Divorce decrees, contracts, powers of attorney, and foreign judgments, translated and certified in 326 languages.
Prism Linguistics translates legal documents in 326 languages: divorce decrees, custody orders, powers of attorney, contracts, and foreign court judgments, each delivered with a signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy. Translations are prepared to meet USCIS and US court filing requirements, usually ready in 24 to 48 hours for short documents, from around $24.95 per page.
Last reviewed August 24, 2026 by the Prism Linguistics editorial team
A legal document is rarely translated for curiosity. A county clerk wants proof your prior marriage ended before issuing a license. USCIS wants your foreign custody order in English. Opposing counsel serves an exhibit in Portuguese three weeks before trial. In each case the translation has to be complete, accurate, and certified in the form the receiving office expects, and that form is what this page explains.
Our certification format is the same one described on our certified translation page. Send a scan through the quote form or call +1 (833) 282 8883; a fixed price comes back within 60 minutes during business hours.
Three groups of clients send us legal documents, and each group tends to send the same records. Individuals usually need one document translated for one office. Businesses need contracts and filings kept consistent across languages. Law firms need foreign-language material turned into evidence a US court can rely on.
| Who | Typical documents | Usually going to |
|---|---|---|
| Individuals | Divorce decrees, custody orders, powers of attorney, wills, name-change orders, court judgments from abroad | USCIS, county clerks, probate courts, banks |
| Businesses | Contracts, articles of incorporation, bylaws, compliance filings, corporate resolutions | Counterparties, regulators, state filing offices |
| Litigation support | Foreign-language evidence, judgments, service documents, witness statements | Federal and state courts, arbitration panels |
Law firms with recurring work, contract review, discovery, multi-jurisdiction matters, usually want more than per-document certification; that side of the practice lives on our legal translation services page. And if what your matter actually needs is a spoken-language professional for a deposition or hearing, our legal interpreting team covers courtrooms in all 50 states.
When a foreign-language document is filed with a US court, it goes in with a complete English translation and a signed certification from the translator. That is the pattern most federal and state courts expect: the translation, plus a statement that it is accurate and complete and that the translator is competent in both languages, with a name, signature, and date. Every translation we deliver carries that Certificate of Translation Accuracy on company letterhead.
Courts are not uniform, though. Some local rules ask for the translator's qualifications, and immigration courts (EOIR) have their own certificate-of-service conventions. In most cases our standard certificate is exactly what the clerk wants; even so, check the local rules of the receiving court, or ask the clerk, before you file. If a court asks for notarization on top of certification, we prepare the translation in the form a notary public needs, as explained on our notarized translation page.
The single legal document we translate most is the foreign divorce decree. USCIS asks for it whenever a petition depends on a prior marriage having legally ended, an I-130 for a new spouse being the usual case, and a county clerk asks for the same proof before issuing a marriage license for a remarriage. Both want a complete certified English translation, including every stamp and seal.
Decrees are usually one to three pages and ready in 24 to 48 hours. If the same filing needs your new marriage certificate translation or other civil records, we certify the set together; the immigration side of that paperwork is covered on our immigration document translation page.
Legal systems don't map onto each other one to one. A civil-law notario is not an American notary public; some jurisdictions have no concept that lines up with a common-law trust; "shall" and "may" carry weight that a general translator can flatten without noticing. A legal document translated loosely reads fine and means something slightly different, which is the worst kind of error to discover in front of a judge.
Our rule is simple: we translate what the document says, not what we guess it means. Where a concept has no direct equivalent, the translator keeps the source term and adds a translator's note explaining it, so the attorney or officer reading the English text sees exactly where the two legal systems part ways. Documents that will be compared side by side with the original keep its layout, page for page.
Legal documents are confidential by default here, before anyone asks. Files are shared only with the background-checked linguists assigned to your job, and we sign your firm's NDA whenever a matter requires one. Our translators work with litigation material regularly, so they understand what privileged and attorney work product markings mean and treat drafts, exhibits, and correspondence accordingly.
For individuals the same discipline applies. A divorce decree or will is nobody's business but yours, and it stays that way.
Most of our legal work runs into or out of Spanish, Mandarin, Arabic, Portuguese, and Russian, which tracks the languages US courts and USCIS see most. We cover 326 languages in total, so a decree from a less common jurisdiction, Amharic, Tagalog, Ukrainian, gets the same certified treatment as a Spanish one.
Four steps, most of them ours. A typical order takes under five minutes of your time.
Upload a clear scan or photo through our quote form, or email it to info@prismlinguistics.com. Tell us the language, your deadline, and which court, agency, or firm will receive the translation.
We reply within 60 minutes during business hours with a fixed price and turnaround. Short documents are priced per page, longer contracts per word. Nothing starts until you approve.
A translator with legal experience produces a complete, word-for-word translation, a second linguist checks it against the source, and we attach the signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy.
You get a signed PDF by email, usually within 24 to 48 hours for short documents. If the receiving office wants paper, we mail a wet-ink hard copy by USPS or FedEx anywhere in the US.
As a guide, short standard legal documents, a divorce decree, a court order, a single-page power of attorney, start at around $24.95 per page in the US market, and most are delivered in 24 to 48 hours. Same-day delivery is sometimes possible for short documents, subject to capacity, so flag a tight deadline when you send the file.
Contracts and multi-page files work differently: they are priced per word, because a dense indemnification clause and a signature page are not the same work, and turnaround scales with length. A 20-page agreement typically takes 3 to 5 business days with the second-linguist review included. Treat all of these figures as market guidance; your quote confirms the exact price and date before anything begins. Broader ranges for every service are on our pricing page.
The questions we answer most often before an order is placed.
Send a scan and tell us where it is going. You will have a fixed price and turnaround within 60 minutes during business hours.
Get a Free Quote Call +1 (833) 282 8883