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Federal Court Proceedings Feature Many Languages

July 31, 2006 — A total of 111 languages required interpretation in federal court proceedings in fiscal year 2005 (the 12-month period ending September 30, 2005). The overwhelming majority - 94 percent - of the 227,461 language-interpreting events were in Spanish.

Federal courts use language interpreters or sign language interpreters under federal law (the Court Interpreters Act, 28 U.S. Code Section 1827) in any proceeding where a participant has a communications disability. Court interpreters are expected to be highly skilled in simultaneous and consecutive interpreting, and in document sight translation.

Interpretation services in FY 2005 were provided by 79 full-time staff interpreters or by contract interpreters. The staff interpreters provided help in more than 125,000 events in Spanish and Navajo. Contract interpreters providing help in the rest of the events.

To facilitate access to qualified interpreters, the Judicial Conference of the United States in 1994 approved the Telephone Interpreting Program (TIP) for simultaneous interpreting of short proceedings, such as pretrial hearings or initial appearances. TIP provides remote interpretation in situations in which certified or otherwise qualified court interpreters are not locally available.

In FY 2005, courts reported using TIP for 3,590 interpreter events. This resulted in an estimated savings of $1.08 million to the federal judiciary. There are seven courts providing telephone interpreter services, and 80 court locations receiving those services.