The credential doesn’t fit the venue.
The word “certified” means little until you know who certified the interpreter, in which language, and for which court.
That’s why our team settles the court’s credential requirement before anyone is assigned.
Court Interpreting Services
We provide court interpreting services for law firms, corporate legal departments, and litigation teams. Our interpreters work at hearings, trials, depositions, and mediations, whether in person, by video, or by phone, and they cover spoken languages and American Sign Language (ASL).
For each booking, our team handles the credential check, the interpreter match, and the booking confirmation.
- In-Person, Video, and Phone Interpreting
- ASL Interpreting
- AES-256 at Rest
- TLS 1.3 in Transit
Where Court Interpreting Goes Wrong
Court interpreting problems start well before anyone takes the stand. Five of them come up again and again in attorney accounts and court guidance, so here’s each one and what we do about it.
Nobody confirmed the request.
Sending a form on Monday doesn’t put an interpreter in the courtroom on Thursday.
Every booking we take ends with a written confirmation sent to you.
The listed language isn’t the witness’s first language.
Your witness is listed as Spanish-speaking but turns out to speak Mam or K’iche’, and testimony stalls while the court looks for another interpreter.
We match each interpreter to the exact language pair in your request.
The session runs past what anyone planned.
Depositions run long, and hearings spill into a second day.
Our booking takes end times in 15-minute steps and extra dates, so the reservation matches the real schedule.
Case materials reach the interpreter on the record.
The interpreter meets the expert’s report and the technical terms for the first time while the witness answers.
Our booking carries notes for the interpreter, so names and terms arrive before the session.
Any one of them costs a rescheduled deposition, a continued hearing, or testimony taken twice.
If the court’s requirement or the witness’s dialect is still unclear, talk it through with our team before you book.
Interpreting for Hearings, Trials, and Depositions
Each proceeding asks something different of the interpreter, so here’s what each one needs and what we provide.
Court Hearings and Trials
Arraignments, motion hearings, trials, and sentencing all call for courtroom interpreting. The mode can change inside a single hearing. The defendant follows the proceedings through simultaneous interpreting, while a witness on the stand testifies through consecutive interpreting, one question and one answer at a time.
Many courts supply their own interpreter for the bench. When your client needs private conversation with counsel during the hearing, we provide an interpreter for your side of the table.
Depositions and Client Consultations
Depositions run on consecutive interpreting, with the court reporter taking down the English. Interpreted depositions take longer than the same depositions in English, because every answer is spoken twice.
Our deposition interpreting services include court-certified interpreters when the matter calls for one, and the same goes for the private client consultations before and after the deposition.
Mediations, Arbitrations, and Client Meetings
Mediation moves between a joint session and private caucus rooms, and the interpreter moves with your client. Arbitrations look closer to a trial, with witness testimony and exhibits.
Sight translation comes up in all of these. Our interpreter reads a written document aloud in the client’s language, such as a settlement term sheet or a police report. Federal interpreting standards hold sight translation to the same accuracy rule as spoken testimony.
Related Legal Assignments We Handle Separately
The rest of our legal interpreting services run through specialist teams. Insurance examinations under oath go to our EUO interpreting team. USCIS interviews go to our immigration interpreting team. Written exhibits, contracts, and court records go to our legal translation services team.
Tell us the proceeding type, the date, and the expected length, and we’ll send you a quote.
Matching the Credential to the Court and the Language
“Certified” means different things in different courts. Here is how federal and state courts sort interpreters, and what each category means for your booking.
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Federal Interpreter Categories
The federal court interpreter categories published by the Administrative Office of the US Courts sort interpreters into three groups. Certified interpreters have passed the Administrative Office certification examination. Professionally qualified interpreters meet other tests instead. These include State Department, United Nations, or National Center for State Courts exams, or membership in AIIC or TAALS. Language-skilled interpreters show the court they can interpret between English and the other language.
Federal certification programs were developed for Spanish, Navajo, and Haitian Creole. The Navajo and Haitian Creole programs are no longer offered, so Spanish is the only language with a current federal certification exam.
The Court Interpreters Act, 28 USC 1827(d)(1) covers judicial proceedings instituted by the United States. In those, the presiding judicial officer “shall utilize the services of the most available certified interpreter.” When none is reasonably available, the court uses an otherwise qualified interpreter. So a Tigrinya assignment in federal court goes to a professionally qualified or language-skilled interpreter.
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State Court Credentials
Each state certifies its own court interpreters. According to the National Center for State Courts language access guidance, “each state is solely responsible for certifying and otherwise recognizing interpreters to practice in their courts.” Credentials from one state carry into another only if the second state recognizes them.
Our request form asks whether the court requires a court-certified interpreter, with Yes, Unsure, and No as answers. When the answer is “Unsure,” our team resolves the requirement before anyone is assigned.
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Impartiality, Conflicts, and Role Limits
The federal standards for interpreter ethics and professional conduct set out the interpreter’s role. Interpreters give a complete and accurate interpretation that preserves the level of language used. They represent their qualifications accurately, stay impartial, and disclose any real or perceived conflict of interest.
In practice, the interpreter won’t soften a hesitant answer or clean up a witness’s slang. Your record reflects what the witness actually said.
In-Person, Video, and Phone Court Interpreting
The court or the deposition notice decides how the interpreter may appear. Once that’s settled, the mode and the room decide the setup.
Interpreting Modes and When Each Applies
Consecutive interpreting follows the speaker, pausing after each question or answer, while simultaneous interpreting runs a second or two behind without pauses. Sight translation renders a written document aloud.
Subsection (k) of the same statute sets the default for those federal proceedings. Parties get simultaneous interpreting, and witnesses get consecutive interpreting. The presiding judicial officer may authorize a different mode after a hearing on the record, when it will aid the efficient administration of justice.
In-Person Court Interpreting
Trials, evidentiary hearings, and long depositions run best with the interpreter in the room. From there, the interpreter hears every speaker and sees each exhibit as counsel hands it up. Our in-person interpreting team places a qualified interpreter physically in the room, and our interpreters are native speakers of the language you need.
Remote Court Interpreting by Video or Phone
Remote court interpreting works when the court or the parties allow remote appearance. Our video remote interpreting runs through the Day Interpreting app, a web browser, or an enterprise portal, with no dedicated hardware.
Phone suits short status conferences and scheduling calls. For routine client calls outside any proceeding, a Day Interpreting account connects your office to on-demand phone interpreters from the same linguist network.
ASL Interpreting for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Participants
State and local courts are public entities under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Under 28 CFR 35.160, a public entity “shall furnish appropriate auxiliary aids and services where necessary” so people with disabilities can take part on equal terms.
Subsection (d) sets four standards for video remote interpreting. The video and audio run in real time, and the image shows the interpreter’s and the participant’s faces, arms, hands, and fingers. Voices come through clearly, and users get adequate training.
We provide ASL interpreters in person and by video, and video sessions through Day Interpreting connect to RID-certified ASL interpreters.
How We Arrange a Court Interpreter
Booking a court interpreter with us has two parts. First, you send us a few details about the proceeding. Then our team takes three steps to get the right interpreter confirmed.
What We Need from You
Your request only needs these five details:
- The language pair, plus the witness’s first language if it differs
- The proceeding type, the venue, and the court’s credential rule if you know it
- The date, start time, end time, and time zone, with any extra dates
- In-person, video, or phone, and the address for in-person work
- Names and case terms the interpreter should see beforehand
What We Do Next
Once your request arrives, our team handles the rest in three steps:
We confirm the credential requirement. We check the court’s rule to see which federal or state credential level the interpreter needs.
We match the interpreter. We choose the interpreter by language pair, subject matter, interpreting mode, urgency, and required credentials.
We confirm the booking. You receive a confirmation that lists the date, time, language pair, and interpreting mode you booked.
If your firm books interpreters every week, our team can walk you through how repeat bookings run for your caseload.
How We Protect Case Materials
Case files carry privileged strategy, medical histories, and personal details about witnesses. Our protection rests on the controls listed in our Trust Center:
AES-256 encryption at rest and TLS 1.3 in transit
Zero-trust architecture with multi-factor authentication enforced
Role-based permissions and least-privilege access
EU data stored in the EU
NDA-bound workforce
Business Associate Agreement for HIPAA-covered entities
Those controls cover our systems, while a court’s video platform runs under the court’s own security rules.
Court Interpreting Services FAQs
As soon as the date is set. We confirm the court’s credential rule before matching anyone. Languages with few certified or qualified interpreters also take longer to place, so an early request gives us the widest choice.
Yes. One request can carry several dates, and each language pair gets its own matched interpreter, checked against the same credential rule. Multi-day trials also qualify for our longer-booking discounts.
That turns on who needs the interpreter and where. In federal cases brought by the United States, the court arranges the interpreter under the Court Interpreters Act. State courts follow their own language access rules. For depositions, mediations, and client meetings, the parties arrange their own interpreter.
Only with the court’s approval. At best, a relative falls into the language-skilled category. The federal ethics standards also require impartiality and conflict disclosure, which is hard for someone close to a party.
No. Federal Standard 5 requires interpreters to protect privileged and other confidential information. Standard 6 bars them from publicly discussing or offering an opinion on a matter they worked on, even when the information isn’t privileged.
The interpreter tells the court right away. Federal Standard 8 requires interpreters to “immediately convey” any reservation about their ability to perform to the judicial authority. The court then decides whether to pause, continue, or bring in another interpreter.
No. Federal Standard 7 limits interpreters to interpreting or translating and bars legal advice. The interpreter can sight translate a form’s text, but explaining what to write belongs to counsel.
Yes, when the parties agree or the court orders it. Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 30(b)(4), the parties may stipulate to a remote deposition. The court may also order one on motion, “by telephone or other remote means.” The deposition legally takes place where the witness answers.
Plan the Interpreter for Your Next Proceeding
Your legal team knows the date, the court, and who’s testifying. We’ll handle the credential check, the match, and the confirmation from there.
Start with the next proceeding on your calendar, and we’ll price the interpreter and the hours before anything is booked.
- In-Person, Video, and Phone Interpreting
- ASL Interpreting
- AES-256 at Rest
- TLS 1.3 in Transit
