Risk perception and risk management in legal translation: a questionnaire survey

While risk as a concept has aroused interest in Translation Studies in recent years, empirical research on the topic is still lacking. Mostly regarded as an adverse factor, risk has close conceptual links to translation quality and translation ethics. Legal translation is a field in which risk awareness and risk management are of the utmost importance given the values at stake. Curiously, the number of lawsuits or formal complaints against translators is very low. A questionnaire survey was conducted among Czech legal translators to provide insights into their perception of risk and risk management methods. The results show that legal translation is mostly regarded as riskier than other areas of translation and that risk perception partly depends on previous exposure to the field. Translating into a foreign language, though potentially risky, is almost unanimously considered inevitable. Literal equivalents are perceived as safer than loose equivalents, but loose equivalents tend to be preferred with increasing practice. Complaints from clients are extremely rare and never have serious consequences. Current developments in the industry, such as the increasing use of internet resources and machine translation, are likely to have an impact on risk perception and risk management in the future.