If You Don’t Speak Dutch, It’s Your Responsibility To Ask For Language Assistance At The Notary’s Office

In this complaint on appeal the complainant claims it wasn’t until the divorce proceeding that she found out that she had signed an instrument to modify her prenuptial agreement’s marital property distribution during marriage (¶ 2.1). The complainant never knew that she had signed against her interest.

The complainant alleges that before signing the instrument she never had had any contact with the notary (¶ 2.2). The notary only had contact with her ex-husband because they knew each other well. In those days, the complainant hardly spoke or understood any Dutch. The notary allegedly had not, or not adequately, informed her about the instrument’s contents before signing it. She complains that when they executed the instrument to modify the prenuptial agreement, the notary had not given any explanation about the instrument nor asked the complainant whether she had understood its content.

The Board of Ethics holds that if the complainant did not understand the Dutch language, she had not provided the Board enough arguments as to why she did not ask the notary for an interpreter or a translation of the instrument (¶ 4.3). If the complainant did not understand what the instrument said because she did not understand the language sufficiently, it was her responsibility to ask for a translation.

Thank you very much for visiting. Thank you for your donations, for believing in Plus Ultra and for sharing this with anyone who may find this useful. Because of you, we can continue to help the community at large with free multilingual support and in language, law and tourism and create valuable related content, such as articles and videos. Again, we appreciate your support and hope to see you soon again.

© Plus Ultra Publishing & Legal Translations. All rights reserved.