SWORN TRANSLATION

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All documentation written in a foreign language must be translated into Portuguese in order to be valid before official Brazilian institutions, as provided for in various legal provisions. Among them is Decree No. 13,609 of October 21, 1943, which states in Chapter III, Art. 18:

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No book, document, or paper of any nature that is drawn up in a foreign language will have effect in departments of the Union of States and Municipalities, in any instance, in a court or tribunal, or in entities maintained, supervised, or guided by the public authorities, without being accompanied by the respective translation..

However, this is not a translation made by anyone. In order to have legal value, it must be done by a Certified Public Translator and Commercial Interpreter, a title granted by the state through the Justice Department and Commercial Board upon approval in a public competition exam. This is called a sworn translation..

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The adjective "sworn" refers to the concept of an oath, or an act performed by the translator or author of a translation, in which he or she swears before the state, by virtue of the faculties conferred by the latter, that only through this act of translation can the translation be granted as a public faith document, that is, a legal presumption of authenticity, truth, or legitimacy of an act emanating from an authorized authority or official, in the exercise of their respective functions.

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The Sworn Translation operates, therefore, in two instances: “the first is strictly translation, the second is of a notarial nature.

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The public translator is essentially two things: a communicator and a public representative. The public translator constitutes a type of linguistic notary that gives full legal and administrative value to all types of written documents and oral interventions in other languages.

Regarding the types of documents that must be submitted to Sworn Translation, it is important to clarify that this activity does not necessarily involve a text from the legal area, nor is it limited to a specific field of expertise. Any type of text can be the subject of a sworn translation, be it literary, technical, advertising, journalistic, banking, or private correspondence. For this, it is enough that it is part of a judicial process or has been officially requested:

Thus, different types of texts can be submitted to sworn translation. It divides them into five large groups: a) personal documents: identity cards, birth, marriage, divorce or death certificates, school documents, driver's licenses, passports, and others; b) corporate documents: terms of incorporation, deliberations of company councils, minutes of meetings, contracts in general, etc.; c) financial-commercial documents: company balance sheets, invoices, debit notes, bills of exchange, bill of lading, promissory notes, commercial correspondence, etc.; d) legal documents: letters rogatory, background checks, powers of attorney, etc.; e) documents of different natures: patents, technology transfer, electronic correspondence, etc.

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Although it has an important area of intersection with the translation of legal texts, the field of action of the sworn translator is much broader. Sworn interpreters are required not only to have knowledge of the legal systems whose languages they put in contact, but also of the communications system, the circulation code, the educational system, the functioning of the administration, the political system, and, ultimately, a clear awareness of the language and functioning of legal discourse.

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The certified public sworn translator thus deals with different types of documents. The original document written in a foreign language, once accompanied by its sworn translation, is accepted and has legal effects in Brazil. The same occurs, through a similar process, with Brazilian documents destined for institutions in other countries.