Certified vs Sworn Translation

When this applies

Surface this heuristic whenever a document is being:

• Filed with a court, tribunal, or arbitral body in a different language from the proceedings language.
• Submitted to a government authority (ministry, land registry, municipality, labor authority) in a language other than the authority's official working language.
• Used cross-border in a transaction where the receiving jurisdiction requires translation in a specific form.
• Authenticated through an apostille or consular legalization chain (translation often required alongside the notarized original).

Commissioning the wrong type of translation delays proceedings, causes rejection of filings, and in some cases requires the entire authentication chain to be restarted.

The four levels of translation authority

Level 1 — Machine translation

What it is: automated translation (Google Translate, DeepL, AI translation tools).

Speed and cost: immediate; near-zero cost.