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Office of Court Interpreting Services

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The Office of Court Interpreting Services (OCIS) assists persons having business with the Superior Court who are deaf or hearing-impaired or who do not understand or speak English. The office provides qualified professional interpreting services for virtually any language.

Services Provided

OCIS provides interpreting services for a range of court-related activities, from "walk-ins" to felony trials involving multiple defendants. In addition to providing services through the various stages of criminal proceedings, the office also serves in more specialized areas such as: forensic screenings, juvenile intake interviews, domestic violence intake interviews, domestic relations hearings, mental health hearings, alternative dispute resolutions in the Multi-Door Division and interpretation for prospective and selected deaf jurors.

The OCIS coordinates with the Court Reporting and Recording Division to provide "real-time" captioning services for hearing-impaired persons and to provide assistive listening devices to hearing-impaired individuals who would benefit from that type of assistance. The OCIS also engages the services of specialized interpreters who are deaf. These relay, or intermediary interpreters, are used in situations where the deaf party has special linguistic needs beyond the scope of conventional interpretation.

The OCIS also will provide a roster of interpreters for specific languages upon request for matters outside the scope of the court's services such as depositions, attorney/client conferences, and pre-trial preparations. Similar referrals are made for civil cases in which the litigants are not deemed indigent and must bear the cost of the interpreting services.

Court Interpreters are experts in language and are assigned only to render linguistically equivalent interpretation from one language into another. They are not parties to a case, have no interest in any case, and remain completely neutral in all matters. They work for the court and do not represent any party. A court interpreter's sole responsibility is to bridge the communication barrier necessitating his or her presence.

Obtaining Interpreting Services

In order to obtain interpreting services, a party or the party's attorney should contact the OCIS, preferably two weeks or more before the date the service is needed. It is important that the office receive ample notice since the number of available interpreters is limited. The request should include information regarding the name of the case and case number, the number of parties, any regional dialect, and any other pertinent or special need.

In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) the court provides equal access and reasonable accommodations to all deaf, hard-of-hearing and hearing-impaired persons in all of its programs and services.

Languages Available

The following is a list of languages for which interpretation is available through the OCIS:

Working as an Interpreter for D.C. Courts

Sign interpreters wishing to work for the Office of Court Interpreting Services should possess certification from the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, Inc: Specialist Certificate: Legal or Certificate of Interpreting/Certificate of Transliterating with legal interpreting experience. Oral interpreters should possess some level of oral interpretation certification from the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, Inc. Resumés, proof of certification and letters of interest may be sent to: Francis X. Burton, Coordinator of Interpreting Services for Deaf and Hearing-Impaired Persons at Superior Court of the District of Columbia, Suite 3127, 500 Indiana Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20001 or submitted electronically to this website.

OCIS prefers that Spanish interpreters be certified by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, but also accepts state court interpreting certification. Interpreters in other languages should be certified by a state. Interpreters without certification are required to pass an assessment of their skills. Resumés, proof of certification and letters of interest may be sent to: James W. Plunkett, III, Coordinator of Interpreting Services of Foreign Languages at Superior Court of the District of Columbia, Suite 3127, 500 Indiana Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20001.

General Information about becoming an Interpreter for the Office of Court Interpreting Services [58k]

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