| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3] | liability for a "faulty" translation Thread poster: Scheherezade Suria Lopez
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| This dog isn't sleeping | Jan 23, 2009 |
Eric Hahn wrote:
... if I were you, I would do nothing but wait.
Don't contact them directly any more and consult your own lawyer only after receipt of a letter from their lawyer.
There's not a problem with making contact. Potential problems will be created if she makes commitments. If she can't discipline herself to be noncommital at this point in discussions and simply request necessary information (like the critical insurance status), then I agree, she should refrain from discussions at this point and just be very brief, polite and say things like "I'm looking into this".
I would indeed have a brief, preliminary chat with an attorney now. If she is a member of a professional association like I am (BDÜ), there may be free attorney consultations available. If not, go prepared to a brief meeting with a clearly written, factual summary, and she ought to get useful advice without bankrupting herself.
In any case, she ought to get her tail in gear and look into business liability insurance now. Sometimes banks may offer good rates on it, and translators' or writers' associations sometimes get special deals.
| | | | Eric Hahn (X) 
France
Local time: 22:54
French to German
+ ...
As a former member of the BDÜ, I had a similar experience ten years ago :
The client came back after three months and wanted me to pay for the proofreading !
I think they had a good lawyer because they gave up and paid me rapidly !
Note : In these cases (when the client doesn't want to pay), no liablility insurance helps, except for the legal costs, which is better than nothing
[Edite... See more As a former member of the BDÜ, I had a similar experience ten years ago :
The client came back after three months and wanted me to pay for the proofreading !
I think they had a good lawyer because they gave up and paid me rapidly !
Note : In these cases (when the client doesn't want to pay), no liablility insurance helps, except for the legal costs, which is better than nothing
[Edited at 2009-01-23 14:08 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Eric Hahn wrote:
Note : In these cases (when the client doesn't want to pay), no liablility insurance helps, except for the legal costs, which is better than nothing
The direct damages (printing costs) are indeed covered. I have discussed this specific scenario in detail with my insurance company several times in the past (when talking about coverage - I wasn't facing any claims).
| | | | Eric Hahn (X)
France
Local time: 22:54
French to German
+ ...
Maybe you didn't read my post. I wrote: When the client doesn't want to pay.
The liability insurance only covers direct damages like printing costs etc., but not your own losses.
This could be very damaging if you did translate a book for example.
But as I pointed out, at least it helped for the legal costs.
This is not off-topic because they thought that proofreading a book before it's publication could be regarded as a damage !
... See more Maybe you didn't read my post. I wrote: When the client doesn't want to pay.
The liability insurance only covers direct damages like printing costs etc., but not your own losses.
This could be very damaging if you did translate a book for example.
But as I pointed out, at least it helped for the legal costs.
This is not off-topic because they thought that proofreading a book before it's publication could be regarded as a damage !
[Edited at 2009-01-23 16:19 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Paul Cohen
Greenland
Local time: 19:54
German to English
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| Why I like working for agencies | Jan 23, 2009 |
We cannot ask an end-client to make sure the final text is without typos (...). That's the job of the agency, that's what they were paid for. In any case, the liability is with the agency.
I agree.
By the way, I love the plumber analogy!
One of the reasons that I like working for agencies is that they deal with the end-clients and they take responsibility when things go wrong. That makes me the plumber's assistant, not the plumber. That's fine by me. I don't get those weekend calls from irate customers whose toilets are overflowing. The "agency" does.
A surprising number of agencies just send out texts without even glancing at them, often because they don't have a proofreader for that particular language combination or because they want to cut costs. As we can see, that's playing with fire. Eventually, such agencies will get burned. No doubt about it: The agency should have had the text proofread before it went to the client.
My advice to Scheherezade would be to think about how important it is for her to continue working for this particular agency. If she wants to maintain this business relationship, in addition to offering the translation for free, she might want to help out with the damages -- but she shouldn't bail out the agency entirely and, as others have rightly pointed out, unless she has signed an agreement dealing with liability, she is under no legal obligation to provide the agency with any compensation.
She is essentially a plumber's assistant who has selected the wrong fitting. Unfortunately, the plumber didn't check it prior to installation, and now the toilet is overflowing. Can the plumber expect the assistant to pay for all the damages? No, especially not if an insurance policy would cover it. Should the assistant bend over backwards to save her job? Well, that depends on how badly she needs to keep working for this particular plumber …
| | | | | Brochures are normally not error free | Jan 26, 2009 |
A typo here and a typo there... if those mistakes are not big, the brochure is not necessarily unusable. Also, you should not pay anything unless they are able to show you 20-30 copies of the brochure. Otherwise, you don't know if they have printed it. Also, they should be able to show some copies of the new brochure without the errors. If not, I wouldn't trust those errors to be so devastating.
I also doubt that they can charge more than you have received for the job. Error free tr... See more A typo here and a typo there... if those mistakes are not big, the brochure is not necessarily unusable. Also, you should not pay anything unless they are able to show you 20-30 copies of the brochure. Otherwise, you don't know if they have printed it. Also, they should be able to show some copies of the new brochure without the errors. If not, I wouldn't trust those errors to be so devastating.
I also doubt that they can charge more than you have received for the job. Error free translations are not very common. As a proofreader, I never use more than two minutes before I find the first mistake.
Last way out of trouble: Ask them if they normally print brochures without errors. If they confirm, say "Ha, ha! Show me!". They will send you three brochures to prove it. Spend 15 minutes on each of them. Find a bunch of errors. Argue that the brochure you wrote has fewer errors than the brochures they normally print. ▲ Collapse
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