Corrext and DeepL. The same engine, within a framework that protects professional secrecy
DeepL Pro is a very good general-purpose translation engine, and it is available in Corrext. This page does not try to turn you away from it. It sets out what DeepL Pro does well, then exactly where the difference lies for a Swiss legal matter.
Request a demoThe short answer
Yes, DeepL Pro can translate a legal text: it is a fast, fluent engine.
In Corrext, it remains available, but under your organisation's governance. The difference is not fluency. It lies in where data is processed, in Swiss legal terminology and in the review chain.
- Where processing happens, decided by you
Storage on Swiss servers in every case; processing exclusively in Switzerland with LexMachina or in Highly sensitive content mode, in German, French, Italian and English.
- Swiss terminology, with sources
The CHnell concordancer shows the term in aligned segments from the Federal Gazette, fedlex.admin.ch or other official sources, with its domain.
- The rest of the work
Alternatives compared per engine, Light, Full or Double review ordered in the tool, quote and delivery time, certified translation with notarisation or apostille.
What DeepL Pro does well
It would be dishonest to claim otherwise: DeepL Pro is one of the best general-purpose translation engines on the market, and many legal experts use it every day to good effect.
- Fluency
Its output reads naturally, even in long sentences with subordinate clauses, which are the daily fare of a statute or a contract.
- Formats
It translates Office documents and PDFs while keeping most of the layout, which saves rebuilding a document by hand.
- Glossaries
It lets you define your own term pairs, so that a specific word is translated the same way from one document to the next.
- A public commitment on data
DeepL states that its Pro customers' texts are deleted after translation and are not used to train its models. We have no reason to doubt it.
Eleven criteria, verifiable on both sides
What we say about DeepL Pro is limited to what is public and stable: a general-purpose translation engine, infrastructure located outside Switzerland, no integrated legal review chain, no Swiss law concordancer with sources. On everything else, DeepL Pro does what it says it does, and does it well.
| DeepL Pro alone | Corrextwith access to DeepL Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Confidentiality | ||
| Where documents are stored | Outside Switzerland | Swiss servers, in every case |
| Where the text is processed | Outside Switzerland | Exclusively in Switzerland with LexMachina or in Highly sensitive mode; outside Switzerland if you choose DeepL Pro |
| Warning before a document is sent | None | Attorney-Client privilege notice shown when the engine is chosen |
| On-premises deployment | ½Depends on the enterprise plan | Available, with a REST API for your DMS and workflows |
| Legal quality | ||
| Swiss legal terminology in context | ½Glossaries you build yourself | CHnell: aligned segments, 30 domains, official sources |
| Swiss legal references (Art. 104 CO, Art. 47 BankA, Art. 186 PILA) | ½General-purpose engine, to be checked case by case | LexMachina trained on Swiss law, one-click check in CHnell |
| Comparing several engines on the same sentence | One engine only | Up to four alternatives, each labelled with its engine |
| Review and delivery | ||
| Human review ordered in the tool | No | Light review, Full review, Double review, internal or external |
| Quote and delivery time before you start | No | Calculated in the tool, from the standard pages and the detected legal category |
| Certified, notarised or apostilled translation | No | Double review & certified translation; translation of commercial register extracts, up to the apostille |
| Formats and layout preserved | Yes, Office documents and PDFs | Yes, up to 25 files of 50 MB, original format, plus PDF to Word |
Available and observed½Partial or depends on the planNot available
Comparison made on the date this page went online, from the publishers' public information and our own observations in Corrext. The products compared change over time: only their official documentation is authoritative.
An example based on an article of the Banking Act
A banking law sentence, translated from French into German in Corrext. The two outputs below were collected on the same day, in the same alternatives panel.
L'établissement assujetti veille au respect du secret bancaire au sens de l'art. 47 LB et met en œuvre les exigences de la FINMA en matière de lutte contre le blanchiment d'argent.
Fast Lookup| What to look at | LexMachina | DeepL Pro |
|---|---|---|
| ‘établissement assujetti’ (supervised entity) | beaufsichtigteofficialthe term used in Art. 3 FINMASA | unterstelltedescriptive rendering |
| The legal reference | Artikel 47 BankGthe German abbreviation of the Banking Act | Art. 47 BankGthe German abbreviation of the Banking Act |
Both outputs cite Art. 47 BankG; only LexMachina uses the term from the Financial Market Supervision Act.
Compare the engines on your own texts in the demo- Real outputs obtained in Corrext for this exact sentence, from French into German, in the Alternatives panel.
- Beaufsichtigte: the term used in Art. 3 FINMASA, checked in CHnell and on Fedlex.
- This is a one-off, dated example, not a measurement: another sentence, another language pair or another generation would give a different result.
Should a law firm give up DeepL?
No, and banning it does not work: shadow translation starts again the next day, in a tab nobody sees. Corrext starts from the opposite premise. DeepL Pro remains available, alongside LexMachina, Azure OpenAI GPT and Claude, but choosing it displays the Attorney-Client privilege notice at the moment of sending. The notice restates your organisation's policy: pseudonymisation of the document, sensitive matters excluded. Your teams keep the tool they like, and your professional secrecy keeps its framework.
HomeAMYou have chosen to use third-party translation engines hosted abroad. Before uploading your file(s), your organization requires you to remove any references that could potentially disclose the identity of clients, any other related parties, or the subject matter at hand. Third-party translation engines hosted abroad may exclusively be used for documents that have been completely pseudonymized. The use of such engines for high-profile or price-sensitive matters is strictly prohibited.
Le débiteur en demeure doit des intérêts moratoires au taux de 5% l'an, conformément à l'art. 104 al. 1 CO, sans qu'une mise en demeure formelle soit nécessaire lorsqu'un terme a été convenu.
Fast LookupThe debtor in default shall owe default interest at the rate of 5% per annum in accordance with CO Art. 104 para. 1, without the need for formal notice when a term has been agreed.
The text of the policy appears when the engine is chosen, not in a separate document.
Client names, parties and the subject matter are removed before anything is sent to a foreign engine.
Storage and processing exclusively in Switzerland, in German, French, Italian and English.
Frequently asked questions about DeepL and legal translation
Can I use DeepL for a document covered by professional secrecy?
The issue is not the quality of the engine. It is the transfer of the document outside Switzerland. In Corrext, choosing DeepL Pro triggers the Attorney-Client privilege notice, which restates your organisation's policy: the document must be fully pseudonymised, and these engines are not used for sensitive matters. For a document that has not been pseudonymised, choose LexMachina or Highly sensitive content mode, both of which require processing exclusively in Switzerland. The rule that binds you remains that of your firm and your supervisory authority.
Does DeepL process my data in Switzerland?
No. DeepL is a German company and its infrastructure is located outside Switzerland. In Corrext, DeepL Pro is therefore classed among the third-party engines hosted abroad and triggers the Attorney-Client privilege notice. For storage and processing exclusively in Switzerland, choose LexMachina or turn on Highly sensitive content mode, available in German, French, Italian and English.
Does Corrext replace DeepL?
No: Corrext can use DeepL Pro. You choose the engine each time you send a text, alongside LexMachina, Azure OpenAI GPT and Claude, and the Alternatives panel compares up to four suggestions, each labelled with its engine. What Corrext adds is not one more engine. It is the framework around it: Swiss storage, the notice before sending, the CHnell concordancer, human review ordered in the tool, the quote and certification.
What does an engine trained on Swiss law add?
LexMachina is trained on more than 15 million Swiss multilingual legal and financial segments. In practice, it knows the country's abbreviations and conventions: CO and OR, LB and BankG, LDIP and IPRG (the French and German abbreviations of the Code of Obligations, the Banking Act and the Federal Act on Private International Law), the Swiss spelling with ss, and the Federal Supreme Court rather than a foreign court. That does not make it infallible: no engine is a source of law, which is why Corrext shows the alternatives and the concordancer.
Does DeepL Pro keep my texts?
DeepL states publicly that texts translated by its Pro customers are deleted after translation and are not used to train its models. It is a serious commitment, and we have no reason to doubt it. For a matter covered by professional secrecy, the open question is not retention. It is the transfer of the document outside Switzerland, and the absence of any warning at the moment of sending.
How do I check a Swiss legal term after a translation?
In Corrext, highlight the word in the source text and click Fast Lookup. The CHnell concordancer displays aligned segments from official Swiss sources, with the domain and source of each occurrence, and a Show in context link. Verzugszins, for example, returns more than 300 results and Bankgeheimnis more than 400. This traceability is what a translation engine alone does not provide.