Suppose you receive an email from a lawyer in South Africa who is preparing a case for which a Dutch document—specifically, a “Notice of Divorce Regarding the Division of a Retirement Pension”—needs to be translated into English urgently.

This happened to us recently. It was because a friend of ours who lives in South Africa had recommended that lawyer to us. The request came in on April 23, and the certified translation had to be physically delivered to the lawyer by May 2 at the latest.

That meant we would not only have to work under pressure—which we’re used to—but also figure out which courier would be able to get the document to South Africa in no time. After some research, DHL turned out to be the right partner for the job. The document was to be picked up on April 29 and delivered to the lawyer by noon on May 2.

After receiving the client’s approval, we got to work. I did the translation, and my colleague handled the certification; after all, a butcher doesn’t inspect his own meat. Preparing a certified translation like this is actually a lot of fun, because it always leads to interesting discussions about terminology. An example of this in this case was the term “prenuptial agreement.” Most people are familiar with prenuptial agreements in the context of getting married: you marry under the community property regime or under a prenuptial agreement. This means that these terms are drawn up before the marriage. But it’s also possible to draw up a prenuptial agreement during the marriage. As a result, it wasn’t sufficient to translate “huwelijkse voorwaarden” as “prenuptial agreement,” so we translated the term as “prenuptial and/or postnuptial agreement.”

The translation was finished on Wednesday, and the certified translation was ready on Thursday evening. On Friday morning, my colleague had the certified translation bound together with the source text, and a little after 1:00 p.m., the courier was at the door to pick up the document.

And then, once we’d handed over the document, we also had to relinquish control and wait to see if DHL would actually manage to deliver the package to South Africa on time. And they did. Shortly after 1:00 p.m. on May 2, I received a message from the lawyer saying that the document had been delivered.

I love it when a plan comes together. A happy customer means we're happy. Delivering quality work exactly when it's needed.

With warm regards,

Willem Ezerman

Director / English Translator