Access to Interpreters and Translator Services - Information Provided by Umatilla County Law Library

Oregon Judicial Department
Oregon Translators and Interpreters
Northwest Area Translation Services
Organizations
Immigration Agencies and Visa Preparation
Government Links
Commercial Firms

 

Oregon Judicial Department--Access to Interpreters

According to the 2001 Supplementary Survey Profile of the U.S. Census:

• 12 percent of Oregonians (roughly 371,000 people) speak languages other than English. Half of them (180,000 people) speak English less than "very well"
• Among Oregonians who speak a foreign language
• 56 percent speak Spanish
  
• 20 percent speak Indo-European languages
  
• 22 percent speak Asian or Pacific Islander languages
  
• more than half of each group speak English less than "very well."

Oregonians come into contact with the justice system for many reasons, whether they are stopped for speeding, filing a small claim, dissolving a marriage, having a landlord/tenant dispute, or facing criminal charges. For Oregonians who do not speak English well, language is a significant obstacle. For more information about language barriers in the justice system, see Chapter 2 of the Report of the Oregon Supreme Court on Racial/Ethnic Issues in the Judicial System and Chapter 1 in the Progress Report of the Oregon Supreme Court Implementation Committee .

To ensure that people who do not speak English well have equal access to justice, the Access Committee has sponsored legislation to provide qualified and certified interpreter services in state courts and in adjudicatory proceedings in state agencies. See the annual progress reports and the Legislative Advocacy pages for more information.

The OJD Interpreter Services Program is developing online information for attorneys, judges, prospective court interpreters, and Oregon certified interpreters.

For the following Oregon court interpreter services contact:

Court Interpreter Services
James Comstock, Supervisor
1163 State Street
Salem, OR 97301-2563
Phone: 503.986.7021
Fax: 503.986.5866
Email: Court.Interpreter.PROGRAM@ojd.state.or.us Web: http://www.ojd.state.or.us/osca/cpsd/interpreterservices/index.htm

• Court Interpreter Services coordinates interpreter services in Oregon state courts for litigants who do not speak English or have limited English skills. Oregon state courts use both staff interpreters and freelance interpreters to provide court interpreter services in more than 70 languages.
• Our Interpreter Certification Program has more than 80 Certified interpreters for Spanish, Russian, and Vietnamese. If you have questions about our Certification program, the program's webpages may answer many of them and have contact information for the program staff.
• We also have on staff an American Sign Language interpreter to coordinate and provide interpreter services in court to people who are Deaf or hard of hearing. And we offer a modest pay increase for court staff who are bilingual and use those skills when serving the public. Those bilingual staff do not provide interpreter services for court proceedings.
• We provide continuing education classes for Certified interpreters and provide education and training programs for court interpreters of languages that we do not yet certify.
• Interpreters may download copies of the OJD interpreter billing form here. The OJD interpreter payment protocol is also available for download.
• OJD maintains a roster of Certified interpreters for those wishing to verify certification, or to hire an interpreter for out of court work. Copies of the official roster of Certified interpreters are available here.
• If you are a party or attorney who needs an interpreter for a court hearing, please contact the court directly where the hearing will be. Our Courts and About Us pages have contact information for all state courts.
• And to request sign language interpreter services or other ADA accommodation so that you can access other court services and programs, please see our Accessibility page for information on how and where to make that request.

Oregon Translators and Interpreters:

• Oregon Interpreter Association (NEW) Contact: Leticia Vega, thevegas@open.org.
• Associated Linguists of Oregon (ALO) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/alo-oregon/. The Associated Linguists of Oregon (ALO) group listserve welcomes participants including translators, interpreters, translation project managers, linguists, and linguaphiles.

Northwest Area Translation Services:

• The Northwest Translators & Interpreters Society (NOTIS) www.notisnet.org/notis/notis.html was established in April 1988 as a forum for professional translators and interpreters in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Legal field too!
• Washington State Court Interpreters and Translators (WITS) http://www.witsnet.org . NOTISNET's sister organization here in the Pacific Northwest.
• Northwest Interpreters, Inc. (NWI) www.nwiservices.com has established itself in being at the forefront of providing translation services in the Pacific Northwest and abroad for over a decade.
  
• Deaf. Coordinating Interpreters for Conferences www.accessservicesnw.com/conferences.html People who are deaf are participating more often in international, national, regional and local conferences sponsored by organizations predominately composed of hearing people

Organizations:

• American Translators Society - A.T.S. (http://www.ats-us.org )
  
• American Translators Association (http://www.atanet.org/)

Immigration Agencies and Visa Preparation:

• NS Experts - Highly recommended site providing complete US Immigration services from experts - Online visa qualification analysis and online preparation of visa forms available (http://www.insexperts.com)
  
• Visa Pro - Visa listings and preparation (http://www.visapro.com)

Government Links:

• Bureau of Consular Affairs (http://www.travel.state.gov/)
  
• Passport information from the Department of State (http://www.travel.state.gov/passport/passport_1738.html)
  
• Immediate Relative Visa Petitions (http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/types/types_1310.html)
  
• USCIS (formerly the INS) Home (http://uscis.gov/graphics/index.htm)
  
• Primary US government web site (http://firstgov.gov/)

Commercial Firms:

• Interpreters Plus (linked on Los Angeles Workforce Directory). For over 20 years, Interpreters Plus http://www.interpretersplus.com/index2.htm has been a leading, multi-language, full-service interpretation and translation agency.

  Based in Southern California, but serving the world, Interpreters Plus provides 24 hour service via its team of highly-qualified translators and interpreters. Long-term clients include: film and television studios during production, attorneys needing assistance for court hearings/depositions/trials, schools with students of multi-language families and doctors, hospitals and insurance companies. ALL LANGUAGES AVAILABLE. Certified interpreters with expertise in the following areas:

• Rockyfield Consulting and Translation Services - Rancho Palos Verdes - offering translation to and from European and South American Portuguese and Spanish, French, Italian, and Japanese by native speakers. Also offers management and marketing support.
  
• Center for Korean Translation and Interpretation - provides translation and interpretation services between the Korean and English languages.
  
• LA Institute of Translation and Interpretation - provides business translators and interpreters for a wide range of languages.
  
• ABC Worldwide Language Services - Beverly Hills - offers professional translators, multilingual desktop publishers, voice talents, writers, and transcribers.
  
• America Translating Services - Santa Clarita - translates materials of all types, and from/into many languages.
  
• Bochert Translation Services - West Hollywood - international film-dubbing, commercial, website, business, and literary translations.
  
• Hata Language Services - Sherman Oaks - offering Japanese/English translation and interpreting services.
  
• International Translation Bureau - provides translation and interpretation services in a variety of languages.
  
• Interpreters Plus - Sherman Oaks - an interpretation/translation agency with a network of experienced independent translators and interpreters.
  
• Intex Translations - offers multilingual translation and interpretation services.
  
• Richard Schneider Enterprises, Inc. - Santa Monica - offering interpretation and translation services.
  
• Translasian - offers English/Chinese translation with one-day turnaround.