Why machine translation is a risk
for legal documents

In today’s digital era, machine translation offers a fast and easy way to translate texts from one language to another. Its popularity is growing, especially thanks to the availability of free online translators such as Google Translate or DeepL.

While these tools can be useful for everyday use, they pose serious risks in the case of legal documents. Why is that?

1. Lack of legal context

Legal documents often contain technical terms that may have a specific meaning in a highly specialised field such as law. Machines are often unable to understand context and may therefore misinterpret certain expressions, leading to mistranslations. For example, the word “consideration” has a specific meaning: a promise bargained for by a promisor in exchange for their own promise. A machine could easily assign a different meaning to it.

2. Accuracy of translation is key

In legal documents, every word is important and any inaccuracy can have serious consequences. Machine translation algorithms may not always select the appropriate equivalent in the target language correctly, especially for more complex sentences. An incorrect translation can change the meaning of the translated document, which can lead to financial losses or even litigation.

3. Human review is irreplaceable

A professional “human” translator uses their knowledge of the legal system and specific terminology, while a machine works with machine learning algorithms that try to interpret meaning on the basis of large language models, which can lead to errors and mistranslations. Moreover, a qualified translator understands the subtle nuances, ensures that the translation is not just a literal rewording of the text, and that it also preserves the legal meaning of the document.

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4. Risk of losing credibility

Legal documents often contain sensitive information that must remain confidential. Using free online machine translation tools puts you at risk of misuse of this information, as the data to be translated is stored on the providers’ servers and used in the further training of these systems.

With us, you don’t have to worry. The contents of your documents are safe in our hands. We have several internal processes and control mechanisms in place to avoid data leakage. Nothing of this sort has happened in the two decades of our company’s existence. What do we do for clients in terms of security?

In conclusion

Although machine translation is a useful tool for many informal texts, its use in legal documents poses a risk. To ensure accuracy, confidentiality and correct understanding, it is best to entrust the translation of legal documents to experts, i.e. translators with knowledge of legal terminology and context.

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