Court News
April 7, 2006
Ohio Has Growing Need for Qualified Interpreters in the Courts, Report Finds
Ohio courts need help recruiting and employing qualified interpreters , according to a report released today by the Supreme Court of Ohio Interpreter Services Program.
The “Report on the Use of Interpreters in Ohio Courts” found that more than 18,465 interpretations involving 57 languages are performed annually in Ohio courtrooms. About 63 percent of interpreters do some work in the courts and the top five languages they interpret are Spanish, which makes up 81 percent of the cases involving interpretation, American Sign Language, Somali, Russian and Arabic. The report was released today at the Ohio Judicial Center during a meeting of the Supreme Court of Ohio Advisory Committee on Interpreter
Services and is available at: http://www.supremecourtofohio.gov/publications/interpreter_services/interpreter_use_report.pdf.
The report included the results of two surveys: one that focused on cases, court policy and the use of interpreters in Ohio court proceedings and that was sent to municipal, county and common pleas courts, and one that focused on interpreter skills, knowledge, education and experience and that was sent to interpreters.
According to the report, approximately 75 percent of Ohio courts surveyed noted an increase in court interpretations since 1998. At the same time, about 15 percent said they have no method for finding qualified interpreters.
Even when interpreters are found, both court personnel and interpreters themselves agree that they often have not received adequate training in court procedure, ethics and terminology. According to the report, only 37 percent of Ohio courts have procedures in place to ensure that interpreters are knowledgeable about legal vocabulary before interpreting in the courtroom, and 32 percent of Ohio interpreters have received no training at all.
“Currently, Ohio has no standard qualification process for interpreters and no guidelines, policies or procedures to help assist courts in the use of interpreters in the courtroom,” said Bruno Romero, Interpreter Services program manager at the Supreme Court. “This report helps provide us with the information necessary for developing statewide standards for the use of qualified interpreters.”
Other notable findings include:
- Thirty percent of courts indicate that they have experienced problems with interpreters, including interpreters carrying on conversations with the non-English speaker, interpreters summarizing information instead of interpreting it and advocating for or against a defendant, victim or witness.
- Only 25 percent of Ohio courts report having standard operating procedures for the use of interpreters.
- Twenty-three percent of Ohio interpreters have received less than 40 hours of training.
- Thirty-two percent of Ohio interpreters have five or fewer years of experience.
Providing increased interpreter services is part of the recommendations issued by the Racial Fairness Implementation Task Force. The task force was created by Chief Justice Moyer in 2000 to help implement the findings of the Ohio Commission on Racial Fairness, which found a disparity in perceptions between white and minority citizens about the legal system and called for changes in the legal profession, court employment, juries, criminal justice, law schools and interpreter services.
Pursuing the task force's recommendations, the Supreme Court joined the State Courts Interpreter Certification Consortium and created the Interpreter Services program, whose staff members worked with various work groups to conduct the surveys.
Interpreter Services program staff members are currently working with Ohio courts and interpreters to implement additional programs, to increase training opportunities for interpreters and to provide policy and procedural guidelines that allow for increased consistency and fairness in the use of interpreters.
Contact: Shannon Libby or Chris Davey at 614.387.9250.