We’ve blogged about notarized and certified translation of foreign laws and wills and certified court interpreters providing professional court interpreting and translation services in Asian, Slavic and European languages in Colorado courts.
A common situation is that a person owns property in country X but did not live there at the time of death. The heirs then are faced with the question of how to transfer the property from country X to the state of residence?
Luckily, many states have solutions. For example, according to Texas law, the property can be transferred so long as the will is valid in accordance to the jurisdiction that it was created in. So, if a will is drafted and signed in France, then it must adhere to the legal requirements for a valid will in France, not Texas.
If the foreign will has already been to probate in France, then official proof of this must be filed with the Texas probate court, who will then order how the property in question should be distributed.
If, however, the will was not probated, then, in our example, the Texas case will either send the will back to France for probate, or will record the deed of records per the terms of the will.
In either case, the French will needs to include an authenticated foreign language translation.