Foreign language court interpreters from across the state will gather in Nashville Friday and Saturday for two days of training sponsored by the Administrative Office of the Courts.
The first Tennessee Court Interpreter Conference, funded with a federal grant, will begin at 10 a.m. Friday at the downtown public library. Languages represented by the 100 participants include Arabic, Vietnamese, Laotian, French, Thai, Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian, Russian, Farsi, Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.
The number of certified and registered foreign language court interpreters in Tennessee has reached 120. The interpreters are credentialed by the Administrative Office of the Courts to provide translations in Spanish, Japanese, Arabic, Laotian, French, Thai, Russian, Portuguese, Dutch, Bulgarian and Mandarin Chinese.
Certified interpreters have passed written and oral examinations and a criminal background check as required by two Tennessee Supreme Court rules adopted in 2002. Interpreters who are registered have passed the written test and criminal background check, but have not yet completed the oral examination requirement. The court rules mandate proficiency and ethics standards for credentialed interpreters.
Under the Supreme Court rules, judges in Tennessee are required to appoint an interpreter who is credentialed if one is available. In most cases, the cost of providing an interpreter is included in court costs, although indigent criminal defendants may have state-paid interpreters.
A list of the credentialed interpreters and information on becoming a foreign language court interpreter are available here.