seguido por crédito h o quizás crédito hip.

Lo que me gusta de buscar así, ademas de descansar los dedos un poco, es que suele aparecer otros términos además del término preciso que estoy buscando. Si quiero ver una mayor cantidad de otros términos, uso menos letras en la búsqueda (por ejemplo crédito h o créd).

Y ahora mis dedos van a volver a su tarea de traducir.

Do you align?

2009-06-01T11:31:00.000-07:00

Alignment has always been one of those rainy day activities that I always plan on doing but seldom find the time to. Alignment, for those who are not familiar with it, is the process of taking two texts, one in the source language and the other in the target language, and making a bilingual document out of them. Aligned texts can be useful to translators provided they are high-quality texts and each source segment properly matches its corresponding target segment.

If you use a CAT tool, you probably already own an alignment tool of some sort. I have used the MemoQ and SDLX aligners with some success. What I am not keen on is having to manually match segments as this is time consuming and boring. Logiterm will align texts for you automatically and give you "bitexts" in seconds - all within the Microsoft Word environment. It also comes with a nice little search tool that will quickly and efficiently lead you to the terms and/or phrases you are seeking. Another option is NoBabel. Here, you upload your source and target files and let the site do the aligning for you. The great advantage to this option is that it will convert the aligned text to a downloadable .tmw or .tmx file that you can seamlessly add to your CAT tool. In other words, it is as if you had translated the file yourself in your own translation environment. Each translation unit costs USD 0.02, and new subscribers receive USD 100 free credit.

Legal translators are capable of building voluminous files of aligned text. There are many official documents, in Europe and elsewhere, that are of comparable quality in both languages. Before plunging into the alignment process, it is important to examine both files. Which one was translated into the other language? Is it a good translation? If you find yourself correcting the translation provided, then there isn't much point in using it as a future reference. Are the two documents similar in length and content or are they two distinct versions? If they are not close matches, then they won't be good candidates for alignment. You might extract a few good TM entries, but not much else.