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New Law Raises Fees for Court Interpreters

By Associated Press

JACKSON, MISS.—Many Mississippi courts are caught between a legal requirement to provide interpreters for a growing number of non-English speaking defendants and the inability of local governments to fund the service.

Until this year the maximum reimbursement was $5 a day. A law passed by the 2000 Legislature allows interpreters to be paid “reasonable” fees, but most local governments don’t have the money.

Laurel City Judge Cecelia Arnold said in nearly every court session she sees a non-English speaking defendant. She said most are accused of driving offenses.

“If I were in their shoes I’d be afraid, very uncomfortable. It would be bad enough to be in trouble and speak the language. When you’re in trouble and don’t speak the language, it’s even worse,” she said.

A minister fluent in Spanish has been volunteering time in Laurel court, but Arnold said the frequency of such cases makes that impractical. The city has no money earmarked to pay for interpreters.

Karen Austin, a Spanish professor at the University of Southern Mississippi, said the Laurel court is not the only one with the problem.

She said Latinos with a limited knowledge of English migrate to jobs, like those available in chicken processing and textile plants, in Mississippi and other Southern states.

Austin, who helps train law officers to handle arrests of people who don’t speak English, said some communities are not prepared for the influx of people from other countries.

She said courts are not using certified interpreters because there are too few in the state. Their hourly rate, she said, is about $50 an hour.

“Ultimately we can get in a legal pickle if somebody wants to challenge” the lack of interpreters, she said.

Mississippi’s population includes 1.7 million whites, 1 million blacks and about 50,000 Asian Americans, Latinos and Native Americans combined.

The U.S. Census Bureau has projected that between 1995 and 2025 the number of Hispanics in Mississippi will grow 101 percent, a faster rate than in 43 other states.