Translation for international litigation: how it works

Situation

A major Ukrainian law firm, cooperating with British colleagues and Ukrainian state bodies, was defending Ukrainian interests in international court proceedings. The filings required translations of a large body of documents: claim materials, rulings, evidence, corporate and financial records.

Task

Translate hundreds of pages at the rhythm the court dictated: some documents arrived urgently, “due yesterday,” others in planned batches. Errors were not an option — in court documents, every term and every figure matters.

How we did it

1. A dedicated team in Trados. A standing group of legal translators and an editor worked from one shared translation memory — the same people handled every batch, so style and terminology never drifted across hundreds of pages.
2. A glossary from day one. Key terms, party names, and court designations were agreed with the lawyers at the start and enforced across every document.
3. Layout mirroring the original one-to-one. A court translation must mirror the document page for page: seals, signatures, stamps, handwritten notes, and numbering all marked and in place. A judge or opposing counsel reads the translation side by side with the source — any formatting mismatch becomes a reason to doubt the accuracy of the whole translation.
4. Delivery in tranches. Large batches were split so the lawyers received the first translated documents while the rest were still in progress. Urgent items shipped the same day.
5. Quality control: editor + Xbench. Beyond the editor’s proofread, every batch ran through Xbench: numbers, dates, amounts, and the spelling of names and party designations were verified automatically across the corpus — exactly where the human eye tires first.
6. Revisions without bureaucracy. When the lawyers asked to align wording with a specific court’s established usage, the change was applied across the entire corpus — not just one file.
7. Confidentiality by default. Materials moved through secure channels, the circle of linguists was restricted, and no case details ever left the project.

Result

Every filing reached its court on time. The cooperation continues: new document batches arrive regularly, and the agreed glossary makes each one faster than the last.

Worth knowing

• In large litigation projects the decisive factor is not one-off speed but a steady rhythm and consistent terminology across hundreds of pages — that is what the glossary and translation memory are for.
• Layout in legal translation is not cosmetics: the translation must match the original one-to-one, page by page, seals and notes included, because it is read next to the source.
• Certification requirements differ between courts and jurisdictions — settle them before translation starts, not after.