A certified sworn translation is a translation made by a person registered as a translator and interpreter on the official roll of any Italian Law Court, a concept that does not exist in U.K.
This is done because some public authorities require the identification and professionalism of the translator and to make him/her accountable for what has been translated. (S)he is not accountable for the contents of what has been translated though, as long as it has been translated well.
This is normally done in person by the translator before an official representative in a Law Court where (s)he swears to have faithfully translated the document by signing a Statement of Oath affix stamps (€16 each) on every fourth page of the translated document. The translator may be held responsible for negligence, mistranslation or substantial mistakes.
There is no uniformity amongst Italian Law Courts, each Tribunal has its own rules, some require an extra stamp of €3.84 on the Statement of Oath, others require stamps on the source text too, doubling the price of the overall legalisation process.
Legalisation can be done on the same day, but if there are other procedures involved, such as an Apostille, then the document has to be registered by a different office and collected after a couple of days.
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