California requires a certified court interpreter for languages the Judicial Council has designated, and provides the registered tier for languages it has not. The practical difficulty is that the designated list changes, and stale copies of it circulate widely online, including on pages that look authoritative. The durable skill is checking rather than remembering.
Where designation comes from
Government Code section 68561(a) provides that an interpreter who interprets in a court proceeding, in a language designated by the Judicial Council, shall be a certified court interpreter as defined in section 68566. Section 68566 defines that as a person holding a valid certificate as a certified court interpreter issued by a certification entity approved by the Judicial Council. Section 68562 gives the Judicial Council the role of designating the languages and approving the certifying entities.
So designation is an administrative determination by the Judicial Council, not a fixed statutory list. That is exactly why it can change, and why a list published in an article three years ago may no longer describe the position.
Why we are not publishing a list
We looked at this carefully and decided against it. Languages have moved between the certified and registered tracks, and during our research we found official-looking sources that disagreed with each other about the current position, including secondary pages still publishing a longer list that no longer matches what the Judicial Council currently shows.
Publishing another list would add a fourth version to that mess and would begin decaying the day it went up. Worse, a reader relying on it would have no way of knowing when it went stale. So the useful thing to publish is the method.
How to check, in about two minutes
- Go to the Judicial Council of California Language Access Services site, which is the authoritative source for the court interpreter program.
- Find the current certified language listing there. Do not rely on a county court page, a vendor page, or an article, including this one, for the list itself.
- If the language appears, the certified tier applies to your proceeding.
- If it does not appear, check the registered listing, which covers the non-designated languages.
- Separately, verify the specific interpreter using the Judicial Council's public list of current court interpreters, by certification or registration number.
The last step is the one that actually protects an assignment, because a language being designated tells you what tier is required, and only the interpreter lookup tells you whether the person being sent holds it.
What to do when your language is not designated
Government Code section 68561(d) provides the answer: for languages the Judicial Council has not designated, interpreters are qualified by the court under the applicable guidelines, and those who pass the English fluency examination are known as registered interpreters.
The framing matters when you are explaining this to a client. Registered is not a downgrade and it is not a workaround. It is the credential California provides for languages where the volume of proceedings cannot support building and maintaining a full certification examination. A registered interpreter in an uncommon language may be one of a very small number of people in the state qualified to do the work at all.
Both tiers sit inside the cost recovery provision, which allows the fees of a certified or registered interpreter for the deposition of a party or witness who does not proficiently speak or understand English. So the tier follows the language, and either tier protects the recoverability. The detail is in who pays for the deposition interpreter.
Languages that sit outside both tracks
Two situations do not fit the spoken-language framework neatly and are worth knowing about.
The first is sign language, which runs on a separate track. American Sign Language and Mexican Sign Language are distinct languages, and some deaf individuals are served by a Certified Deaf Interpreter working alongside a hearing interpreter. Our articles on ASL and Mexican Sign Language and when a Certified Deaf Interpreter is needed cover that.
The second is indigenous languages, where the practical problem is not which tier applies but whether any qualified interpreter exists for that variety on that date. Mixteco, Zapoteco, Triqui, Mam and K'iche' are distinct languages with regional varieties that are not always mutually intelligible, and relay arrangements are sometimes the only workable approach. That is covered in indigenous Mesoamerican languages in U.S. courts.
Reading the two listings without confusing them
The Judicial Council maintains more than one listing and they answer different questions. Confusing them is the most common error we see when someone has genuinely gone to check.
- The designated or certified language listing answers: does a California certification examination exist for this language. It is about languages, not people.
- The registered language listing answers the equivalent question for the non-designated track.
- The interpreter lookup answers a different question entirely: is this specific person currently credentialed and in good standing, and in which language.
You need both kinds of answer for an assignment. The language listing tells you which tier the proceeding requires. The interpreter lookup tells you whether the person being sent actually holds it. Checking only the first is how a matter ends up with the right tier on paper and the wrong person in the room.
One further caution about naming. Some languages appear under names that differ from everyday usage, and some entries distinguish varieties that people commonly treat as one language. If a language does not appear where you expect it, check for an alternative name and for a variety distinction before concluding it is not there.
What to ask a provider
The designation question resolves into three things you can ask any provider, and the answers are short:
- Is this language currently designated, and what is your source for that.
- Which tier are you supplying, and what is the assigned interpreter's certification or registration number.
- If neither tier is available for this date and venue, what are you proposing instead, and on what basis.
The third question is the revealing one. A provider that answers it honestly, including by saying it cannot cover the assignment properly, is more valuable than one that always says yes. A provider that responds to a scarce-language request with unqualified assurance is describing a bilingual speaker.
Designation is not availability
One conflation worth heading off. A language being designated tells you a certification examination exists for it. It tells you nothing about how many certified interpreters are working in your county, or whether any of them are free on your date.
A designated language can still be genuinely difficult to cover in a rural venue on short notice, and a non-designated language can be straightforward to cover in a metropolitan area where that community is large. Scheduling should be driven by the second question, not the first. The practical intake approach is in how to schedule a deposition interpreter.
The gap between the two questions is widest in the Central Valley and in rural counties, where a language may be well represented in the local population and thinly represented among credentialed interpreters. Punjabi in parts of the Central Valley is a familiar example of that pattern: substantial community, real and recurring demand in the courts, and a bench that does not scale with it.
The practical response is lead time rather than escalation. Where you know a matter will require a scarce language in a venue away from the major metropolitan areas, raising it weeks ahead rather than days ahead is the only variable genuinely within anyone's control.
A note on other states
Designation is a state-by-state matter and the lists do not match. A language requiring certification in California may be a registry language elsewhere, and a credential issued by another state is not a California credential. Our state-by-state certification guide sets out how the programs differ, and the federal position is narrower still, since federal certification today is a Spanish program, covered in federal depositions.
Sources
California Government Code sections 68561, 68562, and 68566, available through California Legislative Information; the current designated language listing and the interpreter lookup are maintained by Judicial Council of California Language Access Services. Verified against the primary sources in July 2026. We deliberately do not reproduce the designated language list here, because it changes and a copy would go stale.
AMS supplies certified and registered interpreters and will confirm the tier and the credential number for your language and venue before the assignment. See the languages we cover or request a quote.