The State Bar Association of North Dakota Summer 2015 Gavel Magazine | Page 23

Rule changes, expanded
training and testing
help interpreter program grow
Spanish and German are the most common
non-English languages spoken in North Dakota,
but a growing number of people speak Slavic
languages, Somali, Chinese and Vietnamese.

MIKE HAGBURG
Attorney at Law
On March 1, 2014, the North Dakota
Supreme Court amended Rule of Civil
Procedure 43 and Rule of Criminal
Procedure 28 to require the court to
provide an interpreter when someone
with limited English proficiency or a
deaf person is involved in a proceeding
as a party, witness, or person with
a significant legal interest or legal
decision-making authority.
On August 1, additional rule
amendments intended to supplement
the 2014 changes took effect. Most
of these amendments can be found in
Administrative Rule 50, the rule on
court interpreter qualifications and
procedures. The rule now includes a
new Section 2 on providing interpreters
that specifies the situations when
the court will provide a courtroom
interpreter at no cost. These include
all cases involving hearing impaired
individuals and most cases involving
persons with limited English
proficiency. In the rare civil case when a
person with limited English proficiency
does not qualify for a free courtroom
interpreter, the court will appoint
an interpreter but may later seek
reimbursement from a party based on
ability to pay.

Under the amendments to Administrative
Rule 50, payment for interpreter services
outside the courtroom is the responsibility
of the party who requested the service. If
interpreter services outside the courtroom
are requested on behalf of law enforcement,
counsel for indigents, prosecutors or
corrections agents, payment is the
responsibility of the agency that requested
the services or the political subdivision that
appointed counsel.
The explanatory notes of Rule of Civil
Procedure 43 and Rule of Criminal
Procedure 28 have been amended to crossreference the changes to Administrative Rule
50.
Spanish and German are the most common
non-English languages spoken in North
Dakota, but a growing number of people
speak Slavic languages, Somali, Chinese
and Vietnamese. In June 2014, to address
the need for more court interpreters to deal
with a wider variety of languages, the court
system sponsored its first court interpreter
orientation training program. Thirty-eight
individuals took part in the program,
speaking languages from Spanish, Bosnian,
Hindi, Chinese and German to American
Sign Language.
The court system offered a second
orientation session in June. The purpose of
the training was to introduce participants
to court interpreting as a profession. Topics
covered were the role of the interpreter in
court proceedings, professional responsibility
and ethics, and overview of the North
Dakota Court System and the modes of

interpreting.
The court system has also developed the
North Dakota Court Interpreter Proficiency
Test, which covers court terminology,
ethics, and modes of interpreting. At its
first offering in June 2015, 12 interpreters
passed the test and received the designation
of “registered interpreter.” They work in
American Sign Language, Arabic, Chinese,
Kurdish, Nepali, Somali, Spanish, Taiwanese,
and Turkish. A “registered interpreter” is the
highest designation for court interpreters on
the North Dakota Court System Interpreter
Roster.
A makeup exam will be offered in September
for those interpreters who were not able to
participate in the first exam.
Training for judges on working with
interpreters in court has also been offered at
the annual Judicial Conference. The training
for judges covers due process issues, the role
of the interpreter, interpreters in jury trials,
and what can go wrong when information is
not interpreted correctly.
The North Dakota Court System maintains
a roster of interpreters of foreign languages
and sign language. The purpose of the roster
is to connect courts and other entities with
interpreters whose services are available on
a fee-basis. The roster is maintained on the )9