Introduction
In response to the growing numbers of non-English speakers in North Carolina, the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) secured grant funds in 2000 through 2005 to enhance access to the courts for all non-English speakers, with an emphasis on the Spanish speaking population. Grant sources included the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation ($100,000), the North Carolina State Bar ($69,316), and the Governor's Crime Commission (GCC). Guidance for the Foreign Language Services Project began with creating the Foreign Language Advisory Committee, hiring a coordinator, and joining the National Center for State Court's Consortium for State Court Interpreters. In December of 2003, the coordinator was made a permanent AOC employee; however, the program, which is now titled, Interpreting Services, continues to be funded by GCC.
Interpreter Certification
In many courtrooms, court officials have no way of knowing if an interpreter is competent to interpret for a non-English speaking victim, witness, or defendant. Through state certification, the AOC is better able to guarantee the quality and professionalism of interpreters appointed in courts across the state. To date Interpreting Services has offered seminars on professionalism, ethics and skills to over 1000 individuals of all languages, tested 160 Spanish court interpreters, and published statewide guidelines on interpreter use and performance. There are presently 42 State certified Spanish court interpreters in North Carolina. The program just tested for Spanish again in 2006 and those results will be in by December 2006. For past exam results, please see Interpreter Training Information. A list of all North Carolina State Certified Spanish interpreters is located on our web site as well.
Other Languages
The program also locates qualified interpreters in North Carolina for languages like Albanian, Arabic, Armenian, Bosnian, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dari, Dutch, Farsi, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Hmong, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Malaysian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Swedish, and Vietnamese. According to the 2000 Census, the six largest groups of languages spoken at home in North Carolina, other than English or Spanish, are French, German, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean and Arabic.
Deaf and Hard of Hearing
Interpreting Services also provides assistance and information concerning interpreters for the deaf and hard of hearing.
Bilingual Brochures
A court appearance can be an intimidating, even confusing experience. Many citizens, both English and non-English speaking, have questions about how the court system works, what they should do while they are in court, what their rights are, and guardianship of a loved one. Interpreting Services strives to help them with their questions by providing brochures in English and Spanish.
In conjunction with these brochures, the program has also produced and distributed an English/Spanish pocket card, which includes ten tips for anyone who has a court appearance.
Bilingual Forms
Forms are an important part of the court process and failure to understand and complete them correctly can delay proceedings. For this reason, the program has translated and distributed a variety of criminal, civil, domestic violence and special bilingual forms. Over 50 bilingual court forms are in print at this time.
Training and Tools for Court Officials
The program continues to meet the needs of court officials around the State by helping them not only locate interpreters, but also by assisting them with the development of policy and guidelines on interpreting issues, and providing daily support for questions, concerns and issues involving interpreting. Court officials are very receptive to Interpreting Services and are able to use many tools created especially for them to better serve their non-English speaking clients. We have translated and distributed two Spanish-to-English glossaries for clerks and magistrates and a bilingual sign explaining how officials may or may not assist court clients. All are located on this site. The program also provides classes for court officials on foreign language, interpreting, and cultural issues.
Conclusion
As North Carolina's non-English speaking population continues to grow, the NC Judicial Branch will need to address the unique needs of these residents. We must continue to meet the challenge of providing interpreter services in a cost efficient manner and must continue to find ways to make the courts more accessible and understandable to those who speak other languages.