Translations for civil courts and tribunals

Turkish evidence in English proceedings

Civil disputes involving Turkish residents and Turkish businesses reach the courts of England and Wales more often than people expect: a supplier in İzmir sues a London importer on unpaid invoices; a tenant and landlord in Haringey argue about a deposit with messages exchanged in Turkish; an employee brings an unfair dismissal claim and the manager’s instructions were in Turkish; a family disputes the sale of a shop where the agreement was signed in Ankara. In each case the Turkish material becomes evidence only once it is in English. Contracts, invoices, bank records, letters, screenshots of messages and expert reports are exhibited to witness statements; witness statements themselves may be written in Turkish by a witness who does not speak English; and where a Turkish judgment is relied on, for example to found a claim on it in England, the whole judgment must be before the court.

What the Civil Procedure Rules require

Practice Direction 32 sets out the mechanics, and the box on this page summarises the two paragraphs that matter. For a witness statement in a foreign language, the party must have it translated and file the foreign-language statement, and the translator must sign the original statement and certify that the translation is accurate. For an affidavit, the translator makes an affidavit verifying the translation and exhibits both versions. Tribunals apply their own rules and are less formal, but employment judges and property tribunals routinely direct that foreign-language documents be accompanied by a certified translation, and they expect the same discipline: complete, page-referenced and signed. Where a court order or a solicitor’s letter sets a specific form of words, send it to us and we will follow it exactly.

Turkish documents that come up

• Employment contracts, payslips and disciplinary letters for tribunal claims.
• Invoices, proforma invoices and commercial contracts in debt and sale-of-goods claims.
• Tenancy agreements and landlord correspondence.
• Turkish judgments and summonses and petitions where proceedings ran in parallel in Türkiye.
• Witness statements written in Turkish, and message threads from WhatsApp or e-mail that need transcription and translation.
• Signature circulars and trade registry extracts proving who could bind a Turkish company.

Common reasons translated evidence is challenged

• Selective translation. Opposing counsel will ask why paragraph 7 was left in Turkish; we translate whole documents and mark any agreed omissions as such.
• Informal messages rendered in formal English, or vice versa, changing the tone that a judge is being asked to assess. We keep register, slang and abbreviations, with notes where a Turkish idiom has no equivalent.
• Date formats and numbers switched silently (day-month order, thousands separators).
• The translator’s certificate is missing from the original Turkish statement, so the statement is not admissible in the form filed.
• Exhibits are not page-referenced to the bundle, so nobody can find the Turkish original of the passage being quoted.

How we prepare litigation translations

Legal translators translate; a second linguist checks figures, dates, names and defined terms against the original, and long bundles are handled by one translator so the terminology stays consistent. Witness statements come back with our signature on the Turkish original and a certificate of accuracy; where an affidavit is directed, the translator swears it before a notary in Ankara and we apostille it (£15). Every page carries our certification statement with the company’s Ankara registry details, the date, stamp and signature, and the original is attached. Delivery is a PDF for the e-bundle, with a wet-signed set by courier from Ankara (£30) or UK Special Delivery (£8) for trial bundles. Prices are per page of 1,000 characters: a two-page contract £20, a fifteen-page judgment £150, and message threads are counted after transcription. The economy tier (20% less) suits disclosure volumes with a distant trial date; the express tier (60% more) meets short directions. No UK VAT is charged. For hearings themselves, see court and tribunal interpreting.