Like translation in any field sufficiently technical to warrant its own vocabulary and usage, legal translation is probably best performed by persons with training in the field. It is rare, however, for this to occur. Instead, the work is most often performed by professional translators, ‘general specialists’ who are skilled linguists with the ability to quickly catch on to the jargon and usage of a specific field. Needless to say, pitfalls await. In an attempt to facilitate the work of such translators, this paper offers insights into some of the particular problems that may be encountered by a legal translator. To do this, it first discusses general strategies and resource materials. The paper then incorporates extracts from various Japanese legal documents with draft English translations and discusses the translation difficulties presented by the extracts. This is intended to highlight specific difficulties and offer possible solutions.