United States District Court, Southern District of New York
Court Interpreting FAQ
Interpreters
- I am interested in working as a Spanish interpreter in federal court.
- I am interested in working as [an other than Spanish] interpreter in federal court.
- I'm a Spanish interpreter and would like to look up frequently used federal court terminology. Where do I start?
Attorneys
- I need a Spanish interpreter for a meeting with my client.
- I need a list of [other than Spanish] interpreters.
- I would like to talk to my client in the cellblock before or after our court appearance.
- I need to get some documents translated. How much should I expect to pay?
- I need an interpreter for a civil case. What do I do?
- How do I know if an interpreter is doing a competent job?
- I'm an AUSA in the Southern District. What is the procedure for scheduling interpreters for court proceedings?
- I'm an AUSA and I need an interpreter for a proffer.
- I'm an AUSA and I need an interpreter for a trial witness.
- What is the current rate paid to contract interpreters in federal court?
About Our Office
- How many staff interpreters do you have?
- What languages are most frequently used?
- Have you been busy lately?
About Court Interpreting Generally
- What do court interpreters do?
- Is simultaneous interpreting difficult?
- What is a certification examination and how is it different from other types of examinations?
- What is the difference between interpretation and translation?
- What if an interpreter doesn't know how to translate a word or phrase?
- What happens if an interpreter makes a mistake?
- Is there a code of ethics that court interpreters and translators must follow?
- Is there a statutory or constitutional right to an interpreter?
- Have cases ever been successfully appealed because of interpreter issues?
- How do you study to become a court interpreter?
- Does court interpreting pay well?
- What kinds of cases do court interpreters do?
- Is the work interesting?
Interpreters
Spanish interpreters are required to obtain federal certification. To find out about the certification examination, administered throughout the country every 18 months, see http://www.ncsconline.org/fcice/. You can purchase the Examinee Handbook and register on line.
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Send a detailed résumé to the district court you are interested in working with, and inquire as to their needs in your language. Most district courts will be interested in knowing you if you are a competent simultaneous interpreter with experience in the legal field. Also see our credentailing overview.
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See our bilingual glossary.
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Attorneys
District courts maintain lists of certified Spanish interpreters in the area. Our list for the SDNY is available here A national court interpreter database is available to all federal court personnel through the J-Net.
For attorney/client meetings in the MCC/MDC, your interpreter must have security clearance in order to be allowed to enter the facility.
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Once you inform us of the need, the language and the nature of the proceeding, we will be glad to provide referrals by email or telephone
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We provide this service as a courtesy to defense counsel so long as other court duties do not interfere. Priority is given to requests made with a minimum of 24 hours notice. If available, an interpreter will assist counsel for a maximum of one hour.
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Prices vary greatly depending on the content, length, language and turn-around time, but translation is generally costlier than people think. Translation prices are customarily based on a word count. The first thing to determine is what information in the document is actually required. Often you may not need the whole document translated, or an initial sight translation (the translator renders a rough version aloud) will reveal the relevant sections which do need complete translation. Money can be needlessly spent on complete translations of documents which are not essential to the case. In large lawsuits where documents are voluminous, it is a good idea to appoint a translation manager to coordinate the effort.
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The Court does not provide an interpreter free of charge in a civil suit unless the government is a party. (28 USC 1827) For any other matter, the party requiring the interpreter is responsible for locating and compensating the interpreter. The interpreters office can help with referrals if you need them. Most importantly, plan ahead, or it may be hard to cover your needs.
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Inquire as to the interpreter's credentials and years of experience. When you first try out an interpreter, if the pacing of the communication seems to flow and the interpreter does not hesitate or mumble, engages in no private conversation with the parties and you hardly even notice the interpreter is there, that is a good indication of competence. It is not a sign of incompetence if an interpreter occasionally asks for clarification of meaning before interpreting.
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Please see instructions for requesting interpreters.
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You can contact, or have your office contact the interpreter directly. Try to find an experienced interpreter who is familiar with federal terminology and knows what a proffer session is. Make sure the interpreter signs a confidentiality agreement. For advice on how to brief the interpreter, see Best practices: For AUSAS
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For trial testimony, care should be taken to find the best possible interpreter for the job. If the testimony will be lengthy (more than an hour or two) you will need two interpreters to rotate with each other to ensure accuracy. It is best to provide continuity, so that the same interpreter(s) who prepared the witness and is familiar with the context and the witness' idiosyncratic use of vocabulary will be the one to interpret at trial. The best interpreter for trial testimony is someone who is experienced, skilled, flexible and does not call attention to him or herself. The interpreter should also be thoroughly familiar with trial protocol and the interpreter?s code of ethics.
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See the interpreter rate schedule
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About Our Office
We have five Spanish interpreters on staff.
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From the time we began logging events in a database on June 1, 2001, up until yesterday, we have recorded 52,005 events in 64 languages. Here is the breakdown by language:
Spanish 41,498 Foochow 2,112 Mandarin 1,811 Arabic 1,085 Cantonese 1,014 Russian 906 French 364 Korean 351 Punjabi 349 Urdu 329 Pashto 185 Hebrew 171 Somali 137 Albanian 131 Turkish 105 German 100 Portuguese 98 Twi 89 Italian 85 Fulani 78 Bengali 72 Polish 72 Yiddish 70 Farsi 61 ASL 60 Greek 59 Georgian 55 Japanese 55 Hindi 49 Haitian Creole 46 Mandingo 42 Gujarati 39 Vietnamese 35 Dutch 34 Soninke 32 Swahili 32 Tagalog 31 Waloof 24 Armenian 16 Serbo-Croatian 14 Yoruba 14 Hausa 11 Romanian 10 Mixteco 9 Ewe 8 Patois 8 Ukrainian 8 Indonesian 7 Ashanti 4 Slovak 4 Bulgarian 3 Cambodian 3 Jamaican Patois 3 Shanghai 3 Songhay 3 Fanti 2 Sinhala 2 Czech 1 Hungarian 1 Ibo 1 Lithuanian 1 Swedish 1 Taiwanese 1 Thai 1
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Yes, the office is generally busy, with staff and freelance interpreters covering many in-court and out-of-court proceedings every day. In the four week period ending yesterday, our office has rendered interpreting and translation services 339 times in 22 languages.
Staff interpreters also assist with administrative work to ensure efficient planning, scheduling, payment, and court operations.
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About Court Interpreting Generally
They orally translate from from one language into another in court proceedings and related events. Their mission is to remove the language barrier for non- or limited-English speakers who come before the courts so that such persons' access to justice is the same as that of similarly situated English speakers. As the NAJIT Code of Ethics describes it, "Source language speech should be faithfully rendered [by the interpreter] into the target language by conserving all the elements of the original message while accommodating the syntactic and semantic patterns of the target language...The register, style and tone of the source language should be conserved."
A court interpreter's job is to convey the proceedings exactly and enable communication to take place regardless of the litigant or witness's ability in English. Interpreters are neutral parties who are not to overstep their role by acting as social worker or legal adviser.
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Generally, yes, because it requires multi-tasking and the use of many cognitive skills at once.
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Interpreter qualifications for different settings may be based on Q & A telephone interviews, screening exams, written testing only or oral testing only, or on full certification testing. Certification testing is generally mandated by legislation for professional standards. From 1979 (when the Court Interpreters Act, 28 USC 1827, became law) to 2002, the federal courts developed certification testing in Spanish, Haitian Creole and Navajo. Federal certification is considered a high standard of interpreter testing. Currently there is no federal certification available in languages other than these three.
Professional associations such as the American Translators Association and the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators have developed certification tests of their own, which are generally well respected.
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Interpretation deals with oral speech and translation deals with written text. Interpreters convey meaning orally from one language to another, while translators convey meaning from one language to another in written form. Sometimes the term translation is used loosely to refer to either interpretation or translation. But because the skills are different, they are not interchangeable. Interpreters and translators both work with language, but their training and work experience may vary greatly.
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The interpreter may request time to consult dictionaries or colleagues. Alternatively, the interpreter may ask the speaker to rephrase an ambiguous question or answer.
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No human being can be 100% accurate 100% of the time. The interpreter is required to correct any error of substance as soon as possible.
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Yes. Interpreters working in the federal courts are bound by this Code of Professional Responsiblity.
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See 28 USC 1827, which pertains to all federal criminal cases or for any civil case in which the government is a party. Many states as well have statutes governing the use of interpreters.
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Yes, but rarely. For a thorough discussion of interpreter-related case law in the United States, please see V. Benmaman, Interpreter Issues on Appeal.
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First, know your languages. Full bilingual proficiency, ample vocabulary, and a knowledge of standard grammar are prerequisites. Court interpreter training may be available at local universities or continuing education programs: training focuses on specialized vocabulary and interpreting skills.
Some colleges and universities in the U.S. offer minors or certificates in court interpreting, and/or in interpreting or translation generally. There is a masters program in bilingual legal interpretation (English-Spanish) at the University of Charleston: www.cofc.edu/~legalint/mastersprogram.html There are occasional short-term seminars and workshops around the country. A good way to keep abreast of course offerings is to join organizations like NAJIT as well as your local translator and interpreter organization so that you will receive newsletters.
One indispensable study technique is to go to court frequently and observe different types of proceedings. Mentally translate to yourself. Can you do it? Write down the terms that stump you, then look for solutions in dictionaries.
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That depends on the court, the jursidiction, the need in your language, and the cost of living in your area. There may be considerable difference between federal court and state court rates. In some states the pay is low; in others it is more reasonable. The current federal court rates are posted here. When interpreters are hired by private parties, the rate of remuneration is negotiable.
Most court interpreters are freelancers (self-employed) and treated as independent contractors, although this determination varies with jurisdiction. Where the volume of work is greatest, courts have created full-time staff positions, almost all of them for Spanish interpreters. Starting salaries for staff interpreters may range from $30,000 to $80,000. Freelance interpreters and translators can earn over $100,000 per year, but generally not without working long hours.
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Interpreters in federal courts mostly cover criminal cases relating to drug trafficking, kidnapping, money laundering, terrorism, credit card fraud, and counterfeiting as well as other federal crimes. Drug crimes are by far the most common.
Interpreters in other jurisdictions — state and municipal — cover a broader range of cases, including domestic violence and other family court matters, juvenile court cases, traffic offenses, etc.
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It depends on your point of view. The job is generally interesting to those who find law, language and the dynamics of human social interaction interesting. Sometimes court proceedings are formulaic and dull. At others times the work is challenging and complex. Sometimes it is exhausting, distressing and stressful. But most interpreters will probably tell you they enjoy their work.
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