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Program seeks to boost numbers of non-Spanish, certified court interpreters

By: Erika Strebel, [email protected]//June 8, 2016//

Program seeks to boost numbers of non-Spanish, certified court interpreters

By: Erika Strebel, [email protected]//June 8, 2016//

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Attorney Cynthia Herber, of Milwaukee’s La Fleur Law, worked as a Spanish interpreter for the state and federal courts for seven years. She left the profession in 2011 but often encounters court interpreters in her practice because many of her clients speak only Spanish and need interpreters in court. (Staff photo by Kevin Harnack)
Attorney Cynthia Herber, of Milwaukee’s La Fleur Law, worked as a Spanish interpreter for the state and federal courts for seven years. She left the profession in 2011 but often encounters court interpreters in her practice because many of her clients speak only Spanish and need interpreters in court. (Staff photo by Kevin Harnack)

Interpreting the numbers

21,825.5: The number of hours of court interpreting used in state courts in 2015

17,725.5 of those hours were in Spanish

1,003.75 of those hours were in American Sign Language

896.25 hours were in Hmong

402.75 hours were in Arabic

189 hours were in Burmese

149 hours were in Somali

124.25 hours were in Vietnamese

136.5 hours were in Mandarin

102.75 hours were in Russian

100.75 hours were in Serbian-Croatian

Source: Carmel Capati, Wisconsin court interpreter program manager, Director of State Courts Office of Court Operations

In the 12 years that Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Paul Van Grunsven has been on the bench, there’s scarcely been a week he hasn’t needed to call in an interpreter to translate statements made in a foreign language. He’s also had two jury trials which required turning to someone who can relay messages made in American Sign Language.

Given that history, it’s no surprise that Van Grunsven finds interpreters crucial not only to his courtroom but also to the entire justice system.

“The system fails if we don’t provide language assistance,” he said. “The interpreter is just as important as my court reporter, bailiff and clerk.”

Recognizing the importance of interpreters, Wisconsin maintains a list of more than 100 professionals from around the country that the courts can tap. Yet, even with such an extensive resource, deficiencies exist. Demand is particularly high for certified interpreters of languages other than Spanish.

Interpreters are most often needed in family and traffic cases, as well as certain types of cases that are typically handled in children’s court. Parents also request them in delinquency proceedings, and they are needed in some criminal and small-claims cases.

Milwaukee County, the most populous county in the state, makes the greatest use of interpreters, said Carmel Capati, manager of Wisconsin’s court interpreter program.

To become a court interpreter, a person must go beyond the basic requirement of being bilingual. Besides the obvious need to have a deep knowledge of whatever language is to be translated, an interpreter also must have an extensive understanding of legal language, and of the court interpreter’s code of ethics.

Cynthia Herber, a Milwaukee attorney, said the job is not for everyone. The seven years she spent working as a Spanish interpreter for both the state and federal courts, before deciding to devote her time to practicing law, gave her a first-hand understanding of how demanding the work can be.

“To be an interpreter you have to have a certain skill,” she said. “It’s an ability to hear in one language and spit out the content in another language. You have to do it at a certain speed.”

Herber’s law degree gave her an advantage over other interpreters, since it meant she would have no trouble understanding legal proceedings. The tough part for her, she said, was in coming to grips with that fact that the interpreter’s code of ethics barred her from trying to help out the parties in a case.

“When you are an interpreter people are supposed to know you are there but you are not supposed to be heard,” she said. “You are there to facilitate communication. You are not a party to any proceeding.”

In Milwaukee County, Van Grunsven said, demand is strongest for interpreters of Spanish, Hmong and in sign language. Spanish interpreters, he said, practically inhabit the courthouse’s hallways. Seeing similar needs, Dane County officials have decided to have two interpreters of Spanish on their courthouse staff.

The ease of using those professionals’ services, though, does little to meet the need for people who can translate languages such as Urdu, Arabic and Somali. Capati said demand is particularly strong for people who can interpret statements made by refugees from Myanmar, formerly Burma. Making the situation unusually difficult is the great variety of languages spoken in Myanmar — not just the dominant tongue of Burmese but scores of others.

Also difficult is finding interpreters who are certified, meaning they have passed both written and oral examinations meant to test their expertise.

Among all languages, Spanish is the easiest for which to find someone who has obtained official recognition of their abilities. Of the hours spent interpreting Spanish in 2015, 98 percent were done by certified professionals.

Unlike a decade ago, it’s now rare for counties to enlist the services of non-certified interpreters of Spanish, said Winnebago County Circuit Court Judge Barbara Key, who is also on the advisory committee for interpreting and translation issues in the courts.

Seeing the greatest needs elsewhere, the committee has shifted its priority to encouraging interpreters of other languages to get certified.

“It’s just crucial that you have a qualified interpreter, and as judges we can trust that interpreter is accurately interpreting that information to the party and witnesses,” said Key.

Behind interpreters of Spanish, the next greatest need is for people who can relay messages in American Sign Language. Of the hours spent interpreting sign language in 2015, only 68 percent were handled by certified professionals.

The numbers only become worse with slightly more uncommon languages. For the hours spent interpreting Hmong, the third most-requested language in the courts, only 16 percent were handled by someone with certification.

While acknowledging that more needs to be done, Herber praised the state’s court interpreter program for promoting a service without which justice would be beyond reach for many. Especially in court, she said, a lot is usually riding on the ability to get accurate translations.

“(Certification means) this person can do this job good enough so that the case will not come back on appeal based on the fact that the defendant did not understand what was going on in the courtroom,” Herber said.

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