How to go about getting a German work contract reviewed?

September 4, 2024 5:34 PM

I’m a Canadian who did some work on a display for a German museum. I delivered it, invoiced and was sent a contract to sign. It's in german and the institution isn’t allowed to provide an english version.

It shouldn’t be terribly complicated but I doubt a google translation could be trusted to give me a proper sense of it. There's no other ongoing work attached and the fee in question isn't large. I’m in no position now to demand amendments but it feels foolish to sign anything I can’t read.

This flat fee contract review service seemed to be exactly what I'm looking for Recht 24-7. Does it seem legit or are there other avenues to check out?

posted by brachiopod to Law & Government (10 answers total)

If you send an e-mail to the Consular Section of the Canadian Embassy in Berlin, they should be able to provide you with a list of lawyers or similar services who could look at it and provide an assessment for you. They won't be able to recommend one over another, though, so you will probably want to contact a couple of them as fees for this kind of thing can vary widely.
posted by rpfields at 5:58 PM on September 4

Are you sure that Google Translate or ChatGPT can't do a good enough job for your purposes? It sounds like there isn't really an enormous amount of perceived risk or distrust or potential downside here.
posted by kickingtheground at 7:48 PM on September 4

I would certainly start out with running it through google translate and maybe a few other such services. That will give you the gist of the areas it's covering and how much risk it might be exposing you to. Just for example it is one thing if it is basically talking about you doing X work for Y compensation and perhaps quite another if it is going into a bunch of other areas.

It seems like you have to weigh the risk against the benefit here (as always). If you are making, say, $2000 it doesn't make much sense to spend $500 of that making sure the terms of the contract are just so. Particularly if it is a fairly bog standard work contract. The only thing you really need to verify is that it really IS a bog standard work contract and that can probably be done via the various translation services.
posted by flug at 9:39 PM on September 4

If the work has been done and delivered this is really about them ticking boxes for procurement and you getting paid and about what warranty you provide. Also worth noting is that German law is based on statute so it‘ll possibly make reference to something called the HGB.

Before you spend a lot of money or time on this, Google translate. Specific focus on warranty and payment related sections and possibly Google to help understand standard terms.
posted by koahiatamadl at 12:16 AM on September 5

You could send it through DeepL and send me a copy of the two versions.. I could clear up any lingering questions (and check the overall integrity of the translation).. I have the defense of my dissertation coming up on Monday, but after that I would gladly look at it..
posted by mathiu at 4:02 AM on September 5

Came in to offer to take a look. I am a native German speaker and part of my job (now am retired) was handling short term contracts. If you want to, memail me and i can the send you my email address.
I can look at it and tell you what it says. And then you can decide If you want to pay for a formal Translation. Of course i am not a lawyer.
posted by 15L06 at 4:25 AM on September 5

Another German native speaker (and non-lawyer) happy to review. But also, I wouldn't go with 24/7 Recht. Horrible reviews.

If you're willing to spend €200, depending on your contract's length, a regular lawyer might be willing to help. In some regions, that should definitely be enough for an hour of their time. There's translators specialized in legal documents who could give you a very accurate translation.
posted by toucan at 11:18 AM on September 5

I'll just stop in to say, you are 100% in a position to request amendments. They were remiss in not having you sign this before the work commenced.

It is almost certainly procurement boilerplate formality, and probably fine to sign. But in similar situations (language issues aside) I have been successful in striking out clauses that would have left me open to more liability than I would have liked, particularly around copyright and IP issues.
posted by hovey at 8:20 PM on September 5

Thank you everyone! I should’ve at least tried Google first. If the machine translation throws up anything confusing, I'lll bring that back here or take up the incredibly kind offers to review it. I’ll hopefully mark this resolved in a few days, when I've had a chance to go over it.
posted by brachiopod at 9:39 PM on September 5

Google translate was perfectly up to the task. It turned out that a lot of it was about sub-contracting and the German working standards I'd need to be in line with. Thanks again to all.
posted by brachiopod at 2:59 AM on September 24