Court Rulings and Arbitration Awards - Translated for Recognition, Enforcement and the Next Hearing

Recognition and enforcement: why the translation is read by a judge

A foreign court judgment or arbitral award is enforced in Georgia only after the Supreme Court of Georgia (for judgments) or a competent court (for awards under the New York Convention) recognizes it, and the application requires the judgment or award, proof that it has entered into legal force, the documents showing that the defendant was properly notified, and, for awards, the arbitration agreement, all apostilled or legalized and translated into Georgian by a notarized translation; the same applies in reverse when a Georgian judgment or award is presented to a foreign court for exequatur, recognition or enforcement. The translation is read by a judge who compares it with the original where the language allows, and by the opposing party's lawyer looking for a reason to object, so it must render the operative part (the "dispositive" of the decision) with exactness, the reasoning faithfully, the procedural history precisely, and every date, amount, party name and court name without variation. We translate judgments and awards with lawyer-translators who know the procedural vocabulary of both systems, and a second legal reviewer reads every one.

Foreign judgments and awards for Georgian courts

Judgments arrive in Georgia from everywhere its citizens and companies have lived, married, traded and disputed: divorce and custody judgments from Germany, Italy, Greece, Spain, Turkey, Russia and Ukraine that must be recognized before a Georgian registry records the divorce or a Georgian court decides on the children; commercial judgments and awards from London, Vienna, Stockholm, Paris, Istanbul, Dubai and Singapore against Georgian debtors; succession decisions determining heirs to Georgian property; maintenance orders; and the judgments of Georgian citizens' own foreign cases that they need recognized at home. We translate the judgment or award, the certificate of legal force, the notification documents and the arbitration agreement into Georgian in the form the Supreme Court and the enforcing courts expect, with the foreign court's name and level, the type of decision and the procedural terms explained in a translator's note where the Georgian system differs (a default judgment, a consent order, a decree nisi and absolute, an interim award, a Syariah court order), and we coordinate with the client's Georgian lawyer on the documents the court will require.

Georgian judgments and awards for foreign courts

Georgian judgments travel abroad for the same reasons: divorce and custody decisions of Georgian courts recognized in the EU, Turkey, Israel and the post-Soviet states; commercial judgments and Georgian International Arbitration Centre awards enforced against foreign debtors; maintenance and succession decisions; and the decisions of Georgian courts that foreign registries require before recording a Georgian divorce or inheritance. The judgment is obtained with its certificate of entry into force, apostilled through the Ministry of Justice route in one to three business days, and translated into the foreign court's language by a notarized translation, which is apostilled as well where the country requires, and re-certified by a sworn or court translator abroad where the foreign court insists on its own translators - which German, Austrian, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Czech, Croatian, Serbian and Turkish courts generally do, and which we arrange through partners using our text. Our language teams know each country's recognition procedure - the German Anerkennungsverfahren, the Italian delibazione, the Spanish exequátur, the Turkish tanıma ve tenfiz, the Russian and Kazakh procedures - and prepare the file in the form each court expects.

Litigation and arbitration documents on deadlines

Cases in progress generate documents that must be translated to procedural deadlines: claims and statements of defense, replies and rejoinders, applications and motions, witness statements and affidavits, expert reports, documentary evidence in bulk, hearing transcripts, procedural orders, and correspondence with the court or tribunal. Georgian courts require notarized translations of foreign-language evidence; arbitral tribunals under the GIAC, ICC, LCIA, VIAC, SCC, DIS, HKIAC and SIAC rules accept certified translations and order translation of specific documents; and foreign courts hearing Georgian parties require translations under their own rules. We translate litigation and arbitration documents with a legal team that reads the whole case file for consistency, maintain a case glossary so that every party, contract term and technical concept is rendered identically across hundreds of pages, staff large evidence productions as a team on the tribunal's timetable, and provide interpreters for hearings, witness examinations and depositions in Tbilisi and by video. Case files are handled under NDA with restricted access and, where required, on secure client platforms.

Divorce, custody, maintenance and succession

Family and succession decisions are the most frequent judgments in personal files, and their translation feeds into registries as well as courts: a foreign divorce judgment must be recognized before a Georgian registry records the divorce and a Georgian citizen can remarry, and a Georgian divorce must be recognized abroad for the same reason; custody and contact orders travel with the children; maintenance orders are enforced across borders under the Hague and bilateral instruments; and succession decisions and inheritance certificates determine who inherits property in the other country. We translate these decisions with attention to the terminology of family and succession law in both systems (the distinction between legal and physical custody, the forms of divorce, forced heirship and the Georgian rules on compulsory shares, the Syariah courts' orders in Muslim family matters), and we translate the civil status certificates, agreements and expert reports that accompany them, so that the family's file is consistent from the judgment to the registry.

Pricing, timing and how to order

Judgments and awards are priced per page at the legal tariff, with a modest supplement for rare languages, plus the notary's fee for notarized translations; the apostille at the state fee plus handling, and sworn re-certification abroad at the partner's rate; litigation files are quoted as a project with a team and a timetable. A short decision is translated in one business day, a reasoned judgment in two to four, and a case file on the tribunal's schedule.

To order, send the judgment or award with its certificate of legal force and any apostille as PDFs on email, WhatsApp or Telegram, and tell us the court or tribunal that will read it and the country; the quote arrives within the hour with the documents the recognition procedure is likely to require. Notarized translations are collected at Agmashenebeli 117, near Marjanishvili Metro, or couriered anywhere; case files are delivered by email or on the client's platform in the original format.

Frequently asked questions

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