Centre de traduction et de documentation juridiques de l'Université d'Ottawa

About

Welcome to the Centre for Legal Translation and Documentation at the University of Ottawa

The Centre for Legal Translation and Documentation (CLTD) is a not-for-profit organization located on the University of Ottawa campus. The CLTD was founded in 1981 by the University of Ottawa and the Association des juristes d’expression française de l’Ontario (AJEFO). The role of the CLTD is to create the legal documentation needed for practising law and delivering legal services in French, primarily in Ontario, but also in the other common law provinces and territories. The Department of Justice Canada provides financial aid to the CLTD through the Access to Justice in Both Official Languages Support Fund.

Who we are

In 1981, students registered in the brand new French Common Law Program at the University of Ottawa and francophone lawyers in Ontario had practically no tools for working in their language. This was the beginning of common law in French in Canada, and this is why AJEFO approached the University of Ottawa to establish a not-for-profit organization tasked with creating the tools that were lacking. The result was that in September 1981, Roger Guindon, Rector of the University of Ottawa, and Robert Paris, President of the AJEFO, announced the creation of the Centre for Legal Translation and Documentation. The Centre was the product of the combined efforts of the AJEFO and the Common Law and Civil Law Sections of the Faculty of Law, with the help of the School of Translation and Interpretation (STI) of the University of Ottawa, the Centre’s partners.

In addition to doing work supported by the Support Fund, the CLTD offers translation and legal writing services to the legal community as a whole on a fee-for-service basis, and also provides documentation services and terminology information free of charge. Through its use of information technology and its highly specialized lawyer-linguists, the CLTD has done important work and produced a long list of publications in the field of common law in French over the years.

Our Services

Translation

Since the CLTD was established in 1981, the primary focus of our organization has been translation. We translate from English to French and from French to English. The CLTD handles specialized legal texts such as statutes and regulations, contracts, judgments, pleadings, textbooks, simplified legal publications, and moot court rules and documents. However, the CLTD’s translation activities have also extended to cover a wide range of texts that are not primarily legal, such as annual reports, press releases, websites, and more.

Revision

The CLTD offers two types of revision services: revising translations to ensure accuracy and conformity with the relevant usages and terminology, and to ensure the quality of the language used; and revising French texts to meet language quality standards.

Training

The CLTD has long been involved in providing training in legal French, which it does through presentations, workshops, courses, and internships. We have also facilitated workshops and given courses for judges and lawyers. We have given presentations and held workshops for organizations whose activities relate to law, and given presentations and courses on legal translation and terminology as part of programs offered at the University of Ottawa.

Terminology

The CLTD has been helping to develop a body of French terminology for Ontario legislation and the common law since its earliest days. Our achievements in this field can be seen in Ontario legislation, the Lexicon of Ontario Statutes and Regulations, and various Canadian French common law lexicons. Our terminological efforts are currently focused on the standardization of French common law vocabulary in various fields. This work is subsidized by the Department of Justice Canada through PAJLO, and utilizes the skills of the Canadian jurilinguistic centres and the Translation Bureau.

Our Team

Jenny Fahmy LL.B., trad.a.

Translator-Editor

Telephone:
613-562-3061
Email:
jfahmy@uottawa.ca

Gina Paquette

Administrative Assistant / Coordinator

Telephone:
613-562-5244
Email:
gpaquet7@uottawa.ca

Our achievements include:

Publication of the Guide du praticien : Modèles d’actes juridiques en droit de la famille, en droit des successions, en droit commercial, en droit pénal et en droit immobilier  (1982).

Part 1: Formules des règles de procédure civile (AJEFO) (2001), Updated 2004 [Rules of Civil Procedure Forms]

Part 2: Droit des successions (AJEFO) (2003), updated 2004 [Wills and Estates]

Part 3: Droit de la famille (AJEFO) (2002), updated 2005 [Family Law]

Publication of Formules de procédure civile: translation of Williston & Rolls Court Forms (1995).

Translation of numerous simplified legal publications for Community Legal Education Ontario (Information juridique communautaire de l’Ontario).

Translation of common law textbooks:

  • Allen M. Linden. La responsabilité civile délictuelle (Éditions Yvon Blais Inc.) (1988) and also the sixth edition published in 2001 (Centre franco-ontarien de ressources pédagogiques) [Canadian Negligence Law].
  • Stephen M. Waddams. Le droit des contrats(Centre franco-ontarien de ressources pédagogiques, 1992) [The Law of Contracts].
  • J. Donahue and P. D. Quinn. La pratique du droit immobilier en Ontario, 5th edition (Centre franco-ontarien de ressources pédagogiques, 1998) [Real Estate Practice in Ontario].
  • Watson & McGowan. La procédure civile en Ontario – 1994and also the 2000-2002, 2002-2004, 2005 and 2006 updates and the 2010 revision (Centre franco-ontarien de ressources pédagogique) [Ontario Civil Practice].

Assistance in writing original French publications, including:

  • Joseph Roach. Les hypothèques immobilières en common law (Éditions Yvon Blais Inc., 1991)
  • Éléments de la common law et aperçu comparatif du droit civil québécois, Louise Bélanger-Hardy and Aline Grenon, eds. Montreal: Carswell, 1997
  • Louise Bélanger-Hardy and Denis Boivin. La responsabilité délictuelle en common law (Éditions Yvon Blais, 2005)
  • Denis Boivin. Le droit des assurances dans les provinces de common law (LexisNexis, 2006)
  • Nicole LaViolette and Julie Audet. L’essentiel du droit de la famille dans les provinces et territoires de common law au Canada (Éditions Yvon Blais, 2014)

In collaboration with the Law Society of Upper Canada, creation of a professional development course in French legal language for lawyers and law students.

Participation in the work of the Committee for the Standardization of the French Vocabulary of Common Law.

Translation of professional development courses and bar admission examinations for the Law Society of Upper Canada.

Participation in the activities of the Réseau national de formation en justice.

Translation of judgments of the Court of Appeal for Ontario that are published on this website and in the Recueil de jurisprudence de l’Ontario published by LexisNexis Canada Inc.

Publication of a number of lexicons:

  • Lexicon of Ontario Statutes and Regulations, 2nd edition, entirely revised, updated and expanded; prepared with the assistance of the Office of the Legislative Counsel of Ontario (Centre franco-ontarien de ressources pédagogiques, 1993)
  • Lexicon of Ontario Statutes and Regulations on Education (Centre franco-ontarien de ressources pédagogiques, 1993)
  • Glossary of Tort Law (Centre franco-ontarien de ressources pédagogiques, 1992) 
  • Ontario Legal Aid Lexicon (Centre franco-ontarien de ressources pédagogiques, 1993)
  • Criminal Law Legislation Lexicon (Centre franco-ontarien de ressources pédagogiques, 1995) 
  • Legal Glossary of Federal Statutes (published on our website) (1999)

Participation in the preparation of lexicons as part of the work of PAJLO:

  • Law of Trusts Glossary, BT-259(Translation Bureau, 2005)
  • Law of contracts and law of torts glossary (common law) BT-266 (Translation Bureau, 2008)
  • Law of security glossary (common law), BT-269 (Translation Bureau, 2009)
  • Family Law Glossary (Common Law), BT-271 (Translation Bureau, 2010)
  • Alternative Dispute Resolution Glossary (Common Law), BT-296 (Translation Bureau, 2016)