We have been dealing with a number of certified translations for individual clients, companies, courts, state bodies and corporations. A certified translation is made in a descriptive form; it means that the translator describes all the seals, signatures and watermarks on the document. Such translations are carried out by sworn translators who have been duly authorised by the Ministry of Justice or its equivalent in another country. These translations usually appear in a printed form and bear the seal of the sworn translator who produced them; only then do they have legal validity. The sworn translators include a note as part of the translation whether the translation was made based on an original document or a copy thereof. Translations based on copies are valid, but some offices may require translations based on the original document only (this is the case with courts, the Registry Office, the Transport Department of the Municipal Office where a car imported from abroad is registered).
According to the Regulation of the Minister of Justice, 1 standard page contains 1,125 characters including spaces in the target text. A character is understood as all visible printing marks, particularly letters, punctuation marks, digits, transposition marks and gaps between them justified by the structure of a sentence. Every started page counts as an entirety.
A sworn translator in Poland is qualified to translate from a foreign language into Polish and viceversa. Therefore, a translation from Italian into Spanish cannot be done directly. In this case, the solution is to provide a translation into Polish, and then translate (with a note that it is translated
from a given language) into the foreign language.
A certified translation differs from a non-certified one in the way it is done by the sworn translator who represents a public trusted profession.
In addition, such translators are required to record all their jobs as part of their internal repertory under the relevant number. Documents that require certified translation include contracts, notarial deeds, certificates, diplomas
and vehicle documents.
