Summary

The Sworn Translators Act entered into effect on 1 October 2002. Under the Act, a sworn translator certifies the correctness of translations of documents translated by the translator himself or herself or by another person, the authenticity of copies of such translations and the authenticity of copies of documents to be translated. As the work of a sworn translator involves translation and deciding on the correctness of a translation, candidates for the profession should be top translators.

The first part of the test for sworn translator candidates was conducted at the end of 2002 and involved the translation of a legal text from Estonian into English and vice versa and the revision of a legal translation. The article outlines the main general shortcomings revealed in translations (English-Estonian and Estonian-English) and offers examples of typical mistakes. On the basis of the analysed shortcomings, the authors make several proposals for organising training for sworn translators in Estonia.