Translators Essential to Unlocking Legal Battles

Demand for Interpreters In Area Courts on Rise

They stand on the sidelines of court battles as neutral actors. Their work is sometimes overlooked and occasionally criticized.

But court interpreters play a key role in judicial matters, and demand for their services is soaring in Montgomery County and elsewhere in the Washington region as court systems evolve with the area's changing demographics.

Over the past year, the Montgomery County Circuit Court spent about $1 million for interpreter services, a nearly tenfold increase from the amount spent in 2000.

Statewide, the Maryland judiciary spent $2.6 million during fiscal 2006, the most recent data available. In fiscal 2002, it spent about $1.3 million.

The spike is partly the result of the expansion of the state's court interpreter program. In July 2002, Maryland Court of Appeals Chief Judge Robert M. Bell, the state's top judge, expanded it to cover civil and family law proceedings. Previously, the state appointed interpreters only in criminal cases.

The move has been applauded by career interpreters, immigrant advocates and lawyers.

"Language causes problems, and our job is to bridge that gap so people can have equal access to justice," said Javier A. Soler, the state's court interpreter program administrator.

But it has put great pressure on court officials. All court interpreters in the state work on a contract basis. But as demand continues to grow, Soler said, court officials in jurisdictions such as Montgomery are contemplating funding permanent interpreter jobs.

"It's clear that in the future this is something that is going to be needed," he said. "The biggest challenge is always recruiting and training certified interpreters."

The vast majority of interpreter cases in the state are for Spanish speakers, for whom interpreters are generally readily available. A Spanish-speaking interpreter is almost always present during the daily bond hearing in District Court in Rockville, when people detained overnight appear before a judge for the first time. Interpreters communicate crucial information, including bail amount, pretrial release supervision requirements and future hearing dates.

In more complex cases, interpreters can spend several days in court, relaying to defendants word for word what the judge, attorneys and witnesses say.

The job is tougher than many think, court interpreters say, and for too long it has wrongly been perceived as a task any bilingual person can perform.