Translate a court-compliant witness statement

Setting the scene

The situation concerned how to obtain a court-approved witness statement from the non-English-speaking driver of a vehicle involved in an accident.

The vehicle driver (witness) was the defendant covered by an insurance company. Both parties to attend court, along with interpreter, all speaking back and forth with the barrister based on the accident facts. For this reason the witness statement had to be obtained from the driver in their maternal language ahead of the court hearing. This was then translated into the corresponding English, adjusted to make it court-compliant and both languages approved and signed. All this to be as watertight as possible so the case would be most likely to succeed.

Languages involved

Bulgarian and English.

Challenges faced

• Understanding the spoken language of the driver/witness.
• Obtaining an accurate written version of the witness statement in their maternal language and the language of the UK court.
• Verbal transfer by phone of witness recollection of road accident into an accurate, structured written version of statement.
• Accurate translation and layout of statement.
• Professsional, court-approved expertise in translation AND interpreting in both languages.

The Solution

• The customer located a suitable UK court local to the driver/witness and arranged the trial date with the court.
• The customer contracted SEL Business Languages (SELBL) who have a national database of professionally qualified linguists who interpret (spoken language) AND translate (written language).
• SEL Business Languages (SELBL) arranged regular phone calls between interpreter and driver to obtain the content of their witness statement, which was then fully drafted by the customer into court-compliant layout and content in English.
• This was then translated into corresponding Bulgarian for full approval and e-signature by the witness.
• The SELBL Bulgarian-English court-qualified interpreter and translator, based locally to the court premises, delivered face-to-face consecutive interpreting in court.
• In this way the barrister was able to use the English witness statement and full court interpreting to cross-examine the witness.
• They were able to work through the litigation process unhindered by language issues or counter-issues on the day and the customer won!

At SEL Business Languages we have a vast network of professionally trained interpreters experienced in a wide range of subjects, including court and industrial. Get in touch to discuss your requirements.