LEP Self-Represented Litigants

TOPICS

Center on Court Access to Justice for All > Topics > LEP Self-Represented Litigants

How Can Courts Address the Need for Interpreters? The state court community has long been cognizant of the need for the effective use of court interpreters to improve access to justice for Limited English Proficient (LEP) individuals. Demographic trends make it clear that the American judicial system faces mounting difficulties in meeting the challenge of ethnic and linguistic diversity. For the self-represented litigant with limited English proficiency, the challenges in accessing judicial services are even more difficult.

According to the 2010 Census, there are approximately 25 million who speak a foreign language at home and whose English-speaking ability is at the level "less than "very well." The Census Bureau report "Language Use in the United States" (April 2010) identifies the top six non-English languages in the United States as: Spanish, Chinese, French/Creole, Vietnamese, Korean and Russian.

The following resources provide guidance on this issue:

National Summit on Language Access in the Courts. This October 2012 summit agenda contains links to resources and materials presented at the summit on topics including understanding the legal context, components of a language access plan, remote interpreting, training and technology.

ABA Standards for Lanaguage Access in Courts. (February 2012). American Bar Association. These standards intended to assist courts in designing, implementing, and enforcing a comprehensive system of language access services that is suited to the needs of the communities they serve.

Guide to Translation of Legal Materials. (April 2011). Professional Issues Committee, Consortium for Language Access in the Courts and the National Center for State Courts. This translation guide was compiled and edited by the Consortium for Language Access in the Courts’ Professional Issues Committee, a committee of volunteers dedicated to advancing the work of the state courts’ language access programs.

Executive Order 13166: Improving Access to Services for Persons with Limited English Proficiency. Civil Rights Division. U.S. Department of Justice, Coordination and Review Section. Listed here are Title VI-related guidance, links, and resources on Executive Order 13166, which require federal agencies to improve access to services by individuals with Limited English Proficiency (LEP).

Abel, Laura. Language Access in State Courts. (July 2009). Brennan Center for Justice This report examines the extent to which the 35 states with the largest limited English proficiency populations comply with the guidelines regarding providing interpreters in all civil cases free of charge and ensuring that interpreters are competent.

Carola E. Green and Wanda Romberger. Leveraging Technology to Meet the Need for Interpreters. National Center for State Courts, Future Trends in State Courts. (2009).

Wanda Romberger. Language Access Centers: A Win-Win Idea. National Center for State Courts. Future Trends in State Courts. (2008). The creation of a central recruiting, training, testing, and scheduling center for providing foreign-language interpreters is not just a theory anymore. Alaska has created its Language Interpreter Center under the auspices of the Alaska Immigration Justice Project, anidea that can be replicated by other courts.

White Paper on Court Interpretation: Fundamental to Access to Justice. (November 2007). Conference of State Court Administrators. This white paper provides a review of the current state of court interpretation nationally and makes recommendations for future improvements.

Uekert, Brenda et al. Court Interpretation in Protection Order Hearings: Judicial Benchcard. (June 2006). This Judicial Bench Card gives guidance on providing qualified interpreters to assist the parties in protection order proceedings so that petitioners with limited English proficiency are on equal footing before the bench.

Uekert, Brenda. Tracy Peters, Wanda Romberger, Margaret Abraham, and Susan Keilitz. Serving Limited English Proficient (LEP) Battered Women. 209 pages. (June 2006). This study explored the capacity of Limited English Proficient (LEP) petitioners to receive orders of protection.

Multilingual Websites . This Howto.gov website provides information on making websites accessible to people with limited English proficiency.

State Resources:

See a state by state list of court interpreter programs.

More and more state courts are providing online forms, videos, and information in Spanish and other languages particularly in the area of domestic violence. Here are links to many of these online forms. If your court has forms that should be added to this list please let us know:

Alaska

How to represent yourself (Spanish) in a domestic violence proceeding:

http://www.courts.alaska.gov/forms/pub-22s.pdf

Arizona

Arizona translated forms:

http://www.azcourts.gov/domesticviolencelaw/TranslatedProtectiveOrderForms.aspx

California

California has a huge array of forms, instructions and videos in multiple languages:

http://www.courts.ca.gov/partners/53.htm#bilingweb

Colorado

Spanish forms:

http://www.jud.ct.gov/webforms/#español

Connecticut

Orders of protection and domestic violence documents are available in English and Spanish

http://www.jud.ct.gov/webforms/#español

Publications & Videos in Spanish http://www.jud.ct.gov/pub-spanish.htm

District of Columbia

http://www.dccourts.gov/internet/formlocator.jsf

Florida

9^th Circuit

http://www.ninthcircuit.org/programs-services/court-interpreter

Georgia

Georgia courts use the Google translate software but have included the following disclaimer:

http://www.georgiacourts.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=161&Itemid=0

Indiana

Indiana Supreme Court website is available in Spanish with a wealth of online resources http://www.in.gov/judiciary/selfservice/2363.htm

Michigan

Foreign Translations of Selected SCAO Approved Forms http://courts.michigan.gov/scao/courtforms/foreign/forindex.htm

Missouri

The petition for order of protection is available in English, Spanish, and Bosnian http://www.courts.mo.gov/page.jsp?id=533

Nebraska

http://www.supremecourt.ne.gov/web-info-spanish.shtml

New Jersey

http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/translations/index.htm

New York

Information for Victims of Domestic Violence is available in Spanish, Haitian Creole, Bengali, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Korean, and Russain http://www.nycourts.gov/forms/familycourt/domesticviolence.shtml

North Carolina

http://www.nccourts.org/Forms/Documents/formlist_1004.pdf

Ohio

Interpreter Services Program Forms Translation Project http://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/JCS/interpreterSvcs/forms/default.asp

Pennsylvania

Protection from abuse documents are translated into the eleven most commonly encountered languages in the Pennsylvania court system.

http://www.pacourts.us/Forms/BilingualPFAForms.htm

Criminal protective order documents are translated into five languages

http://www.pacourts.us/Forms/BilingualCriminalProtectiveOrders.htm

Texas

Protective Order Kit
English version [pdf] | Spanish version [pdf]

Utah