Translation for Law Firms | Prism Language Solutions

Prism Language Solutions supplies litigation translation and interpreting to law firms across the United States: certified translations of foreign-language exhibits with a translator’s declaration, interpreters for depositions, client meetings and hearings, and bulk translation of discovery in the formats your review platform expects. Firms work on account with a fixed rate card, one point of contact and a conflict check on every matter. A written quote comes back within 60 minutes during business hours; the intake desk answers around the clock.

Last reviewed September 11, 2026 by Sarah J, Prism Language Solutions

Most litigation translation is arranged by a paralegal or a litigation support manager, not by the attorney trying the case. That person needs a translator who can be named and, if it comes to it, cross-examined; a delivery format that drops into the exhibit binder or the review platform; and an invoice that maps to the matter number. What usually goes wrong is not the translation: it is a certificate that will not serve as a declaration, a witness who speaks Cantonese when the interpreter booked speaks Mandarin, or 40,000 pages of Portuguese email translated in full when a triage pass would have found the 600 that mattered.

Certified translations prepared to meet USCIS requirements
Human linguists only, matched to the subject
Fixed written quote within 60 minutes in business hours
One office in New York, linguists in every state

Litigation Translation of Foreign-Language Evidence

Contracts, correspondence, corporate records, foreign judgments, medical files and chat logs: if it is in another language and it is going to be relied on, it needs an English translation a court can trust. Our legal translation team works from the source, not from a summary, and preserves what the original does. A clause that is ambiguous in Spanish stays ambiguous in English, with a translator’s note where the ambiguity matters, because resolving it is the tribunal’s job.

Every litigation translation is reviewed by a second linguist against the source before it is certified, and the layout follows the original page for page. Where a matter turns on a defined term, we build a glossary at the start and hold every translator on the matter to it. Foreign judgments and decrees for recognition proceedings and powers of attorney executed abroad are handled the same way.

Deposition Interpreters for Non-English-Speaking Witnesses

The federal rules say very little about interpreters at depositions, which is why the stipulation matters. Rule 28 governs who may take a deposition and disqualifies anyone related to, employed by or financially interested in a party; Rule 30 covers the oath, the officer and the record; Rule 604 of the Federal Rules of Evidence requires that an interpreter be qualified and swear to make a true translation. None of them says how to pick the interpreter. In practice the parties agree under Rule 29 on who interprets, whether a check interpreter attends, and how disputes about interpretation go on the record. We ask for that stipulation before the assignment and staff to it.

We assign court interpreters to depositions: state or federal court certification where the language has one, deposition experience where it does not. Before confirming, a project manager asks about the witness’s region and dialect, the subject, the length and the format. For anything over four hours we recommend two interpreters. Check interpreters for the other side are staffed from a different pool.

Translator Declarations and Affidavits for Exhibits

A translated exhibit needs a person standing behind it. Our Certificate of Translation Accuracy names the translator, the language pair and the documents covered, and states that the translation is complete and accurate and the translator competent. For litigation we word it as a declaration under 28 U.S.C. 1746, signed under penalty of perjury, so it can be filed without a notary. Where local rules or a foreign tribunal want a notarized affidavit, we arrange a notarized translation and, for documents going abroad, apostille handling.

If a translation is challenged, the translator who signed it is available to explain their choices in a supplemental declaration or, on reasonable notice, to testify. We can promise that because we know who did the work.

Discovery Document Translation in Volume

Foreign-language discovery is a volume and format problem before it is a translation problem. We take productions as they come out of the review platform: native files, TIFF or PDF images with Bates numbers, text and metadata fields. Translations come back with the same Bates range, as searchable PDFs or as text that loads as a new field, so the document family stays intact. Rule 34(b)(2)(E) lets a requesting party specify a form of production, and we deliver to match whatever was agreed.

Translate everything only when you have to. For large sets we recommend a staged approach: a machine or summary pass to sort relevant from not relevant, human translation of the relevant set, and certified translation only of what will be produced, cited or used at deposition. Recorded calls, voicemail and video go through transcription for a source-language transcript and a certified translation, time-coded where the recording will be played in court.

Confidentiality and Conflicts in Legal Translation

Litigation material is privileged, confidential or both, and the firm answers for what a vendor does with it. Every linguist on legal work has signed a confidentiality agreement and been background-checked; we sign the firm’s NDA or a protective order acknowledgment on request and bind the individual translators and interpreters to it where the order requires. Files move by encrypted transfer. We also run a conflict check on every new matter against the parties named, so an interpreter who deposed the plaintiff for one side is not assigned to the defendant six months later.

Rush Legal Translation and Same-Day Interpreters

Rush translation of exhibits runs overnight and over weekends for the common legal languages, with the second-linguist review kept in, because a rushed exhibit with an error in it costs more than the surcharge saved. Rush is typically 25 to 50 percent on the base rate and is quoted before we start. For interpreting, the intake desk answers 24 hours a day; a deposition in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston or Miami can usually be staffed in a common language on a day’s notice. Rare languages take longer, and where nobody can be in the room in time, video remote interpreting puts a certified interpreter on screen.

Law Firm Account Terms and Legal Translation Rates

Firms that send regular work get an account: an agreed rate card per word and per hour, a named project manager, and monthly invoicing with the matter and client number on every line so costs can be billed to the file. Interpreting carries a two-hour minimum and written cancellation terms. As a guide, legal translation in the US market runs about $0.14 to $0.20 per source word for common languages and certified court interpreters $65 to $95 per hour on site; the ranges are on the pricing page and the written quote fixes the number. To open an account, use the contact page; for a live matter, send the documents through the quote form. Immigration practices have their own page: translation for immigration attorneys.

Ready to start? Send the document or the booking details through the quote form, call +1 (833) 282 8883, or email info@prismlinguistics.com. You get a fixed written price within 60 minutes during business hours.

Questions we get asked

Can the translator sign a declaration we can file with the exhibit?

Yes. Our certificate names the translator and is worded as a declaration under 28 U.S.C. 1746, signed under penalty of perjury, so it can be filed in federal and most state courts without a notary. If a court or foreign body requires a notarized affidavit instead, we provide that on request.

Do you provide check interpreters for depositions?

Yes. If the other party is bringing the primary interpreter, we supply a check interpreter to monitor the rendering and flag disputes for the record, staffed from a separate pool so there is no overlap.

How do you handle a large foreign-language document production?

We start with a triage pass, usually machine-assisted, to separate relevant from irrelevant, then translate the relevant set with human translators and certify only what will be produced or used. Translations come back with the original Bates numbers, ready to load.

Will you sign our firm’s NDA or a protective order?

Yes. We sign firm NDAs and protective order acknowledgments as a matter of course, and we bind the translators and interpreters on the matter to the same terms where the order requires it.

Translation and Interpreting for Law Firms