Sports and Entertainment (Legal Department)
Rush Translation
Expedited technical translation, editing and proofreading
Czech, Finnish, French (Canadian), German, Russian, Slovak, Swedish
10,000+ words per language
5 business days
A major-league sports organization (the Client) benefitted from Paragon’s extensive network of experienced linguists for a rushed legal translation. They needed their website’s terms of service (ToS) and privacy policy (PP) offered in the 7 languages most spoken by ice hockey fans around the world. Despite a limited number of available linguists for some of the languages, one translator backing out of the work because it was too technical, and the fact that the text to be translated was changed the day before it was due, Paragon delivered a well-received product in the timeframe that the client requested.
The Client's legal department updated the terms of service and privacy policy of their English website, and needed foreign language versions to reflect these changes. They wanted these versions available as soon as possible after the English versions were posted on the site, but translating thousands of words of legalese with highly technical vocabulary is a difficult task under any time constraint. The Client's needs meant finding the right linguists with the right set of skills available to work on a time crunch. In addition, some of the languages are of limited diffusion with an equal scarcity of translators well versed or experienced in legal work.
The Client updates the ToS and PP on their site every few years. For this cycle, they wanted the updated foreign language versions available at the same time as the English because they were announcing the changes to their policies at 4 a.m. EST around the world. The ToS and PP are developed by the Client’s legal department and contain both highly technical as well as legal jargon.
Paragon’s first initiative was to identify translators and editors with legal expertise who could deliver a quality translation in a very short period of time. Most of the linguists were selected from our existing vendor database; however a few new linguists were vetted to meet the project requirements. Our Czech and Slovak team suggested adding language to the English based on their experience with similar documents, which the client’s lead counsel incorporated into the source documents. Some of the linguists we initially approached decided that the subject matter was outside their comfort zone given the tight deadline, and referred the work to a trusted colleague. One linguist, however, underestimated how technical the documents were when accepting the project and returned the second document to us on a Saturday morning. The completed document was well translated, but had taken significantly longer than expected and the linguist was concerned about being able to submit the translation by the deadline. Although finding a new linguist on a Saturday is not an ideal situation, Paragon keeps the lines of communication open because the client’s deadline is our deadline.
Another challenge that Paragon’s project management team expertly navigated was a late change to the English sent the afternoon before deadline. Although changes are not typically a huge concern, they are when the clock is ticking. Despite time zone differences, our PM team was able to incorporate the change in the workflow without affecting the outcome of the translation quality or deadline by contacting the linguists right away and making use of computer assisted translation (CAT) tools to quickly integrate the changes across both documents.
In the end, Paragon was able to deliver a high-quality product that met the time and budgetary constraints that the client demanded, which any organization definitely appreciates.