Tennessee’s changing cultural composition is providing new challenges for judges and court officials as they endeavor to ensure that language barriers are not barriers to equal justice.
“The judicial system strives to serve and administer justice equally for all Tennesseans7, whether their ancestors were native to the region, arrived in horse-drawn wagons or whether they are new residents from across a state line or across an ocean,” Chief Justice Frank F. Drowota, III, said. “It is important to adapt the system as needed and we have taken some important steps to do that.”
Like many Tennesseans, the state’s new residents sometimes turn to the courts for help or services, such as orders of protection. Others may find themselves before a judge to face criminal charges or resolve a civil dispute. The system can be confusing for anyone who uses it, but for those who do not speak or understand English and have no experience with courts in this country, it also may be frightening.
In response to the state’s increasing diversity, the Tennessee Supreme Court, the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) and judges statewide are taking steps to provide assistance to court-users whose primary language is not English.
Significant action is being taken to establish standards for court interpreters for spoken foreign languages. Testing for prospective interpreters will begin Saturday in Nashville with additional testing Feb. 18 in Memphis. Registration information for the tests and a two-day workshop is available by calling Janice Rodriquez at the Tennessee Foreign Language Institute, 615-741-7579.
In addition, two proposed Supreme Court rules dealing with standards and ethics for foreign language court interpreters are posted on the court system website for review and comment. The deadline for comments is March 15.
Working with a grant from the Office of Criminal Justice Programs, the AOC has produced videos in English and six foreign languages judges say they hear most often in their courtrooms. The professionally produced videos in English, Spanish, Arabic, Kurdish, Lao, Russian and Vietnamese, will explain basic rights of defendants; orders of protection and the rights of parents in abuse and neglect cases. They will be available in courthouses and other locations across the state. The AOC contracted with the Tennessee Foreign Language Institute to provide translation services.
In another move to help immigrants, the AOC received a grant from the National Center for State Courts to translate basic criminal practice forms into the same six languages. In addition, the court system has included information and other forms in Spanish on its website.
Judges also are becoming better acquainted with readoption requirements as increasing numbers of Tennessee families expand to include children from orphanages in other countries. Judges involved in the legal process of adopting or readopting foreign-born children say it is among the most satisfying of their judicial responsibilities.
“They’re just beautiful children,” said Circuit Court Judge Royce Taylor of Murfreesboro, who has handled several readoptions, including children from Russia, Romania and China. “All of them had a story. There were Romanian twins who had been malnourished and a little girl from China who was found in a stable. I give all adoptees a toy frog - I keep a supply of frogs - and one child told me how to say frog in Russian.”
Even Supreme Court Justice Adolpho A. Birch, Jr. performed one readoption of a foreign-born child – a legality and ceremony normally handled by circuit and chancery court judges. The justice formalized the adoption of Inara Abernathy, the first baby adopted out of Azerbaijan, a former Soviet Republic. The new little Tennessean and U.S. citizen is the daughter of Bill and Kimi Abernathy of Bell Buckle.