How AI Ensures Accuracy in Legal Testimony Translation

December 6, 2024

Legal disputes often hinge on precise language, making accurate translations critical—yet language barriers can complicate even the most straightforward cases. For a multinational law firm managing an international arbitration involving Japan, Germany, and Brazil, the challenge was ensuring that both the source text and translated materials were contextually accurate and legally sound.

To tackle this, the firm turned to Tomedes' new AI translation tools. These advanced tools not only ensured high-quality translations but also helped refine the source text for contextual accuracy. In this article, we’ll explore how the firm leveraged these tools to streamline their workflow, meet stringent legal standards, and deliver exceptional results in a complex, multilingual arbitration case.

The role of AI in meeting the demands of modern legal translation

Translating legal documents demands unparalleled accuracy and precision, a standard that conventional methods often struggle to meet. Legal language is highly complex, with specialized terms carrying specific legal implications.

Traditional translation approaches can result in inconsistencies, errors, and delays—issues that become even more pronounced when managing multilingual content. Additionally, the time-sensitive and confidential nature of legal materials requires solutions that guarantee both efficiency and security.

Advanced AI translation tools tackle these challenges by providing fast, accurate translations while preserving the integrity of the legal content. Recognizing that existing tools fell short in customization and reliability, Tomedes developed its own suite of AI solutions.

These tools enhance the Pre-Translation and Post-Translation processes, ensuring consistent, high-quality translations while streamlining workflows for greater efficiency and precision. Designed to meet the rigorous demands of legal translation, Tomedes' tools are indispensable in today’s fast-paced, globalized legal landscape.

The challenge of multilingual arbitration in complex legal disputes

Law firms face several challenges when translating legal testimony, especially in international arbitration cases. For example, in a dispute involving Japan, Germany, and Brazil, the firm had to translate contracts, witness statements, and arbitration briefs accurately between Japanese, German, Portuguese, and English. Here are the key challenges:

Accuracy and Compliance: Legal translations must be precise to maintain the document's integrity and legal validity.
Time Constraints: Strict deadlines in arbitration cases make timely translations essential to avoid jeopardizing the firm’s strategy.
Confidentiality: Legal documents contain sensitive information, so ensuring data security during translation is crucial.
Consistency Across Languages: Maintaining consistent terminology and style across multiple languages and translators is vital for clarity and coherence.

How Tomedes’ AI tools streamlined the translation of legal documents

One of our anonymous users utilized Tomedes’ AI-powered translation tools to ensure their machine-translated content was accurate and reliable. These tools seamlessly integrated into their workflow, allowing the firm to maintain precision and consistency across multiple languages while adhering to strict legal standards. Below are the AI tools that we offer and how they were used:

Contextual Glossary Creation

Tomedes’ AI-powered Contextual Glossary Generator was a game-changer for they immediately downloaded the results of the glossary. This tool analyzed the source text to identify critical legal terms and phrases, automatically generating a customized glossary for each case.

Here’s an example of how the user utilized the Contextual Glossary Creation tool. Below is a glimpse of what you can expect when your source text is analyzed by this powerful feature:

2. MachineTranslation.com

Using MachineTranslation.com, the firm received rapid initial drafts of their legal documents. Powered by neural machine translation (NMT) technology, this tool provided context-aware translations that preserved the nuances of legal language.

For a more immersive experience with MachineTranslation.com’s platform, click here. The image below will give you a visual walkthrough of how the tool works and how it can streamline your translation process:

The user provided a Hebrew legal document or affidavit as the source text and translated it into English. MachineTranslation.com displayed the source text on the left and the English translation on the right. The translated text includes placeholders (e.g., [name of person or body]) to accommodate unidentified variables or specific legal details. The user appears to be comparing the translation’s accuracy for legal-specific terminology and structure, as the text concerns a sworn testimony with legal implications.