Interpreters to be provided free in most civil cases

California courts are expanding language services to all types of cases in every county, according to a Judicial Council report issued Friday.

“We’re just about fully expanded so that all case types across the state can get an interpreter for free,” said Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Steven K. Austin, a member of the council’s Language Access Plan Implementation Task Force and head of the budget and monetary subcommittee.

The governor and the Legislature have increased funding by $15 million over the past five years to allow for more interpreters in civil proceedings, and now 51 of 58 trial courts, roughly 90 percent, provide interpreters in critical civil cases, such as evictions and custody hearings. Only nine courts provided interpreters for such cases in 2015, according to the report.

The interpreter reimbursement appropriation fund will reach $107.6 million in the 2018-19 fiscal year, the courts said.

Some of the report’s 75 recommendations include training judicial officers, temporary judges, court administrators and court staff in methods of managing court proceedings involving interpreters.

They will be trained in the methods for dealing with mental exertion and concentration required for interpreting as well as the challenges of interpreter fatigue and the need to control rapid rates of speech and dialogue.

“We know, as judges, that when we’re dealing with court reporters, we have to control the situation and make people speak slower, or if there’s technical terms, have them slow down, and control the noise in the courtroom,” Austin said.

“Judges, court staff and attorneys aren’t always familiar with the fact that court interpreters need many of the same considerations. ... By various training methods, we’re able to help judges recognize that and what to do to be able to control the courtroom,” the judge added.

Austin said the most notable recommendation in the report is the expansion of interpreter services to all case types.

“The attorneys in family law and in civil, both unlimited and limited jurisdiction, and in cases with self-represented litigants who may not be able to speak English and may need to have an interpreter, will get one provided to them now,” Austin said.

“It will make it so judges can actually understand what people are saying to them and will rule fairly on the evidence that they have because they will have an interpreter in the courtroom, letting us know what the litigants are saying,” he added.

“Before, we only had it in criminal and juvenile, and everywhere else, if you wanted an interpreter, you had to bring your own at your expense. Now it’s all changed,” Austin said.

At a 2015 press conference announcing approval of the expansion, state Supreme Court Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, chair of the task force, said almost 20 percent of California’s population had limited English proficiency.

“Between 1990 and 2010, California’s limited English population has grown 56 percent. Over the next five years, it will grow even more. These facts underscore the importance of the strategic plan,” Cuellar said.

According to the Judicial Council’s report, over 200 languages are spoken in California, 44 percent of households speak a language other than English, and almost 7 million Californians report speaking English “less than very well.”

“The data show how California’s courts are rising to the challenge of ensuring that people have access to the courts,” said Cuellar in a press release Friday, issued at the time of the report.

“It’s an enormous challenge, as California is home to the largest and most diverse state population in the country,” he added. “But everyone deserves the right to use our court system, no matter what language they speak.”