TranslationsInLondon

In Practice | Legal Translation for Proceedings Abroad

When a law firm needs to serve proceedings on a defendant based overseas, the translation of claim documents isn't a formality:it's a legal requirement.

And yet, in an industry increasingly reliant on machine translation and post-editing, this is exactly where corners get cut.

At TIL, our workflow is entirely human:

→ A qualified legal translator — native speaker, specialist in civil litigation terminology
→ An independent editor who reviews for accuracy, consistency, and legal register
→ A final proofread before delivery
→ A signed certificate of accuracy, issued under our ITI Corporate Membership (No. 00030335)

Every step carried out by a person. Every decision made with legal context in mind — not just word-for-word equivalence.

Law firms come to us because the documents they need translated are too important to risk. Claim forms, particulars of claim, court orders — these are not documents that can be corrected after the fact.

If your firm works across borders, we should talk.

📩 [email protected]
🌐 www.translationsinlondon.com

When a name doesn't match itself

We recently worked on a set of documents for the same person: a birth certificate, a passport, and a marriage certificate, all issued in different countries. On paper, three different spellings of the same name: Natalia, Natalyia, and a third variant from an older record.

A machine translation tool would have rendered each document "correctly" on its own. Three accurate translations, three different names, and a real problem for someone trying to prove these documents all belong to them.

Our translator spotted it. Flagged it. Added a translator's note explaining the transliteration differences between the source scripts, so the person reviewing the documents — a caseworker, a registrar, whoever — would understand immediately that this wasn't an error, just the reality of how names travel across alphabets and civil registries.

That's the kind of thing that only happens when a human is paying attention the whole way through. Not just translating words, but understanding what the document is for, and who's going to be reading it next.

It's Thursday — time for a real story from our work. (Names and details changed to protect client privacy.)
A Polish man. Living in the UK for years. His English was fine — until dementia took it.
What remained was Polish. His first language. The one that lives deepest.
His care team couldn't reach him anymore. His case manager couldn't get informed consent. His appointments were becoming distressing for everyone.
She called us.
We assigned Agnieszka, one of our experienced Polish interpreters, to work with him regularly. Same interpreter. Same voice. Same face. Someone he could trust.
She already knew him. His rhythms. His moments of clarity. His triggers. No re-briefing. No strangers. Just continuity.
This is what professional interpreting does in practice. It restores dignity. It gives someone their voice back.
📩 [email protected]

☕ A Cuppa With… is back — and what a way to kick it off.
I sat down with Mark Gibson, Owner and CEO of GRC Health, for a conversation about linguistic validation, patient voice research, and why language in clinical trials is far more critical than most people realise.
Mark has 30 years of experience putting patients at the heart of research. This conversation will make you think differently about what we do as language professionals — and why it matters.
👉 Read the full interview: https://translationsinlondon.com/a-cuppa-with-mark-gibson/
And watch this space — Nur Ferrante Morales will very soon be sharing something exciting for linguists in the LV world. 👀

We sat down with Mark Gibson, CEO of GRC Health, for a proper cuppa — and the conversation went everywhere (as usual, when you put two language enthusiasts in the same space). ☕

Mark has spent thirty years placing the patient at the heart of health research. He's a linguist who learned seven languages instead of finishing his PhD. A translator who got his first interpreting job on lesson six of a Portuguese textbook. And one of the sharpest minds in linguistic validation working today.

We talked about what it really takes to move from translation into linguistic validation. About why the industry is failing itself by working in silos. About Nur Ferrante's course and why Mark became a teaching assistant on it after years of saying no.

And about why TranslationsInLondon and GRC Health just make sense together.

*"It's yin and yang. We fill in the gaps where you're lacking, and you fill in the gaps where we're lacking."*

The full interview is coming soon — including the story about the pocket dictionary, the bathroom, and the word for mushrooms in Portuguese. 🍄

Watch this space!

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Same image as LinkedIn works perfectly. Want me to do the Instagram caption too?

Monday morning. Inbox open. CVs everywhere.
No location. No timezone. Perfect grammar. Zero personality.
On one side: scammers hiding behind AI-generated profiles.
On the other: real translators who've over-polished their CV with AI and accidentally removed every trace of themselves.
I'm not Sherlock Holmes. If there's no human trace, it goes in the bin.
And the uncomfortable truth? I'm probably losing good people because of it.
I've been recruiting for 15 years. The translators I trust most came to me with imperfect CVs. A career gap. A slightly defensive cover letter. Human stuff.
That imperfection told me everything.
I run a human-only translation agency. The irony isn't lost on me. 👀

TranslationsInLondon · Est. 2010 · ITI Corporate Member

Happy Friday! Here's a little language story for you 🎮

Did you know that SEGA — yes, the gaming giant — has a rather rude meaning in Italian? It's a vulgar slang term. And yet it became one of the most beloved brands of the 1990s in Italy.

How did they get away with it? By the time Sega exploded in Italy, the brand was so globally established that Italian kids simply absorbed it as a foreign word. The meaning faded into the background behind Sonic the Hedgehog.

They got lucky. Not every brand does.

Chevrolet Nova, Mitsubishi Pajero, Fiat Uno in Finland — all names that meant something very unfortunate in the local language.

This is exactly why brand name checks and native transcreation matter before you launch in a new market. A native transcreator catches what a dictionary never will.

Valentina Vignolo Love
Founder, TranslationsInLondon

In Practice | No. 1

Is linguistic validation just a fancy word for translation review?

It isn't.

Translation review checks for errors.
Linguistic validation documents that a translation is fit for regulatory submission.

The difference matters when your documents are going to the EMA or MHRA.

At TIL we provide this as a standalone service — independent linguist, formal report, Certificate of Validation — working alongside specialist CRO consultants.

🔗 Link in bio — Linguistic Validation page.

We've been posting for a while now. And honestly? We can do better. Less noise, more substance. More of the stuff that actually matters to the people we work with — and yes, more love for the brilliant freelancers who make what we do possible.

From this week, we're publishing three times a week, every week, across three series:

𝗧𝘂𝗲𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆𝘀 — 𝗛𝘂𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁. Short, direct posts on why human translation matters. Real examples, real consequences, no fluff. Because in a world racing toward automation, we think this conversation is more important than ever.

𝗧𝗵𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆𝘀 — 𝗜𝗻 𝗣𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲. A look behind the scenes at how specialist translation actually works — linguistic validation, pharmacovigilance, certified documents, legal translation. The detail that never makes it into brochures.

𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆𝘀 — 𝗟𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. The one we enjoy the most. Brand disasters, linguistic curiosities, and the moments when language went very, very wrong. We've kept this one. Obviously.

Same team. Same values. Just better content.

Follow along if any of that sounds useful — or just come for the Fridays. Either way, we're glad you're here.

Valentina Vignolo Love
Founder, TranslationsInLondon Ltd

We visited today the office of our partner so that we could do our best to customise our offer. English courses in the heart of London so you don’t have to compromise on location! They also have many social events! Drop us a DM Learn English In London