Articles for legal and healthcare professionals.
Practical writing on certification, Title VI, Section 1557, deposition preparation, and choosing a language services partner, from the team that has been doing this work since 1999.
- Legal·9 min read·
Foreign-language audio evidence: transcript and translation
Recorded calls, surveillance audio, and recorded statements in another language are common in litigation and are routinely handled badly. The task is not transcription and it is not translation; it is a combined process with its own professional standard, and the output has to be defensible.
Read article - Legal·9 min read·
Sight translation of exhibits at a deposition
It is the most common avoidable disruption in an interpreted deposition: an exhibit appears that the deponent cannot read, and the room improvises. Sight translation is a real skill with real limits, and knowing where those limits sit prevents both a lost hour and an unreliable record.
Read article - Healthcare·9 min read·
IME, DME, QME, AME: which interpreter rules apply to each
These four acronyms get used interchangeably and they are governed by different authorities with different consequences. Confusing them produces evaluations that get excluded and appointments that get rescheduled. Here is the comparison, with the governing provision for each.
Read article - Compliance·10 min read·
California workers comp interpreters: credentials and fees
California workers compensation runs its own interpreter rules, with its own credential list and its own published fee schedule. It is widely described inaccurately, including the frequent claim that a certified court interpreter is simply required. The regulations are more specific than that, and the detail matters to both sides.
Read article - Legal·9 min read·
Challenging the interpreter at a deposition
An interpreter is not neutral furniture in the room. California treats them as subject to the rules that apply to witnesses, which is the doctrinal key to examining one. Here is how to raise a qualification or accuracy problem without derailing the deposition.
Read article - Industry·9 min read·
What agencies should require from an interpreter vendor
Court reporting agencies carry the client relationship, which means they carry the consequence when an interpreter assignment goes wrong. Almost nothing published in this industry is written for the person choosing that subcontractor. This is a neutral standard you can apply to any vendor, including your current one.
Read article - Industry·9 min read·
How to schedule a deposition interpreter in California
Written for the person who actually books interpreters: the deposition scheduler at a court reporting agency, and the litigation secretary or paralegal at a firm. Here is what determines whether an assignment gets covered properly, and the intake information that decides it.
Read article - Legal·9 min read·
Consecutive or simultaneous interpreting at a deposition
Attorneys often ask for simultaneous interpreting at a deposition to save time. It is the wrong request for testimony, and the reason is not stylistic. It is about what the court reporter can actually transcribe and what a reviewing court can later examine.
Read article - Legal·11 min read·
Remote depositions with an interpreter: the working protocol
Remote deposition guides are everywhere and almost none of them handle the interpreter. There is a reason: no California rule squarely governs remote interpreting. That does not leave you without obligations, and it does not leave you without a workable protocol.
Read article - Legal·10 min read·
Certified or registered: which you may use at a deposition
The answer is not a matter of preference or vendor policy. California sets it by statute, and the statute turns on one thing: whether the Judicial Council has designated the language. Here is how to work out which tier your deposition needs, and how to check the credential before the day.
Read article - Legal·11 min read·
Interpreters at defense medical exams: Evidence Code 755.5
Evidence Code section 755.5 is one of the least discussed and most consequential interpreter provisions in California civil practice. It requires an interpreter at an insurer-requested or defendant-requested medical examination, puts the fee on the requesting side, and makes the examination inadmissible if it goes ahead without one.
Read article - Legal·9 min read·
Which California languages need a certified interpreter
Most published lists of California designated languages are out of date, and some are years out of date. Rather than adding another list that will go stale, this explains how the designation works, how to verify the current position yourself in two minutes, and what the answer means for your assignment.
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