Common mistakes in English–Lithuanian contract translation
Algirdas Urbonas · 27 September 2026
If your contract will be signed, registered or enforced in Lithuania, the Lithuanian version is the one a court or registry will read. When I review other translators’ work, I keep finding the same mistakes. Most of them come from translating an English legal concept word for word instead of using the concept Lithuanian law actually has.
Example
One sentence, three versions
Two changes: “shall” becomes the present tense, and the long “hereinafter referred to as” becomes the short “toliau –”.
1. “Shall” is not the future tense
In a contract, “shall” creates an obligation. Lithuanian contracts usually express this with the present tense: “Pirkėjas sumoka per 30 dienų” (“the Buyer pays within 30 days”), not “Pirkėjas turės sumokėti” (“the Buyer will have to pay”).
2. “Hereinafter referred to as”
Lithuanian drafting uses a short formula: “toliau – Sutartis”. A literal “toliau vadinama ‚Sutartimi‘” is understandable, but it reads like a translation and makes every definition longer.
3. “Time is of the essence”
A literal “laikas yra esmė” means nothing in Lithuanian. The legal meaning is that meeting deadlines is an essential term of the contract: “terminų laikymasis yra esminė sutarties sąlyga”. If a deadline is missed, the other party may terminate.
4. “Represents and warrants”
The correct rendering is “pareiškia ir garantuoja”. The literal “atstovauja” means acting on someone else’s behalf, which is a different legal concept altogether.
5. “Force majeure”
Lithuanian law calls it “nenugalima jėga” (Article 6.212 of the Civil Code, headed “Nenugalima jėga (force majeure)”). Use the Lithuanian term, not the literal “didžioji jėga” and not the Latin phrase on its own.
6. “Set-off”
The Civil Code term is “įskaitymas”, a way of extinguishing obligations. Accountants often say “užskaita”, but a contract should use the Code’s term. Machine translation sometimes produces “nustatymas” (“setting”), which is simply wrong.
7. “Joint and several liability”
This is “solidarioji atsakomybė” (Article 6.6 of the Civil Code): one concept, not two. “Bendra ir atskira atsakomybė” is a word-for-word rendering that a Lithuanian lawyer would not recognise.
8. “Governing law”
The Lithuanian term is “taikytina teisė” (“applicable law”), not “valdanti teisė” (“ruling law”). The clause usually reads: “Šiai Sutarčiai taikoma Lietuvos Respublikos teisė.”
9. “Null and void”
The usual rendering is “niekinis ir negaliojantis”. Before choosing it, check whether the clause means a void transaction or a voidable one: Lithuanian law treats them differently.
10. “In witness whereof”
Lithuanian contracts close with a standard formula: “Tai patvirtindamos, Šalys pasirašė šią Sutartį.” A literal “liudijant ko” sounds archaic and foreign.
What to do with the whole contract
Fixing individual terms is not enough: a contract has to be consistent from the first clause to the last. Before I translate, I build a glossary of defined terms; afterwards, I check numbering, cross-references, dates and amounts against the original.
For more terms with notes, see my free EN–LT contract glossary (PDF, 89 terms, in Lithuanian).
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