A contract is a promise with money sitting behind it. One side reads English. The other does not. Both still sign the very same meaning. One loose word shifts who pays. Who delivers. Who is free to walk away.
That is the only work this desk does. Law firms send us drafts ahead of a signing date. Directors send NDAs, supply deals and partnership terms. Finance teams send signed agreements across. A lender, a buyer or a judge now needs to read them in a second language.
Our certified legal translation services UK hold your clauses, numbering and defined terms exactly where they sit. Short agreements open at £45 and come back inside two working days. A named linguist signs the certificate when a deal needs proof. Should a solicitor challenge a line, it is corrected at no cost. Nothing is charged until you approve.
Every contract order includes
Deal still being argued over? Send the draft as it stands. We price it now and translate what is settled. Only the clauses that move before signing get updated.
No two agreements carry risk in the same place. An NDA guards a secret. A supply deal guards a delivery date. A lease guards what the occupier owes. Below is what each type is really doing on paper. Against it sits the part that gets read twice over before anything comes back to you.
Short, and usually the first paper a new partner puts in front of you. The risk lives in 2 lines. What counts as secret, and how many years the promise runs.
Read twice: the definition of confidential information and the end date.
Two firms, one new plan, and a long list of who puts in what. Profit splits and exit routes have to read identically on both sides. Otherwise the deal starts arguing with itself a year later.
Read twice: profit share, voting rights and exit clauses.
The paper standing behind every shipment. Delivery windows, penalties and territory limits are numbers and dates. Each is matched against the source before delivery.
Read twice: lead times, penalty sums and territory wording.
What will be done, by when, for how much. Scope lists and payment stages start most cross-border rows. They travel across word for word.
Read twice: scope of work, milestones and payment triggers.
Somebody else may use your brand, software or design. One place only. One purpose. One period. Each of those limits has to survive the move into a new language.
Read twice: licence scope, royalty terms and ownership lines.
Hiring abroad, or moving a director across a border. Staff should read their own terms in their own language. Local labour offices often ask to see them too.
Read twice: notice periods, bonus rules and non-compete limits.
The small print sitting behind every invoice, quote and online order. Buyers abroad refuse terms they cannot read. In several markets the regulator refuses them too.
Read twice: liability caps, returns rules and late-payment terms.
Renting an office, a warehouse or a shop in another country. Rent reviews, repair duties and break clauses decide the true cost. Nothing there gets shortened.
Read twice: rent review, break clause and repair duties.
Letters, settlement terms and claim papers that close an argument rather than open one. These often go straight in front of a judge, so a certificate is standard here.
Read twice: admissions, payment dates and release wording.
Agreements reach us for one of 2 reasons. Either a signature is close, or something has already gone wrong. The two need different things, and they run on different clocks. Below are the moments that push a contract onto this desk. Find yours and you know straight away which level you should be ordering.
Both parties are travelling and the date is fixed. One side still cannot read the draft in front of them.
Their standard conditions arrived in another language. The purchase order is frozen until somebody knows what is in them.
Employment terms have to be readable by the person signing them. Often by the local labour office too.
No one takes on a territory blind. Exclusivity, targets and termination rules get read in their own words.
Foreign-language evidence is going into a bundle. The court needs a complete, certified English version.
During due diligence every agreement gets read for risk. Anything vague is treated as a problem being hidden.
Ask one question before ordering. Who reads this after we hand it back? Your own colleagues, the party signing, a registry, or a judge? That single answer sets the level, and it settles the price with it. Buying more than you need wastes money. Buying less means paying to do the job twice.
An accurate version with nothing stamped on it. Built for your own side while a deal is still moving. No one then signs a draft they only half understood.
Right for:
From £0.10 per word.
The version plus a dated, signed declaration that it is true and complete. It names the linguist who produced it, with our company details printed beneath.
Right for:
From £0.11 per word.
A linguist registered with that country's own courts puts their name to it. Or a notary public witnesses the signature. Several European and Gulf offices refuse anything below this.
Right for:
£75 per document upward.
Pushing your own terms outward is one job. Reading someone else's terms coming inward is another one entirely. The first protects your position abroad, and it moves at your pace. The second protects you at home, usually against somebody else's deadline. Find your side below and see what the work actually involves.
You drafted the agreement. Now a partner abroad has to read it, accept it and sign it. Nobody signs what they cannot fully follow.
How we normally run it:
Give us the signing date up front. It decides whether a stamp is achievable in time. Or whether the meeting shifts.
A supplier, buyer or landlord hands over their standard conditions. All of it in their own language. Before you commit, you need to know precisely what is being agreed.
How we normally run it:
We render what the paper says, not what we think it ought to say. Advice on what it means stays with your own solicitor.
Your agreement always lands on somebody's desk. That reader decides whether it passes or bounces, and they rarely explain their reasoning if it bounces. Listed below are the people who receive our contract work most often. Each is checking for something slightly different. Knowing which of them you are writing for changes what the job needs.
An exhibit in another language needs a complete English version with a signed certificate attached. Judges want all of it, not the helpful parts. See UK court business document translation for bundle rules.
They work clause against clause. Matching numbering saves them hours, which is exactly why paragraphs are never renumbered or merged on our side.
Before advancing against a deal, they read the agreement underneath it. A certified English version is normally written into the release conditions.
Outside Britain a sworn or witnessed signature is frequently the only version taken. That step is arranged before your file ever leaves us.
In due diligence, every agreement in the room is read for exposure. A woolly rendering reads to them like something being kept quiet.
Arbitration panels set their own filing language and their own deadlines. Tell us which body is hearing it and we build to that rulebook.
We are an independent language provider, not a law firm, and we hold no connection to any body listed above. We render what your document says. What it means for you is a question for your own solicitor. Confirm the required format with whoever receives it.
Five stages, and no lengthy setup before the first one. Laying it out matters here. A deal always has a date attached, and that date belongs to somebody else. You should see where your file has reached at any hour of the day. Without having to ask anybody.
Word file if you have one, a scan if you do not. The date on the meeting matters more than the state of the draft.
A short list of defined words is agreed before drafting. That is what stops clause four disagreeing with clause forty.
Splitting a contract between people splits its voice. One person carries it end to end, working into their first language.
Duties, dates, sums and defined words are lined up against the source. Anything ambiguous is queried with you, never guessed at.
Show it to whoever needs to see it. Wording preferences are applied at no charge. Settlement follows approval, never precedes it.
Two agreements of identical length can be quoted very differently. Which pair of languages, which level, how near the signing date: each pulls the number about. So the table marks an opening point per job type, never a final figure. What decides yours is set out just below.
| What You Are Sending | What That Usually Means | Usual Delivery | Rough Guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Short agreement, per document | NDA, letter of intent, one or two page terms | 1–2 working days | £45 / document |
| Standard commercial agreement | Service, supply, partnership or licensing deals | 2–3 working days | £0.10 / word |
| Certified version for filing | Signed declaration for lenders, courts and buyers | 2–3 working days | £0.11 / word |
| Bilingual signing copy | Both languages side by side in one signable file | 3–4 working days | £0.13 / word |
| Sworn or notarised agreement | For notaries abroad, foreign courts and registered deals | 3–5 working days | £75 / document |
| Rush before a signing date | When the meeting or hearing is tomorrow morning | 6–24 hours | £0.15 / word |
| Batch of supplier agreements | Twenty or more contracts sharing the same clause set | Set per project | From £0.08 / word |
A few of these raise the number and a few reduce it. All nine are weighed before any quote leaves this office. That is why a proper price takes 60 minutes to produce. It is equally why the figure holds once quoted.
Measured against the draft you send in, not the version returned to you. Several target languages swell noticeably in translation, and that swelling is not something you should be funding.
Standard clauses you have used before are already settled in our records. A contract that is largely familiar wording prices lower than one drafted from nothing.
Widely worked pairs are cheaper for one plain reason: more qualified legal linguists are available in them. Scarce combinations cost more, and court-registered ones more again.
A reading copy carries nothing. A certificate adds a small step. A sworn or witnessed signature brings a second professional into the job, and their fee with it.
Standard scheduling costs the base rate. Pulling somebody off other work for a same-week meeting costs more. Flexible dates are worth telling us about.
Two columns aligned clause for clause take longer to build than a single-language file. It is still what most cross-border parties prefer to sign.
All figures exclude VAT and are opening rates rather than fixed fees. Notary and legalisation charges are set by those offices, passed on at cost and itemised separately. Framework rates, purchase orders and monthly billing are available to firms sending work regularly.
Both directions, every pair. Below are the languages agreements travel into most often from this desk. Drawn from what actually comes through, not a list of what is possible. Beside each one sits what that market tends to expect of a signed deal, beyond the wording itself.
| Language | What signed agreements in that market usually expect |
|---|---|
| German | Precise drafting, sworn linguist where a deal is registered, bilingual signing copies common |
| French | Local-language version often required by law for consumer and employment terms |
| Spanish | Sworn version for anything reaching a notary, in Spain and across Latin America |
| Arabic | Arabic version usually prevails in Gulf disputes, so both columns must align exactly |
| Chinese | Bilingual contracts are the norm; the governing language clause is read closely |
| Italian | Sworn translation for registered agreements, notary step frequently attached |
| Polish | Employment and distribution terms in Polish for staff and for labour inspections |
| Dutch | Straight certified work accepted; bilingual layout preferred for supply deals |
| Portuguese | Brazil and Portugal follow different conventions, so the target is confirmed first |
| Japanese | Formal register expected, and both versions usually signed side by side |
Also handled regularly: Malay, Ukrainian, Korean, Hungarian, Thai, Norwegian, Czech, Indonesian, Swedish, Turkish, Vietnamese, Romanian, Finnish, Greek, Danish, Russian.
Weak contract work almost never looks weak. It reads smoothly, and it buries the damage inside 2 or 3 lines that nobody slows down for. The 6 below turn up again and again when a client asks us to check something produced elsewhere. Each one is worth knowing before you sign off on anything.
"Shall" and "may" are one letter apart in effort and a world apart in law. Swap them and a firm commitment turns optional, which nobody spots until the day somebody fails to deliver.
If "the Goods" turns into "the Products" by page nine, the agreement now describes two things. An agreed word list locks each defined term from the first page to the last.
Commas and points swap roles between countries, and 03/04 means two different days depending on who is reading. Original formatting stays, with a bracketed note added instead.
Price lists, service levels and product tables sit at the back and get dropped first. They are also, reliably, the section the other party argues about soonest.
Whose law applies, and which court hears it, must survive intact. A loose rendering here can hand a dispute to a forum you never agreed to sit in.
It reads fluently and stays wrong. Engines guess at legal effect. A light polish cannot rescue a clause whose meaning was misread on the first pass.
Rendering a sentence is the simple half. The demanding half is defending that sentence when opposing counsel picks at it. Or when a signing date moves without notice. These are the habits behind that, and the reason most clients stop looking around after one deal.
Defined terms are settled with you at the start, not decided by whoever happens to be typing. It is the cheapest hour anybody spends on a cross-border deal.
Nothing is merged, split or renumbered, however awkward the target language makes it read. Counsel on both sides has to be able to say "clause 7.2" and mean the same thing.
Must, shall, may and will are decided by what they do legally, not by what reads elegantly. Where the source itself is ambiguous, we raise it rather than pick for you.
Divide a contract across a team and its voice fractures halfway through. A single linguist runs it end to end, with a checker behind them rather than beside them.
One file to circulate, one showing exactly what shifted since the last round. Negotiating teams need both, and asking for the second later wastes a day.
We translate; we do not advise. Anything that looks like a drafting problem gets flagged to you and left alone. Pretending otherwise would put your deal at risk, not reduce it.
Written and checked by [Name], [MITI, Dip Trans], Head of Legal Translation at Business Translations UK.
Last reviewed: · Next review: [Month Year]
Real deals we handled, each with the document, the language pair and the days it took. Find the one that looks like your own, so you can measure our timing against your signing date before committing to anything.
All of these were put to us on the phone. Usually with the agreement open on screen, and a signing date somewhere in the week ahead. None of them is a definition. Worry of your own not covered below? Send the file over on WhatsApp, and a reply lands within minutes during working hours.
Whichever one the agreement itself nominates. Most cross-border deals add a short clause saying that, for instance, English governs wherever the two differ. We will place that clause in both versions, though the choice of which language it names belongs to your solicitor.
Yes, and for deals across a border it is the easiest format to execute. Two columns, clause one beside clause one, right through to the signature block. Each party reads their own side and initials the same sheet, so there is no argument about which copy counts.
Wherever they are free, yes, and your agreed word list is held on file regardless. That is why amendment two still sounds like the deal it amends. If your usual linguist is booked, the next one starts from those saved terms instead of from nothing.
Please do, and it is precisely why no payment is taken until you approve. Should your counsel, or the other side's, prefer a different rendering of a legal term, tell us and it changes. Preferences on wording are part of the job, not extra work.
Three people at most: the linguist assigned, the checker behind them, and whoever is running your project. Confidentiality is signed before work begins. Your text never goes near a public engine. Files are held under GDPR rules. Ask for deletion after delivery and you get written confirmation.
Yes, and it is worth doing before anybody signs. Their version is set against the source and every difference in meaning is reported, not merely differences in style. It costs considerably less than a full job and has spared clients from clauses they never agreed to.
Not for most private deals between two businesses. A notary becomes necessary once the agreement is registered somewhere. Or lodged with a foreign office. Or used where local rules demand it. Name the destination and you will get a plain yes or no on that step.
It moves across exactly, with court names left in their original form and explained in brackets. A foreign court is never swapped for a local equivalent, because they are not equivalent. This clause decides where any fight would happen, so it goes through a second review before delivery.
Yes. You can have a clean file, or a marked one showing what moved since the last round. Most negotiating teams ask for both. Send the Word document rather than a PDF and the mark-up carries across properly.
Yes. Court work needs the complete document, a certificate on top, and someone prepared to put their name to it. Give us the hearing date before anything else. A bundle deadline will not shift, so we plan backwards from it rather than forwards from today.
Our role stops at the language and never reaches the law. Nothing on this page advises you about your agreement, your clauses or your exposure. We are linguists rather than lawyers. Take the drafting to a qualified adviser in the country where the contract must work.
Upload the draft and name the day it has to be executed. Back comes the language pair, the level, the figure and a delivery date. Nothing hits your card until the finished agreement has passed through your own hands. You read it and confirm it is right first.