California’s courts face an interpreter shortage

LOS ANGELES» Federal law enforcement began investigating California’s courts seven years ago after receiving complaints that two Korean-speaking women in Los Angeles had been denied court interpreters.

Courts in other states also were examined and faulted. Along with California, they began working to comply with U.S. civil rights law, which bars discrimination based on national origin. Failure to act meant the possible loss of federal money.

But nowhere has the task been so challenging as in California, the most linguistically diverse state in the nation.

At least 220 languages are spoken in California, and 44 percent of residents speak a language other than English at home. Seven million Californians say they cannot speak English well.

On top of that, California’s court system is considered the largest in the nation, exceeding in size the entire labyrinth of federal courts.

Just finding enough trained interpreters has proved daunting. The state’s courts handle as many as 8 million cases a year.

Now two years into its enforcement phase, California’s “language access plan” is pushing courts to provide interpreters for all non-English speakers in all cases.

As of December, 47 of 58 county courts said they were offering interpreters in high-priority civil disputes, including those involving protective orders, child custody and other family law matters, evictions, guardianship and conservatorship and elder abuse.

“The goal is to get interpreters available in all case types,” said Justice Terence L. Bruiniers of the 1st District Court of Appeal.

“But the reality is we are never going to have enough qualified interpreters in enough languages for every courtroom that needs them at the time they need them,” he said.

“That is just not going to be possible.”

California has long provided interpreters for criminal and juvenile cases. The law now says the state must also offer them in civil courtrooms.

In the past, non-Englishspeaking litigants were on their own when they went to court to fight evictions, obtain restraining orders or resolve child custody disputes.

Children sometimes interpreted for warring parents. One court employee recalled a woman who was seeking a domestic violence restraining order having to interpret for her alleged abuser.

Some judges said they felt uncomfortable when they received a one-word translation from an amateur interpreter even though the litigant had spoken at length in his native language.

Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Steven Austin recalled a Spanishspeaking woman in his courtroom 10 years ago seeking a restraining order against her ex-boyfriend.

“He mean to me,” she had written on a legal form.

Austin needed more information to grant the order, but the woman spoke too little English to explain her fears. He rounded up a bilingual person to interpret.

Later he read in the newspaper that the ex-boyfriend had visited the woman’s home. He had a gun, and she called police.

“It was just by luck I was able to find somebody to help,” he said. “It could have been a tragedy.”

The federal inquiry came in response to a complaint filed by legal aid lawyers on behalf of two women: a sexual assault victim seeking a restraining order against her attacker and a mother asking for child custody and support.

Los Angeles County Superior Court denied them interpreters, even though they spoke only Korean, the complaint said.

Los Angeles court officials worked with federal authorities to bring in more interpreters, and today the Superior Court is considered the most advanced in the state in providing language help.

Yet even in Los Angeles there are troubles. Just a few months ago, an Arabic speaker went to court to try to obtain a restraining order against her ex-husband.

It took four court appearances and months to obtain the order because of the difficulty of getting an interpreter. On one day, an interpreter promised to return after lunch to handle her case but never came back.

During each visit, the woman was forced to face her former spouse.

“It was incredibly traumatizing for her to repeatedly have to face her abuser,” said Carmen McDonald, supervising attorney for the L.A. Center for Law and Justice, who related the story.

The push for interpreters comes at a time when California’s court system has yet to recover from recession-era budget cutbacks. Courtrooms remain closed, and judges’ positions vacant.

But the Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown have been sympathetic to the language campaign and provided $7 million during the last fiscal year.

“This is a popular issue,” said Austin, the Contra Costa County judge.