Method

Four steps, and none of them is optional

Modelled on the structure set out in ISO 17100. We state plainly that the firm does not yet hold ISO certification — the sequence is the same either way, and you are entitled to know which claims are certified and which are simply true.

Scope

We read the file before we price it. Document type, receiving authority, register, deadline, and the confidentiality tier that governs how it is handled. This is also where we tell you if the job needs something we cannot provide.

Translate

A named linguist qualified in the subject field, working with your termbase and translation memory rather than a generic glossary. Every linguist on your file is under a written confidentiality undertaking before they see a page of it.

Revise

A second qualified linguist compares source against target in full. A separate person, always. This is the step most of the market quietly skips, and it is the single clearest difference between a translation that holds up and one that merely reads well.

Release

Final review, formatting matched to the source, and delivery through a channel with an access log. Your termbase is updated so the next file starts ahead of where this one did.

Where we use machine translation, and where we refuse

We will offer you an automated tier when it genuinely fits, priced accordingly and labelled as such. We will never apply it silently. And there are rooms we will not take it into.

We refuse it for anything with legal effect — court, arbitration, notarial and sworn contexts.
We refuse it in medical settings and in government negotiation, where register and hedging carry the meaning.
We refuse it wherever a recording of the interpretation could later be relied on as a record.
We disclose every tool that touches your file, and we do not send confidential material to services that retain it.

Arabic deserves particular caution here. Register-switching between Modern Standard Arabic and the Gulf dialect, honorific and institutional forms, and the formal oratorical register used in official settings are all places where automated systems are markedly weaker than they are on European language pairs.

How your files are handled

Encrypted in transit and at rest

Files are encrypted on the way to us and while we hold them. Access is logged, and access is removed when the project closes.

Confidentiality flows down

Every linguist, including freelancers, signs a written undertaking. Client confidentiality obligations flow down to each individual, not just to the firm.

Tiered by sensitivity

We classify each engagement, and the highest tier means no third-party automated tools touch the material at all. You are told which tier applies before work starts.

Retention you choose

We keep what you need us to keep for as long as you need it kept, and we delete on request. Translation memory is retained only with your agreement.