Volume 4, Number 1, March, 1994
CAVEAT EMPTOR
Freelance translators tend to view translation brokers as employers when in fact these agencies are offering their
services to the freelance translator. Translation agencies act as middlemen between freelance translators and clients
seeking translations, and often provide complementary services such as editing & proofing, terminology research, special
printing and publishing features and so on. The point is, they are selling their services not only to the client, but to the
freelance translator as well. When a translator elects to do business with an agency, she is hiring that agency to broker
her work. The freelance translator's payment to the agency is the discounted rate the translator offers in exchange for the
brokering service. By the same token, the client is charged a premium rate for such things as competency screening,
multiple language versions of a source document, troubleshooting, advising and so on. The broker makes a profit by
buying low and selling high just like any other purveyor of goods or services. The translator must examine the services
offered and decide whether or not the terms and quality are acceptable. A good place to start is with the written
agreement.
Problems arise when distinctions between contracts, hold harmless agreements, waivers of rights to intellectual
property and statements of confidentiality become blurred, or when a single document tries to combine all four. A hold
harmless agreement is the assumption of another's liability. Different state courts regulate and rule on these differently,
and there are entire textbooks devoted to the issue. It is not a good idea to sign any agreement you do not fully
understand. About a third of the contractual papers crossing my desk contain language or terms that need to be edited or
deleted. About half of these are amended and the other half go in the trash. To demonstrate the importance of reading the
fine print, here are actual samples of agreement documents sent out by a