Non-English Speakers Want Their Say in Court
Maria Falcon believes she lost title to a Los Angeles house in a recent court dispute for one simple reason: She cannot speak English.
"I felt frustrated because I didn't have any assistance," said Falcon, 52, who speaks Spanish. Falcon said an English-speaking friend accompanied her to court but wasn't allowed to translate because she wasn't a court-certified interpreter. "I didn't understand anything going on in court. When the judge asked me to say something, there was nothing I could say in English."
Dorothy Herrera, a senior attorney at the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, said Falcon might have retained some interest in the house if she could have presented her side. "She might have been able to negotiate something," she said.
For immigrants trying to navigate the state's civil courts, a lack of proficiency in English can jeopardize their jobs, homes and civil rights.
The state Constitution ensures that anyone charged with a crime has access to a court-appointed interpreter, but the state Supreme Court has ruled that there is no such right to an interpreter at public expense in civil proceedings. State-paid interpreters are provided only for quasi-criminal juvenile cases, small-claims cases and domestic violence cases.
"It's an enormous problem, given that effective communication is such a critical part of a judicial proceeding," said Geoffrey Robinson, chairman of the language access committee of the California Commission on Access to Justice, a group sponsored by the state bar. "It's fundamental that we provide the means to communicate, or the whole process then becomes a farce, or a mockery."
Although California lawmakers have acknowledged the need for interpreters in the civil courts, legal analysts said little has been done because of the cost and a lack of awareness about the problem.
In California, with its 11.6 million legal immigrants and estimated 2.4 million illegal immigrants, about two-fifths of the state's population speaks a language other than English in the home. More than 220 languages are spoken in California, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The state spends $82.7 million a year on court interpreters and has 1,316 certified in 13 languages, including American Sign Language and the two major dialects of Armenian.
