Translation Required For Contracts Foreigners?

[steveinbsas]

The title should have been "Are translations required for contracts between Argentines and foreigners?"


[background=rgb(252, 252, 252)]I would like to know if a private contract or convenio privado between an Argentine and a foreigner in Argentina requires a translation to the foreigner's language to be legal[/background]

[background=rgb(252, 252, 252)]A number of years ago a lawyer in BA told me I had a year to ask for more money from an insurance company even after signing an agreement that said my claim was settled and I could not ask for more money.. The lawyer told me they failed to provide a legalized copy of the contract in English for me to sign and as a result the agreement in Spanish was not valid..[/background]

[background=rgb(252, 252, 252)]A couple years later an escribano told [/background][background=rgb(252, 252, 252)]me he had to refund the entire amount paid by a foreigner for the purchase of a property because he failed to provide a copy of the escritura in the foreigner's language.[/background]

[background=rgb(252, 252, 252)]Just wondering if this is still the case. The agreement I have been asked to sign is in Castellano has been prepared by a lawyer and no translation has been offered.[/background]

 

[Girino]

That would be a first. In the business world, you can offer a courtesy translation but you usually put a note on the translated version saying that in case of a dispute the original shall prevail.

If you a sign a paper in a language you don't have full command on, you are to blame, imho. If I'd ever get in trouble abroad, I'd always ask for a translation in my native language, no matter how good I think my command of the English or Spanish language is.

I honestly have no idea about this, but it looks very odd that you have to provide the translation of a document in a language that is not the official language of the state where the contract/document is going to be registered. I can see that with English the issue would be easily solved by hiring a TP, but what for less spoken languages?!

 

[mc kenna]

There goes to show once again, in Argentina you ask the same question to 4 different lawyers and you get 4 different answers, to my knowledge contracts within Argentina are done in spanish only and it is the only document valid in court, everything else is considered'' unofficial''. The translation part might be done in order for the foreigner to have a better understanding as of what he or she is signing but it is not mandatory by law, in other words if it is done , it is only '' de onda'' and carries no weight in the legal world in this country. All of this is applies if you are doing busisness within the country, i believe other rules apply if it is an international transaction in which case all documentation need to be translated by a register translator.... so in short, everything in Argentina needs to be written in spanish to be considered in court

 

[jbeas176]

in 2006 the escribano would not allow me to sign a spanish document i did not understand. the owner and i used our broken languages and created an english document. only screwed up the date of birth. apparently i am now born in january not november.