Legal & Compliance translation.

Which one your document needs.

Most legal documents going to a South African court, Home Affairs or a foreign embassy need a sworn translation. A sworn translator is appointed by the High Court of South Africa, and signs and seals the translation so it carries official weight. Under Uniform Rule 60, a document produced in High Court proceedings in a language other than an official South African language generally has to be accompanied by a sworn translation.

A certified translation is often enough for commercial and internal use: contracts under negotiation, due diligence packs, policies and correspondence. If you are unsure which one you need, check with the receiving authority, or send us the document and we will tell you before you pay for anything.

Legal documents we translate.

• Affidavit translation: sworn statements for court, immigration and administrative use.
• Power of attorney translation: general and special powers of attorney for property, banking and tax matters abroad.
• Court order translation: orders and judgments for enforcement, immigration and cross-border cases.
• Divorce decree translation: decrees and settlement agreements for remarriage and immigration.
• Child custody order translation and guardianship order translation: orders needed for relocation, travel and schooling.
• Adoption document translation: adoption orders, consents and supporting files for inter-country adoption.
• Employment contract translation: contracts for work permits and legal review.

See the full list on individual document translation.

How we handle legal files.

• One named project manager. You can phone them, and they stay with the file from quote to delivery.
• Your choice of quality tier: translation only, translation plus a second linguist’s edit, or translation plus a full proofread. The price you are quoted is the price you pay.
• Consistent terminology. Translation memory and termbases keep defined terms consistent across a contract bundle or a matter that runs for months.
• Confidentiality. Documents are never fed into a public AI engine, and handling follows POPIA.
• Use abroad. Documents for use outside South Africa may also need legalisation, such as DIRCO authentication or an Apostille, depending on the destination country. Our document pages explain the route for each document type.

Legal translation guides.

• Why AI alone can’t be trusted with legal translation
• French legal translation services
• Portuguese legal translation services
• Afrikaans legal translation services

Related services: sworn translation and certified translation.