Legal foreign language translations tip 7 - Do hire a legal translation company instead of having your legal and financial documents translated by "universal translator", or computer translation devices, or translation software.

Ah, the temptation of machine-generated translation. Simply cut and paste your text, hit "translate," and walk away with your finished legal document in less than two minutes.

But think about it. If it took months to prepare your legal or financial papers, shouldn't you be automatically wary of a something so fast and imprecise?

The answer is "yes," according to an article appearing in the Wall Street Journal, and if your goal is "to translate your company's message into another of the globe's languages, you probably don't want to do it on the Web."

Instant translations can have humorous - yet disastrous results. The article relates the story of a cheesecake storeowner who received angry emails complaining about his translations. With descriptions ranging from "frightening" cheesecake (for chilled cheesecake), and a "chocolate-integrated circuit" cheesecake, the owner's international reputation was sullied.

Machine-generated translation, or "computer translation", or "translation software," will render your legal or financial document useless - and that far outweighs any quick fix it provides.

Professional legal translation companies rely on human translators, and not on mindless and mechanical processes of machine translation or translation software devices. Only professional legal translation companies can ensure that the message conveyed in your German language documents- and in other foreign language documents- sounds really germane to the English-speakers, and that every nuance is intact. Why take chances with a "frightening" translation?