Legal translation is the procedure of translating a text or document from one language to another, respecting its legal background and purpose. In most cases, contracts, court judgements, legal statements, civil status affidavits and educational certificates, licenses, power of attorney etc. need accurate translation understanding the legal importance of the content, to serve a valid purpose or a legal procedure. It demands high precision and accuracy from the translators considering the cultural and contextual denotations.
Since proper understanding of a text and its context is very crucial, legal translators must have deep knowledge of the source language as well as the target language. They should possess research skills and aptitude to understand the terminologies and should do the work with due diligence. Any ambiguity or misinterpretation will lead to troubles and may have legal implications. Only translator approved by Ministry of Justice are allowed to practice this profession in UAE as is the case in many other countries.
Alif global has experienced in-house legal translators, approved by Ministry of Justice in the UAE for the language pair Arabic to English and vice versa.
Documents can be for personal, corporate, or formal purpose. However, for a document to be legally valid, it should be issued from an official authority, sometimes in letterheads or with stamp and signature. The document should carry attestations if the document is issued by a foreign agency and is intended to be submitted inside UAE. In such cases the documents should carry attestation from Foreign Affairs Department of the issuing country, in addition to the stamp and signature of UAE embassy there, OR from the Consulate of the issuing country inside UAE, and then the stamp and signature from Ministry of Foreign Affairs in UAE.
Similarly, if a document issued inside UAE is supposed to be taken outside the country for an official purpose, it should be attested by the embassy of the concerned country here, and from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in UAE. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Embassies, Consulates and the Notary public are the attestation agencies authorized by governments to certify the validity of a document, in most of the countries.
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is the licensing authority that monitors and approves the works produced by legal translators.