Working Effectively with Interpreters in Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Cases
Over the past several years, court interpreters have been appearing in more and more courtrooms as state courts have expanded language access services for all types of cases. While working with interpreters has become more routine, opportunities to learn about how to make their engagement in court proceedings most efficient and effective have been rare.

In this course participants will learn to:

Work more effectively with court interpreters to ensure equal access to justice
Understand how to manage interpreter services to ensure due process of law
Identify ways to best prepare court interpreters prior to court proceedings to ensure accurate and efficient proceedings
This course is designed for judges to address common misconceptions about how court interpreters should perform their role in ensuring due process and equal access to justice and how judges can facilitate their ability to fulfill their responsibilities. It also highlights some considerations for interpreting in domestic violence and sexual assault cases. As participants work through the exercises in the course, they will be building a bench card to download at the conclusion of the course. Although this information is designed for judges, all professionals who work with court interpreters will find it helpful.



Estimated Time to Complete Course: 30 min.

NOTE: This course awards a certificate of completion upon successfully passing an assessment quiz.
The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) produced this course with support from the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW), U.S. Department of Justice. NCSC thanks our project partners, subject-matter experts, and OVW staff for their valuable substantive contributions to content and their expert guidance on overall course development. They include: Wendy Lau-Ozawa, former Director of Interpretation Technical Assistance and Resource Center (ITARC) of the Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence; Hon. Ramona Gonzalez, Circuit Court Judge, La Crosse County, WI; Martha Cohen, Manager, Office of Interpreter Services, King County, WA Superior Court; and Julie Aldrich, Grant Program Specialist, OVW.

This product was supported by Grant No. 2015-TA-AX-K050 awarded by the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women.