Terms of Service For Freelance Translators Or How to Secure Your Translation Business

Just as a client may ask you to sign a contract, so you as a translator may ask your own existing or potential clients to agree to your terms of service. Before accepting any work, it is important to agree on terms of service with the client; some clients will tell you what their usual terms of service are, but there is often some room for negotiation as well.

Depending on who the client is, you might ask them to sign a printed copy of your terms of service, or you might send an e-mail summarizing what your terms of service are. Your agreement with the client should first summarize the project, per-word rate, whether the word count is based on the source or target count, the project deadline, the file format, and the delivery method.

Even with a client that you work for regularly, you should always summarize the basic elements of the project so that everyone is in agreement before you start work. With a regular client, this would probably take the form of an e-mail confirming the project's due date and payment rate, along with any special instructions.

Following summary of the project specifications, you should include your own terms of service, in addition to payment terms as shown above. Following are some of the more common terms of service used by freelance translators. Not all of these terms will apply to every translator, so it is important to chose the ones that are important for you, and to modify them to your particular situation:

- No claims will be considered after X days from the date of invoice. You need to set a time frame within which the agency can ask you for revisions, tell you that there's a problem with the translation, etc. You don't want an agency coming back several months later to complain about a project that you barely remember working on, but you do need to give the agency time to solicit feedback from their end client. So, a time limit of somewhere between two weeks and one month is probably reasonable.

- Within the limits of the law, all claims will be limited to the amount of this invoice. A clause such as this lets the client know that if they're not satisfied with your work, the most they can do is refuse to pay you; they can't, for example, ask you to forgo your own payment and reimburse them for the cost of additional editing of your translation. However, especially if you translate for direct clients, there may be situations where the client is legally allowed to sue you for damages if they are sued as a result of errors in your translation. Make sure you are clear on this before accepting work from a client that is not a translation agency. Translators who work for direct clients should strongly consider carrying professional liability /Errors and Omissions insurance, in the event that a client pursues a legal or financial claim against you for errors in your work. The American Translators Association offers this type of insurance through an affiliated insurance agency, and independent agents may sell it as well.

- The client's terms of service are not in effect until approved in writing by the translator. This prevents the client from holding you responsible for abiding by a contract that you haven't signed. For example, the client cannot come back to you after the project and say, "Our translator contract specifies that you don't get paid until the client pays us."

- If the client is employed by an end client or third party, the translator'sbusiness agreement is with the client only. The client must pay the translator as agreed upon, regardless of the end client or third party's payment policies. In essence, you are letting your client (a translation agency or freelance project manager)know that if the end client doesn't pay them, the client still has to pay you. The end client is not your client.

- The translator retains copyright to the translation until the invoice for the translation has been paid in full. When you contract with a client to do a translation for hire, you give up your copyright to the translated work, unless the contract specifies otherwise. However, if the client never pays you or doesn't pay in full, they haven't upheld their end of the work for hire agreement. Basically, this clause gives you the option of pursuing the client or end client for copyright violations if they use your translation without paying you.

- If the translation project is canceled after a project assignment has been made, the translator will be paid for all work completed up to the time of cancellation. Sometimes a client will send you the wrong file, cancel a project or scale a project down in size after you have already started working. While you shouldn't expect to be paid for the entire project unless you've completed it, you should be paid for the part of the work that you've already done, since you obviously can't do anything else with the translation. With a reputable client this shouldn't be a problem as long as the reason for the cancellation is clearly the client's mistake.

- If the client is not satisfied with the translator's work, the translator must be given an opportunity to correct the translation before payment terms or rates are changed. No matter how skilled you are as a translator, some clients will not be fully satisfied with your work. Including this type of clause will (hopefully!) protect you against clients who say that they're not happy with your work, and will not pay you, or take a discount on the agreed-upon price. Before the client brings up any change in the agreed-upon payment terms, they should let you know specifically what is wrong with the translation, and give you the chance to correct it.