Law Foundation grant to support rare-language training

The Wisconsin Law Foundation has awarded a $2,000 grant to the Director of State Courts Office for training of court interpreters who specialize in rare languages.

The funding will be used for a two-and-a-half day training session to be held during September, said Court Interpreter Program Manager Carmel A. Capati. The workshop is just one of the latest efforts that will help the court system accommodate an increasing demand for interpreters of rare languages, Capati said.

"In 2007 and 2008, the court used interpreters of at least 40 different languages. Locating trained and qualified interpreters for less common languages has been problematic for courts. On occasion, the courts have brought in interpreters from other states at considerable expense or have set matters over because of an inability to locate a qualified interpreter," Capati said.

The workshop, which is limited to 16 participants, is a follow-up to the two-day orientation regularly offered by the Court Interpreter Program. The focus of the training will be for participants who want to improve their interpreting skills and obtain practice in mock hearings.

During June, the Director of State Courts partnered with the state Department of Workforce Development's Bureau of Migrant, Refugee and Labor Services (DWD-BMRLS), which provided scholarships for individuals fluent in languages such as Arabic, Russian, Somali, and Burmese to attend training sessions for court interpreters.  DWD-BMRLS has offered financial assistance again for this training, along with the Children's Court Improvement Program (CCIP) and the Wisconsin Asian Bar Association, totaling $6,000 for this training.

According to the Migration Policy Institute, between 2000 and 2007, the foreign-born population in Wisconsin increased 30.1 percent, from 193,751 to 252,150. As a result, there are more families and individuals from other countries appearing in circuit court proceedings with language and other cultural barriers. To ensure equal access, most courts around the state rely on interpreters regularly, Capati said.

"While Spanish represents about 80 percent of the courts' language needs for interpretation, the court system as a whole is experiencing an increase in rarer languages requests," said Capati.

For more information, contact Carmel Capati at carmel.capati@wicourts.gov or (608) 266-8635.

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