When
I (Judy) first became a certified court interpreter, the biggest challenge I
encountered wasn’t one of terminology, but one of procedure. Even though my home
office is well-stocked with fantastic dictionaries and resources about the
American and Mexican legal systems, civil procedure and textbooks, and I’ve
taken classes in criminal and civil procedure, I was never quite sure what to
expect during the many types of legal situations for which I interpret. I had a
hard time, for instance, finding out exactly how civil depositions are
conducted. I looked high and low, and found limited information, so I learned
it by doing it. Perhaps there is a resource out there that I am not familiar
with (please let me know if there is, dear readers!) that explains the
processes well, but I wanted to share my informal (and by no means exhaustive)
list of procedural structure with you.
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| Ready to interpret! |
- Most of the civil cases for
which I’ve interpreted during depositions revolve around either car accidents or some type of personal
injury (think slip and fall). There are also many others, such as
construction defect. Most depositions last 1-2 hours.
- Depositions are usually held at law offices, either at the
office of the plaintiff’s or the defendant’s attorney. There are usually
at least five parties present: deponent, his or her counsel, opposing
counsel, court reporter and the interpreter. Complex cases with multiple
plaintiffs and defendants can have up to a dozen people in the room.
- In general, the party or law firm who requested the deposition
will pay (this is very important with direct clients, so be sure to
clear this up beforehand). Be sure to get the case name and the deponent’s
name for invoicing purposes.
- Court
reporters will be present
at all depositions. They are taking down the record in English only, so
your interpretation into English will become part of the official record.
Be sure to sit next to the court reporter so she can hear you (I’ve never
met a male court reporter). The deponent should sit next to you on your
other side, and his or her counsel will be seated on the next chair. The opposing
counsel will traditionally sit across the table in a typical conference room
setting.
- The
court reporter will swear you in.
Be sure not to agree to “faithfully translate.” As annoying as it might
be, I always correct the record to reflect “interpret.”
- After that, the court reporter
will swear in the deponent.
This is when you start interpreting simultaneously.
- Keep
a blank piece of paper handy
on which you will jot down difficult names and places for the court
reporter, who will have to produce the transcript. I usually write down
things like Eulalia, Amecameca, Tuxtla Gutiérrez – generally cities and
names that are challenging for non-Spanish speakers to understand.
- The deposing counsel will
introduce him or herself and explain to the deponent how the process works. When interpreting into Spanish
(or any other language) for the deponent, I usually lean close to the
deponent and speak in a softer voice so I don’t disrupt the court
reporter, who is taking down the English for the record. When interpreting
into English, I speak up so the court reporter can hear me. Portable
interpreting equipment is traditionally not used in depositions.
- Attorneys love to object to each other’s questions. Unfortunately—and they obviously know this—there is no judge to issue a ruling on the objection. They are just trying to get on the record with their objection, and you must interpret the objection, which can be confusing for the deponent. Usually, their counsel will instruct them if they should answer the question or not. Attorneys will also say things like: “For the record, I think defense counsel is being unreasonable,” which you must also interpret.
Part
two of this series will follow next month. I hope this information has helped
you gain some insight into what’s ahead if you get called to interpret at a
deposition. If you have anything you would like to share: please do so by leaving a comment.
6 comments:
Great post, Judy! Maybe some day you will write a book about court interpreting... :-)
By the way, I am looking forward to your session at the next ATA conference, Austriacisms for Beginners. I will make sure to bring some questions, as I occasionally translate Austrian legal documents that make Austria look like another planet when compared to Germany. :-)
Fabio: my pleasure! Thanks for the comment. Another book? Oh my; but it really is a great idea. :)
Looking forward to seeing you at our presentation, but FYI and just to make sure you are not disappointed, we won't be going into too much legal detail. We are trying to keep it general/fun so it's accessible everyone in the GLD and not just to the legal folks. That said, there will be some legal terms (we are finalizing the presentation now), but we will focus on terms that you might be able to see in any kind of document that are very Austrian. Of course feel free to bring your questions: we hope we can answer them! :) If not, we will look them up for you. And yes, you gotta love the Austrians and their hilarious terms.
Judy, excellent advice.
I would like to add what I usually do.
I have to swear in the deponent and have the text always with me.
I introduce myself immediately to the Court Reporter, give her my card and ask to be seated next to her. During the last jobs, I could always read on her screen the questions, the entire dialogue and also see problems or typos and help her with that.
Sitting next to her means that you, if you didn't hear the sentence or not all of it, you just read it on her screen.
I prepare myself as much as possible and ask for all documents to be sent beforehand.
I type a list of all involved parties and give a copy to the court reporter.
I ask my client what the objective is, what are they aiming at, so that I understand exactly what this is all about.
I make sure I do not mingle with "the other side".
Karin
@Karin: thanks for commenting and for adding all these useful tips! Great stuff. Interesting that you can read the text off the court reporter's screen. The reporters here in Nevada type in short hand, and it doesn't appear as "real" text on their screen yet, as they transcribe it at a later point. Also great idea to ask for any documents ahead of time, but in my experience, that never happens. :) I am lucky if I get the caption with the parties' names on it!
I've found over time that some Court Reporters prefer to have the Witness between them and the Interpreter, so that the Interpreter ends up facing the Court Reporter. Others prefer having the Interpreter sitting next to them. Now I always ask the Court Reporter what her/his preference is before we start.
@Joshua: Thanks for the comment and good point! It also depends on the shape of the table (sound, rectangular). Asking the court reporter is an excellent idea indeed. Thanks for the great insight. Sounds like you have done plenty of depositions yourself!
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