Providing quality language services can help law firms grow their business and freely communicate with limited-English proficient (LEP) clients. Eliminating language barriers can create new opportunities to represent clients who don’t speak English well—here are a few steps to help you get started.
1. Determine which language services your firm needs
When you need to create a connection with clients or patients, it’s essential to trust the quality of your interpreter or translator’s work. Here’s how we put quality first:
Over-the-Phone Interpretation: When you need to call an LEP client to update them on their case or schedule your next appointment, phone interpretation is a fast, easy option.
Video Remote Interpretation: Inviting a legal interpreter to join virtual or in-person meetings via video can help your LEP clients feel more comfortable. This option works best for cases when working with children, older adults, or clients who have mental or behavioral health challenges.
Translation & Localization: For international cases, you may need to translate affidavits, contracts, medical records, insurance policies, or discovery documents into English. Localizing your marketing collateral, advertisements, or website can help you connect with new LEP clients.
2. Evaluate language services providers
You’ll want to get the most value from your interpretation and translation partner. Look for a language services provider (LSP) who offers:
- Trained interpreters: Our Many LSPs primarily rely upon self-employed, 1099 independent contractor interpreters who cannot be legally trained or scheduled at peak times. In comparison, CyraCom focuses on hiring W2 employee interpreters, meaning we can lawfully train our employee interpreters to our standards and help them continue to improve with ongoing training and call monitoring.
- Experienced translators: Make sure you’re working with subject matter expert linguists who are familiar with legal terminology in addition to providing high-quality, localized translations. CyraCom’s translation team provides a comprehensive quality assurance process that ensures each project includes proofreading from a second linguist. This extra step helps ensure your message is accurate and culturally appropriate.
- Third-party quality accreditations: Your LSP should prove the quality of service through third-party audits. For example, CyraCom maintains four ISO accreditations for our language services:
- ISO 9001:2015 Certification - Quality Management System
- ISO 27001:2013 Certification - Information Security Management
- ISO 17100:2015 Certification - Translation Services
- ISO 13485:2016 Certification - Medical Device Translation
- Confidentiality: Maintaining your client’s confidentiality is a must. Choose an LSP with detailed data security processes to protect your firm and clients.
- Dedicated account support: When you need help with language services, support should be a quick click or call away. In addition to dedicated account and project management, CyraCom offers 24/7 client services to help with material requests, interpreter commendations/complaints, and resolving or escalating equipment and connectivity issues. Learn more about CyraCom’s helpful tools & support services.
- Fair & straightforward pricing: Don’t waste time trying to decipher invoices. Select a partner who keeps pricing simple. CyraCom provides our partners easy-to-read, per-minute pricing for our interpretation services and free quotes for translation projects. We believe our clients shouldn’t have to account for hidden fees or see unexpected add-on costs on their bills.
- Simple, real-time reporting: Reviewing data shouldn’t be a chore—busy firms need the most relevant information fast. CyraCom’s reporting includes customized support/resource materials, business reviews, & real-time reporting to keep your stakeholders informed.
If you plan to submit a Request for Proposal (RFP) or want a list of questions to ask potential providers, check out CyraCom’s helpful interpretation and translation guides.
3. Review best practices
Once you’ve compared providers and found the right one for you, use these tips and tricks for streamlined service:
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