Legal Translation Services UK
Certified legal translation for UK courts, solicitors, and immigration tribunals — from £14.99 per page with statement of accuracy.
Legal translation isn't a different kind of certification — it's the same UK certified format applied to documents where the wording carries legal weight, and a single mistranslated clause can change the meaning of a contract or a court order. We translate court judgments, divorce decrees, contracts, affidavits, wills, powers of attorney, and immigration tribunal evidence to the standard HMCTS, the SRA-regulated firms, and the tribunals expect. The rate is £14.99 per page rather than £12.99 — legal work needs translators with subject-matter background (civil procedure, contract law, family law) and an extra QC pass on terminology. Same-day rush available for tribunal deadlines.
What counts as legal translation?
Legal translation is the certified translation of any document that creates, records, or supports a legal right or obligation — court judgments, contracts, affidavits, statutory declarations, wills, divorce decrees, powers of attorney, and corporate documents. The certification format matches our standard UKVI-style: signed statement of accuracy, translator credentials, contact details.
The line between 'legal' and 'general' translation gets fuzzy at the edges. A foreign birth certificate isn't usually called a legal translation, but a foreign birth certificate being entered as evidence in a Family Court hearing absolutely is. Same document, different stakes.
We treat anything heading to HMCTS, a tribunal, a solicitor's file, or a contract negotiation as legal work and assign it to a translator with the relevant subject-matter background. The certification format is the same — signed statement of accuracy, translator credentials, contact details, the date — but the translator's qualifications matter more, and so does the extra QC pass.
- Court judgments and orders
- Divorce decrees, decree absolute, decree nisi
- Contracts and commercial agreements
- Affidavits and statutory declarations
- Wills, probate documents, deeds of variation
- Powers of attorney
- Witness statements and depositions
- Corporate documents — articles of association, board resolutions
- Immigration tribunal evidence
Who accepts your legal translations?
Our legal translations are accepted by HMCTS (civil and family courts), the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber), the Upper Tribunal, SRA-regulated solicitors, the Bar, UK government departments, and overseas authorities for outbound use.
HMCTS — the agency that runs civil, family, and most administrative courts — accepts the certified format directly. Same for the First-tier and Upper Tribunals on the immigration side, where translated foreign-language evidence shows up constantly: country expert reports, foreign judgments, family records, witness statements taken overseas.
SRA-regulated firms use the same format for client files, and we work directly with several immigration and family law firms across London, Birmingham, and Manchester. For outbound use (UK legal documents going abroad), legal translations often need to pair with FCDO apostille — see our apostille page for that workflow.
- HMCTS — civil and family courts
- First-tier Tribunal — Immigration and Asylum Chamber
- Upper Tribunal
- SRA-regulated solicitors and law firms
- Barristers' chambers
- UK government departments
- Hague Convention countries (paired with FCDO apostille)
How much does legal translation cost?
Legal translation costs from £14.99 per page — a £2 premium over our standard certified rate. This covers the subject-matter translator and an additional QC pass on legal terminology. Statement of accuracy and 24-hour delivery included.
Legal documents are denser per page than personal documents — a court judgment can run 20+ pages of close reasoning, a commercial contract similar — so the per-page rate sits at £14.99 rather than £12.99. The lift covers the translator's legal background and an extra QC pass that catches the small but consequential mistranslations that cause documents to be returned by HMCTS.
For tribunal deadlines or hearing prep, same-day rush is £29.99 per page, 24/7 including weekends. We handle bundle work — translating an evidence pack of 50+ pages in parallel — at the same per-page rate, no volume penalty.
- Standard legal translation: from £14.99 per page
- Same-day rush: from £29.99 per page (8-hour guarantee, 24/7)
- No volume penalty on bundle work
- Statement of accuracy and translator credentials included
- Bilingual side-by-side delivery available on request
Do I need a notarised legal translation?
No, not for use in UK courts or with UK solicitors. HMCTS and SRA-regulated firms accept the certified format directly. Notarisation is only required when the document is heading abroad to a jurisdiction that needs it — typically alongside an FCDO apostille for Hague Convention countries.
It's the same misconception we see on the visa side. Notarisation is sometimes upsold as if it were a default for legal work; it isn't, when the destination is the UK. HMCTS, the tribunals, and SRA-regulated firms read certified translations directly.
Where notarisation does come in: outbound legal documents (UK contracts going to a US partner, UK divorce decrees being recognised in Spain or Italy, UK wills supporting overseas probate). For those, the certified translation pairs with notarisation and usually FCDO apostille on top. We handle the translation; you handle the FCDO submission.
Frequently Asked Questions
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UKVI-accepted certified translations from £14.99 per page. Statement of accuracy included. 24-hour delivery.
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Important: UKVI does NOT require notarised translations. Learn when you need notarisation and when certified translation is sufficient.
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