Summer 2006
Improvements to Come in Court Interpreting Services
THE NEW YORK STATE UNIFIED COURT
System in April announced it is
evaluating and revamping its
court interpreting services across the
state to better meet the needs of litigants.
The goal of the action plan is to
improve the recruitment and assessment
of interpreters and manage limited
interpreter resources.
Thirty percent of New York residents
— nearly five million people —
primarily speak a language other than
English at home. In all, over 160 distinct
languages are spoken in the state.
While the diversity of people and languages
is one of the state’s strengths, it
is also a challenge to the court system.
Only parties to a criminal action
are legally entitled to an interpreter,
but the New York courts strive to offer
interpreting services in as broad a
range of civil and criminal proceedings
as possible.
Key components of the plan
include:
• Statewide expansion of e-scheduling
— an on-line program to help court
managers quickly find and schedule
interpreters in over 100 languages (see
technology article, page 5)
• Statewide expansion of remote
interpreting by September — interpreters
provide services via video
conference or telephone from a
remote location (also for non-courtroom
settings, e.g., offices for the
self-represented)
• Increase in the pay rate for per diem
interpreters to $250 a day from $125
• Half-day engagements for per diem
interpreters at the rate of $140
• Improvement in testing and certification
procedures
• Standards for recognizing court
interpreters certified by other states
• A Working Group on Translation to
develop and oversee a plan for the
translation of print, on-line and video
materials and identify Web site portions
for translation
• A Senior Court Interpreter position
for sign language with supervisory
responsibilities
• Training program for new court-employed
interpreters, and expanded
training for judges and court personnel.
For a copy of the plan, call 212-428-2500, or go to www.nycourts.gov/whatsnew.
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