Thread: N.C. Courts Seek More Money For Quality Interpreters

http://www.wral.com/apncnews/9425956/detail.html

RALEIGH, N.C. -- State court officials, concerned about the quality and availability of reliable Spanish translators, are pressing lawmakers to give them money and oversight to train, research and hire qualified interpreters.

Existing law puts judges in charge of hiring interpreters for their courtrooms. But the influx of Hispanic residents and the lack of qualified translators mean they often press into service any available Spanish speaker, with no way to gauge their background or skill.

"The majority of interpreters just get a check. There's no quality control done," said Burlington lawyer Ebher Rossi.

Rossi's complaints helped lead to the resignation of an Alamance County interpreter who was accused of posting racist remarks about Mexicans on a white supremacist Web site.

State court officials pay interpreters up to $35 an hour, but have no authority to select or screen them beforehand or discipline them. That means, with only 41 certified interpreters for 100 counties, problems have arisen with translators whose background was not adequately reviewed.

In Davidson County, an interpreter is charged with representing himself as a lawyer to cheat Spanish-speaking defendants out of hundreds of dollars, while a convicted sex offender worked as an interpreter in Person County.

Greg Stahl, senior deputy director of the N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts, asked the legislature for an additional $775,000 to pay for interpreters and to revamp how they are hired.

He would like interpreters to be appointed, in much the same way as lawyers who represent poor criminal defendants. They would sign a contract with the state, attend orientation and ethics training, and undergo a criminal background check.

Only interpreters who met those requirements could be hired by judges, and AOC officials could respond to complaints, Stahl proposes.

The state Senate's budget proposal includes the money and a provision giving oversight of interpreters to the AOC's director, but the House version doesn't.

Between 1990 and 2004, North Carolina's Hispanic population increased from 76,726 to 517,617, or 6.1 percent of North Carolina's 8.5 million residents. In 2004, 136,466 charges were filed against Hispanic defendants.

The AOC began certifying interpreters in 2000. Each had to take a written test, attend a two-day ethics seminar and present four letters of recommendations from court officials before sitting for an oral exam.

Only 23 percent of the people who took the tests passed.

In the meantime, judges aren't following the AOC's request that they pay $35 to certified interpreters and $25 to uncertified interpreters, instead paying the higher rate in most cases _ and removing the incentive for them to seek certification, Stahl said.

"In counties where there are not a lot of bilingual people, there are folks who have very limited Spanish-speaking skills passing for court interpreters," said Ilana Dubester, interim executive director of Hispanic Liaison in Siler City and a state-certified interpreter.

"There is a saying among interpreters, 'Just because you have two hands doesn't mean you know how to play the piano.' There are people's lives at stake here. This is a very important and very specific type of interpreting."

Did I do the math? 25% of the hispanics in the state went thru the court system in 2004? How many of them were here illegally and were sent back to their home countries??