There are many standards you can use to gauge a legal translation company. The first and most common one is the number of native speakers as part of their translation company staff. Some providers take pride in the fact that 90 to 100% of their staff are native experts. But check some customer reviews to know whether or not they currently hold that composition of staff.
It does happen that staff leave translation services every now and then. And it’s an industry standard that they will deploy staff with three to five years of impressive track records to cater for your assignment. However, sometimes being a native speaker alone does not suffice in translation services – especially when it comes to translation of legal professional translation services documents.
More importantly, your potential translation service provider should have staff/professionals that specialise in the area your documents belong to. For instance, a professional dealing successfully with patents may not have sufficient experience in litigation genre. That’s because the company he worked for used him for solely that field.
So DO NOT jump for a legal translation company just because they have native speaking staff. Legal translation is much more about knowing legal implications than being a master about native flow of language. Always consider sneak-previewing their inner profiles. You can’t afford to put your crucial documents in the wrong hands!
Today, many translation service providers are taking advantage of a worldwide network of translators. So, even a small firm can have the muscles of a big organisation. But you must understand the fact that the muscle or ability of a language translation firm is not in its number of staff or size of office.
Intellectual services are always a question of brainwork. Even one person turns out to be a ‘one man army’ when it comes to brainwork. So try to know whether the legal translation company has staff specialising in that niche in particular. Another sign of a good translation company is that, they won’t stop until you’re satisfied. Some companies would strive to do anything to ensure you are satisfied. And that’s where you get the best value for your money.