Cohort of Colorado court interpreters walks out

Some courtrooms saw disruptions Wednesday amid discontent, low pay

A contingent of frustrated Colorado court interpreters walked off the job in courtrooms across the state this week as interpreters await a potential $10 hourly wage increase from the Colorado Judicial Department.

The interpreters — it was unclear Wednesday exactly how many — canceled their scheduled appearances and did not show up to interpret court hearings, creating a noticeable impact in some jurisdictions.

“It’s been a rough day with this strike going on and not being able to get interpreters for many of our cases. So I appreciate you being here,” 19th Judicial District Judge Timothy Kerns told one interpreter in Weld County who did show up to a hearing Wednesday.

“We’ve had some call-outs,” 5th Judicial District Court Judge Rachel Olguin-fresquez told a defense attorney in Eagle County. “We’re just short on interpreters, so I apologize.”

Emails provided by the Colorado Judicial Department show about a dozen interpreters alerted the department that they were participating in the walkout or offering solidarity for the effort this week. There are more than 300 certified interpreters in Colorado.

Colorado’s court interpreters are independent contractors who are hired at an hourly rate to translate everything said in court proceedings so that participants who don’t speak English can understand what’s going on. Criminal defendants have a constitutional right to an interpreter in court, and cases that need an interpreter can’t go forward without one.

A large group of interpreters last year threatened a twoday work stoppage over their pay rates — which at $45 to $55 an hour are some of the lowest in the U.S. — but called off that effort after entering into negotiations for higher pay with the Colorado Judicial Department.

The judicial department went on to propose a $10-an-hour rate increase for interpreters, asking state lawmakers to approve a $396,000 budget increase request to boost rates until the start of the next financial year in July, at which point the department is seeking another $719,000 to continue the higher rates in the next financial year.

That request is pending and could be approved by lawmakers as soon as next week, said Rob Mccallum, a spokesman for the Judicial Department. The higher rates would become effective when the request is signed by Gov. Jared Polis.

Six interpreters who spoke to The Denver Post this week said they’ve been frustrated by the lengthy budget process and a lack of communication from the Colorado Judicial Department and the Office of Language Access, which certifies interpreters who work in the courts. The interpreters spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid professional retaliation.

“They haven’t delivered, and they really haven’t kept us in the loop about what is going on,” one interpreter said. “It’s a compound thing at this point. There hasn’t been any sort of straightforward answer. And that is what is making people nervous that we might not actually be a priority — because they are showing us in other ways we are not.”

The interpreters who spoke with The Post said they are frustrated by a lack of communication from the Office of Language Access, as well as by logistical struggles. Interpreters say their emails and queries are ignored for weeks. They note that the Office of Language Access no longer offers lowcost or free continuing education classes, forcing interpreters to pay higher rates elsewhere to obtain the training — which is required for their certifications.

In an email sent to interpreters Tuesday evening, Deya Gonzalez, the program manager for the Office of Language Access, acknowledged the discontent and said the office has been “critically understaffed” for more than six months.

“The legislative process is a multistep process that requires a timeline for submissions and deadlines, and although it takes time, we are optimistic this will be approved,” she wrote. “I understand and share your frustration with this timeline, but OLA has met required deadlines and we will update the contract interpreter community as soon we have updates to share.”

Mccallum said in a statement Wednesday that the Office of Language Access is “unable to provide low-cost training as we have in the past as a courtesy.”

“Contracts with independent interpreters do not require that we provide training or equipment,” he said.

Instead of waiting for the $10-an-hour rate increase to be approved, interpreters have been bailing on state courts in favor of higher paying jobs in federal court, immigration court and in Denver County Court, interpreters said, which increases the strain on those interpreters left in the state court system.

“The workload is so bad in some districts I refuse to work in them, because you end up running from courtroom to courtroom with practically no breaks or support,” a second interpreter said.

Denver County Court, which operates separately from the Colorado Judicial Department, approved a $10 hourly rate increase for interpreters there after the work stoppage threat last year.

“Having that pay to deal with all the adversity we’ve all been dealing with — costs increasing, gas and heating — it does make you feel like you are a little bit more in control of your life and not being forced to look for alternative sources of income,” the first interpreter said about working in Denver County Court since the increase.

This week’s loosely organized protest doesn’t have clear parameters: those involved who spoke with The Post couldn’t say exactly what steps the Judicial Department could take to end the protest and offered solutions that ranged from a sit-down meeting with interpreters to remedying ongoing logistical issues to simply improving communication and support from the Office of Language Access.

Mccallum said Judicial Department officials “believed we were on a mutual track to a longterm resolution” after the negotiations about the $10 wage increase last year.

“We remain committed to an open dialogue and are hopeful a solution will be found without any potentially harmful actions that could effectively deny access to justice to Coloradans in need of language interpretation services when they appear for their day in court,” he said.