I was really interested to receive news of the launch in Australia of the updated Recommended National Standards for Working with Interpreters in Courts and Tribunals.
The Standards establish recommended and optimal practices for Australia’s courts and tribunals for working with interpreters, and are accompanied by Model Rules and a Mode Practice Note. Continue reading
The National Center for Interpretation at the University of Arizona is offering a language-neutral webinar in two sessions on 18 & 25 October 2014.
This workshop is designed to familiarize you with the Code of Ethics that court interpreters use to guide them in ethically fraught situations. Through discussions and exercises with the trainer and other participants, you will acquire the tools to successfully navigate situations where ethical considerations are at stake.
Aston University, Birmingham, UK is running a one-day course on Friday 26 September 2014 targeted at interpreters who work in Magistrates Courts, Crown Courts and tribunals.
The course (the first in a series on legal interpreting) will be delivered by Dr Yvonne Fowler, an experienced trainer of legal interpreters for over 20 years. The sessions will be practical and based on the most up to date research. They have been specifically designed for both experienced and aspiring court interpreters rather than for academics or legal practitioners.
Tony Rosado, whose guest posts on this blog you might have read – on the Taniguchi case, on translating useless materials, and on how judges work with interpreters, has recently published a guide to assist new court interpreters during their first few months as professionals and, in his words “face, for the first time, the reality of working within the legal system as an officer of the court“.
Tony runs Rosado Professional Solutions in Chicago. He has been a freelance conference interpreter for almost 30 years and is Federally, Colorado, and New Mexico certified. He also qualified as an attorney from the Escuela Libre de Derecho in Mexico City. You may also be interested in his English/Spanish blog.
I recently saw an article in the online newspaper The Japan Times that I thought might interest you. Prosecutors in Japan have started video-recording interrogations. Those readers that have done recorded depositions (for example for American lawyers) will be familiar with the added stress, but in this case, due to camera directions, there is also a possibility that the interpreter’s face will appear in the video.
The article discusses how the interpreters are having sleeping problems and are obviously even more concerned than usual about any possible inaccuracies. The move to record interrogations followed a cover-up in Osaka and an evidence-tampering scandal. The recordings are not yet used in every case, but are common for special investigations and cases leading to a lay judge trial (see this post for details about Professor Okawara and Professor Hotta’s projects involving the new lay judge system).
Court interpreters, have you ever been recorded? Lawyers, if you have been involved in a recorded session with an interpreter, how did you handle it?
By the way, WordPress had a funny moment this morning. It published half of a post on the Brussels Translation Days which is due out tomorrow. Sorry if you were sent it by mistake.
From Words to Deeds: translation & the law 
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