Lack of NC court interpreters hurt Spanish-speakers. Now, US Justice Department closes probe
Federal officials have closed their longtime probe into North Carolina’s use of court interpreters, which investigators said led to longer sentences, higher costs and the removal of important courtroom protections for those who did not speak English.
In an Oct. 25 announcement, the U.S. Justice Department said the current policy by the N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts to provide interpreters for all proceedings closes the books on a 15-year investigation that previously found numerous civil rights violations involving persons with limited English proficiency, or LEP for short.
While many of the violations cited in a 2012 investigative report occurred a decade or more ago, they show the N.C. courts recently offered two tiers of justice: one for those who spoke English and a lesser one for those who did not.
The Justice Department’s original investigation was touched off by a 2007 complaint that accused the courts of forcing non-English speaking residents involved in cases of domestic violence, child custody, evictions and wage disputes, among others, to proceed without interpreters, placing them at an extraordinary disadvantage.
In cases where interpreters were made available, investigators found some to be of questionable quality, including one who provided “incomplete and unprofessional” translations in court and who also went on a white-supremacist website to insult Latinos, according to the report.
As inadequate as their interpreter policy was, according to investigators, the N.C. courts frequently failed to comply with its requirements. Court officials also were “aware of the harm” the policy caused but refused to change it, citing existing N.C. law and financial restraints.
When the Mecklenburg courts tried to provide interpreters beyond what was called for in the state policy, the AOC stepped in to stop them, the federal report said.
In another case cited, a judge in Gaston County denied a woman a domestic-violence protective order, failed to provide her an interpreter and then dismissed her case outright because she was unable to communicate her allegations against her husband.
In a hearing from a contested annulment case, an eastern N.C. judge allowed the husband to translate for his wife. The investigation also found numerous other conflicts of interest in which prosecutors served as translators for the accused.
And in Wake County, a mother lost her two children after a judge refused to allow her a delay in a permanent-custody hearing so she could find a lawyer and an interpreter — even though she had made it clear that she had “great difficulty” understanding the judge, the opposing counsel and the testimony, according to the report.
The federal report found that the original court-interpreter policy violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits those who receive federal financial assistance from discriminating on the basis of race, color or national origin.
The long-running dispute played out against a backdrop of radical demographic change in North Carolina. According to the Migration Policy Institute, the number of foreign-born LEP residents in the state grew by 527% from 1990 to 2000, and by another 66% from 2000-2019.
Under pressure from the federal government, the N.C. courts adopted a new policy in 2017 providing interpreters in all hearings as needed. It’s not clear why it took the Justice Department five more years before it closed its probe.
In a statement last week, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said effective language access policies “remove barriers to justice” for non-English speakers and “promote public trust and confidence” in the courts.
Clarke said the N.C. courts have agreed to build upon past efforts to make the courts easier to navigate for non-English speakers while providing “meaningful and effective language access” for all parties moving forward.
Graham Wilson, the court system’s communications director, welcomed the Justice Department’s announcement and said the AOC is committed to providing “a fair, independent and accessible forum for the just, timely and economical resolution of legal affairs.”
This story was originally published November 1, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
