We also know that offering legal aid to your clients makes the legal system more open and accessible to all those who need it, and we fully support this; which is why we provide LAA-specific rates for legal aid cases requiring translation.
In this article, we’ll discuss our approach to providing legal translation at LAA rates, and how Sure Languages has earned its place as a trusted provider of legal translations.
The challenge of legal aid
We know that as a law professional working on a legal aid case, you may be encountering sensitive information and challenging or distressing circumstances. You may also have to wait some time before receiving the relevant funds for the case from the Legal Aid Agency, or other funding body. On top of all that, you could be working long and unsociable hours, with a heavy caseload, as highlighted by the 2021-22 House of Commons Justice Committee report, The Future of Legal Aid. These challenges should not then be compounded by struggling to source reliable and cost-effective translation.
If, for example, you’re dealing with a child protection case for a family where one or both parents do not speak English as their native language, you may need their testimonials translated into one or more different languages. In past cases of a similar nature, we’ve been approached to provide legal translations for common UK community languages such as Urdu, Somali or Polish, but many other languages too. These translations have been crucial in ensuring all parties involved in a case are able to read and understand the legal implications of a situation in their native language.
In cases of child protection, ensuring that the child in question receives the support and care they need may hinge on the provision of timely and accurate translations. This is where Sure Languages can help.
Fixed rates for LAA-funded translation
Translation usually attracts different per word rates depending on the language combination. With legal aid funded translation, all work must be carried out at 10p per source word. We also use the latest translation memory technology to identify repeated words or phrases within the text, and then discount accordingly for these repetitions, further reducing the cost of the work.
We take data protection very seriously, and any documents you share with us will be treated in the strictest confidence. We’re also serious about paying our professional translators fairly for their work, which is why we’re a registered living wage employer: so you can rest assured that when you reach out to us for LAA-funded translation, everyone who works on your project will be paid fairly.
A trusted legal translation provider
We know that legal aid exists to support the most vulnerable people in our society, and we are proud to play a small part in this system, through offering reduced rates for LAA translation. Over the years, we have worked with many legal clients on civil, criminal, family and immigration cases, to name a few.
We guarantee a smooth and efficient service, meeting all your legal translation needs and ensuring that the multilingual communication required for your case is handled professionally and swiftly. Our legal aid translation services are available in over 100 languages, and we only ever work with professionally qualified, native linguists who are highly experienced in the legal domain. Our legal clients return to us case after case for their translation needs, because they know and trust our services.
Edinburgh, Exeter and beyond
We support solicitors and law firms throughout the UK with their legal translation needs, from our Exeter and Edinburgh offices. From these two bases, we also work on legal translations for several European and international clients. We also provide certified translations for legal and official use.
Legal language matters
For the uninitiated, legal language can seem completely impenetrable. Our team knows that when you ask for a quote for an LAA translation, real people with pressing issues in difficult situations will be impacted by the quality of our work. Our talented human linguists will help ensure that your clients, and any other involved parties, are provided with crystal-clear information.
The Plain English Campaign argues that “if we can’t understand our rights, we have no rights”. This rings equally true for non-native speakers of English, for whom accurate translations are paramount in any legal situation within the UK.
There when you need it most
Sure Languages understands that ordering a legal translation can be an urgent situation. If you are suddenly presented with a private family law LAA case of child abduction, and you need professional translations of a witness statement with a quick turnaround time, it can be difficult to know who to ask.
We always aim to reply to quote requests within a few minutes, so even if you’ve not contacted us for a while or you’ve never worked with us before, you’ll receive a prompt reply to your enquiry. We will help you understand how long the project will take and how much it will cost, and we can offer expert advice on language variants and dialects. All of our quotes are provided free of charge, with no obligation to proceed unless you’re entirely happy.
Contact us about your LAA translation needs, we’ll be happy to advise.
