Reducing Total Cost and Risk in Multilingual Litigation A VIA Legal Brief

Transcription

1 Reducing Total Cost and Risk in Multilingual Litigation A VIA Legal Brief

2 Most ediscovery exercises are based on the assumption that the documents of interest are in English. However, in today s globalized business environment there is an increase in cross-border disputes and regulatory investigations, which forces companies to locate and retrieve documents from offices and subsidiaries in multiple countries. As a result, law firms and legal departments are encountering an even higher volume of foreign language documents today as they help their clients and companies comply with their ediscovery obligations. At any point during the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) process, foreign language documents could be identified. It is essential for these to be translated properly, to provide a better understanding of the case and how to proceed, as well as to help mitigate risk. These foreign language documents introduce an additional layer of complexity and without the proper mix of the right people, process and technology, costs rise and deadlines slip. In this brief, you will learn: How a specialized legal translation vendor positively impacts total cost and helps you mitigate risk What you need to know about litigation language technology and services to ensure a winning partnership What questions you need to ask when selecting a language partner for multilingual litigation Reducing Total Cost and Mitigating Risk in Litigation When faced with an overwhelming amount of ediscovery data to cull through in a dauntingly short amount of time, you need a translation vendor you can count on. Translation for the legal industry calls for professionals who understand the linguistic and the legal nuances, as well as the ins and outs of the technology. Vendors that specialize in the legal translation market understand the specific time lines and workflows such as court filing deadlines, as well as attestation and linguistic certification. In addition, they should understand language technology and translation best practices such as translation memory (TM), machine translation (MT), workflow and secure portals. Choosing a vendor that has expertise in both sides of the process will help you get the maximum return on your investment. That said, it s a good idea for you to have a high-level understanding of some of the key technology and best practices, so you are able to make a more informed decision when choosing a language service provider. Litigation Language Technology When implemented properly, technology has the potential to increase human translation productivity in applications such as data mining large documents for litigation and ediscovery, reducing costs and increasing productivity. However, it needs to be approached strategically through a consideration of the ultimate goal of your end translation. Depending on the type, volume and quality of content you are looking to translate, the following technologies may help you decrease costs, as well as improve quality and turn-around time. Copyright 2014 VIA, Inc. All Rights Reserved 2

3 Machine Translation (MT) - MT is the process by which computer software is used to translate text from one natural language to another. MT is ideal for reviewing and culling ediscovery data, where a cursory understanding and impression of the content is sufficient. Look for a provider that offers customized MT solutions which are specifically designed for the case/matter, as well as the languages that require translating. For example, certain technologies are better suited for right-to-left languages (i.e. Arabic), while others have a more consistent result with romance languages (i.e. French). Although the driver for MT is to gain a gist, consistency in the translation is the key to its effectiveness in the process. For example, VIA incorporates specific key terms and phrases that improve the accuracy and increase the efficiency of the MT to quickly provide organizations with fast translation of their foreign language content. Translation Memory (TM) - It s highly likely your documents contain certain legal terms, phrases, sentences, or even paragraphs that are used repeatedly. These items can be stored with their target language equivalents in a translation memory database. These segments are then referenced for future translations. When a translator finds a match they then use the context of the document and their own professional judgment to accept or modify the suggested translation. This recycling of previous translations increases the efficiency and consistency of the translation process, which also results in significant cost savings and quicker turn-around times. Automated term-list checkers and glossaries - Available as a stand-alone tool or often included in a translation memory system, automated term checkers scan your files and report translation inconsistencies for the translator or quality assurance specialist to review, ensuring words are translated in context each time. This can be especially important when source content comes from multiple locations where variance between even simple terms (e.g., lawyer vs. attorney vs. counsel) may be used. Online translation portals - An online translation portal is an automated workflow system for managing translation orders, files and updates. More sophisticated portals offer role-based security, file tracking and reporting, as well as many other valuable features that make managing legal translation more efficient. This tool is especially useful for rapid 24/7 submitting and tracking of translation projects for legal resources with very limited turn-around time. Whether it is a small project such as a subpoena or simply a portion of an ongoing matter, the portal is there to help with the total solution when you need it. In addition, you should look for a system that is able to invoice against a matter or case at the time of submission to alleviate tracking and administrative workload for you and your teams. Legal Translation Best Practices Now that you understand the types of technology available to you during the ediscovery process you can decide whether to use either machine translation or translation memory to cull down your data sets. For example, depending on the data sets and timing of your case, you could implement an MT process to get a gist of the data, then have an English speaking review team identify if the content is responsive or nonresponsive. In many cases this can be a faster, more cost efficient solution that allows you to leverage a Copyright 2014 VIA, Inc. All Rights Reserved 3

4 larger pool of English speaking talent and avoid the difficulties associated with locating on premise, bilingual teams. Cross Check for Accuracy - With MT you can also quickly cross-check your data sets to make sure you ve captured all the critical content for your team to review. Start by having your counsel identify the keywords or phrases for the matter or case. Then, search the translated content for the keywords. Next, translate the keywords into the foreign language you are working with and run a search for those terms in your foreign language data set. Compare the two results sets to identify any additional documents that may need to be translated and placed in the review set for the review team. This process can be an optimal one for your first pass review. In the ediscovery process, time is of the essence and typically, getting a gist of the foreign language content is initially enough. However, based on legal counsel s guidance, there may be documents that need to be translated by in-region legal specialists. These are documents that require a thorough legal translation and those that can potentially be produced for the courts. Consequently, even when using an MT process, inregion legal specialists will be necessary to complete the full ediscovery requirements. In summary, the case or matter will dictate whether you use MT, in-region human translations, or a hybrid combination of the two. Make Sure Your Vendor is Using a Secure Environment - Information security is a high priority concern for both corporations and law firms in the ediscovery process. Failing to take special care to ensure security can expose your company s or client s most critical information. When faced with foreign language content, whether utilizing a legal partner or a translation vendor, make sure they are capable of securing the documents from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification or destruction. In addition, there are several guidelines including federal and state laws, financial rules and constantly changing regulations such as the EU s Data Protection reform, regarding data types and controls that you will need to make sure they can adhere to. For example, in many cases a change of authorization may be required when sharing documents. In addition, most of the time documents need to be kept safeguarded on a secure server, as well as encrypted during transfer. Choosing the right partner Did you know that there are 35,000 language providers? When you choose a legal translation partner you want to look for a trained and knowledgeable team that will ultimately deliver higher quality translations with faster turn-around times to expedite your internal and external legal reviews. Here are some of the qualities you should expect from the ideal translation partner: Experience supporting the same volume and complexity of work that your company represents. Dedicated customer support team of account executives and project managers who have worked with companies of your size. Copyright 2014 VIA, Inc. All Rights Reserved 4

5 A track record of on-time delivery, so they can help you make your deadlines. A large network of legal-specific translators so they can ramp up to your project quickly, as well as deal with a diversity of language pairs. Certification, attestation, notarization or sworn translation, if available or needed in the respective country. Do Not Compete - In addition, you should make sure the vendor you choose does not conflict or compete for your work. If you are part of a law firm or legal consulting company, many translation vendors also provide services that may overlap and/or compete for ediscovery services such as hosting, managed review, ediscovery processing and analytics. It should be clear by now that you want to find a translation partner with proven expertise and experience, as well as a strong network of trusted in-country review resources and cutting edge technology. The best way to evaluate your potential partner is by looking at their client list, asking for references, asking for examples of their work, and asking about their workflow. 5 questions to ask when selecting a litigation language partner: 1. Can they accommodate both Legal specific in-region translations, and large scale machine translations? 2. Are their clients open to providing references? 3. Does the translation provider compete with any of your services, or have a conflict of interest? 4. How extensive are their resources, both in terms of translators, reviewers, and technologies such as machine translation, portals, and reporting? 5. Are they willing to accommodate your workflow, schedule, and needs? Summary Finding the right translation partner is worth the time and effort of the hunt. You want to find a partner you can trust to help you get the information you need in time for your case. A good partner will not only understand the nuances of legal translation, but will adhere to industry best practices and leverage technology to save you time and money. They will also adapt to your workflow, your schedules, and your particular requirements. Time is of the essence in litigation, and the more established the workflow, the more efficient and effective the translation process will be. About VIA VIA provides accurate legal translation with a 99 percent on-time delivery rate. With a global network of over 5,000 legal translators with expertise in more than 125 languages, VIA uses its in-depth legal industry knowledge, legal specific process, experience and scalability to seamlessly partner with law firms like Shook, Hardy and Bacon, as well as in-house legal departments of large multinational corporations, including Cisco, HP, Intel, Expedia, Nike, St. Jude Medical and more. For more information, visit Copyright 2014 VIA, Inc. All Rights Reserved 5