The Institute of Linguistics at Adam Mickiewicz University is holding its annual international conference devoted to language and the law over 3 days, from 19 to 21 June 2015 (Friday-Sunday) in Poznan, Poland.
The aim is to provide a forum for discussion where linguistic and legal interests converge, and to facilitate integration between linguists, computer scientists and lawyers from all around the world.
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.
Today I would like to present a most valuable guest post from Dr Yvonne Fowler, who gave written evidence to the UK’s Justice Select Committee as part of its investigations into what can only be described as an outsourcing fiasco.
I believe that Dr Fowler’s paper covers the key issues in a clear, incisive and succinct way, and that the points raised can easily (and should) be transposed to apply to court interpreting globally.
A conference report has just been published on a boutique event held in Orlando, Florida in August this year called Finding the Parallels: Interpreting in medical and judicial settings. It brought together stakeholders from the health, legal and language service provision sectors.
Back in March, I published a post about a program in Maine, USA aimed at recruiting and training court interpreters for the purposes of supporting diversity and migrant needs, in particular fulfilling an increased demand for Somali interpreters.
A couple of weeks ago, I came across¹ a case involving a witness speaking a Tanzanian dialect of Swahili, where first a Rwandan, and then a Kenyan had been called in to interpret, with apparently unsatisfactory results on both occasions.
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.
The UK’s Justice Select Committee has published its report on the outsourcing of court language services to Capita/Applied Language Solutions by the Ministry of Justice (see this previous post for more details). The report comes after an inquiry in September 2012, and the collection of evidence via an online forum (see this post).
A few days ago, Chief Justice Barbara Madsen, who presides over the Washington State Supreme Court in the United States made her State of the Judiciary Address.
One of the key points in her speech was “Interpreter Needs in Washington Courts” – first she gave some details of volumes: “Seventy-eight different languages were interpreted in Washington’s trial courts in 2012, and King County’s running tally shows that they have provided interpreters for 130 different languages. However, our state has certified and registered interpreters in only 35 languages, meaning that we are not able to ensure quality translations for many languages spoken in our courts”.
Chief Justice Madsen then went on to stress the importance of court interpreting: “Legal proceedings, with their technical language and complex processes, are confusing enough when you understand English. But, imagine walking into a high stakes situation where you didn’t understand a word of what was going on.”
Lastly, she spoke of a new project: “the Supreme Court included in its budget submission to the legislature a request for funding for a pilot program for video remote interpreting. Reducing both the cost and time of travel can better focus scarce resources where they belong.”
To read the full Address, click here.
What do you have to say about remote court interpreting? Do share your comments, knowledge & experience.
It’s all happening in Hangzhou, China this May! I recently posted about the Third International Conference on Law, Translation and Culture, to take place from 31 May to 2 June this year. Why not extend your trip and visit this conference too?
The 14th International Roundtable for the Semiotics of Law (IRSL2013), entitled Semioticizing and Semioticized Law is to be held from 25-29 May 2013 at Zhejiang Police College, Hangzhou and invites theoretical studies, applicational cases, and relevant work-in-progress papers on the key issues in Semiotics and Law.
From Words to Deeds: translation & the law 
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