When someone asks you to translate three hundred standard pages of text and writes: “The deadline is in three days.”, your first reaction is usually silence. 😅
A couple of years ago, we received a request of this type from a law firm. They sent us extensive documentation for the purposes of legal proceedings related to a claim worth several million euro. These were hundreds of pages of correspondence, invoices, contracts, internal memos and financial documentation which had to be translated from English to Croatian.
And not just translated.
When precision is not optional, but essential
There is no room for improvisation in legal translations. One mistranslated phrase can change the meaning of the entire document and thus affect the related proceedings. The deadlines are short, the pressure is enormous, and precision is absolutely essential.
We knew that this was not a project a single person could take on by themselves, regardless of their experience. Within a few hours, we formed a team of four translators and organized our work in the manner of a small “emergency headquarters”.
Project-saving organization
We divided the project according to thematic units and prepared a joint glossary of legal and financial terms, in order to fully harmonize the terminology across all the three hundred standard pages.
This included:
✔️ the division of documents according to types of content;
✔️ the harmonization of terminology in real time;
✔️ regular cross-checks;
✔️ multiple consistency checks and
✔️ the final review of all the translated material.
Three days under maximum pressure
For three days, we communicated nonstop, amidst jugs of coffee, CAT tools and dozens of files open on the screen at the same time, and never-ending discussion regarding every nuance of meaning.
We vividly remember when, in the late evening hours, we discussed whether to translate a phrase in English as “potraživanje”, „tražbina” or „novčani zahtjev”, considering that this phrase was crucial for the context of the dispute. Although seemingly irrelevant, details like this distinguish a high-quality legal translation from an “average” translation.
The result had to be flawless
The translations were delivered on time, the deadline was honored without compromising quality.
After the completion of the project, we were left not only with a sense of relief, but also, with a confirmation of the importance of:
— organization,
— confidence in the team,
— terminological accuracy
— and the ability to perform well under pressure
for translation work.
Behind the curtains of a translation project
Translation is often thought to be little more than “converting text from one language to another”. In reality, strategy, coordination, experience and extraordinary levels of focus are often behind the success of large translation projects.
This is why we never forget projects like that.