Interpreter pay threatens court system

Translator Lorena Pike hasn’t taken any work in Clark County courts for more than three months.

It doesn’t pay enough.

The president of the Nevada Interpreters and Translators Association can earn at least twice as much working for a law firm or at one of the many conventions around Las Vegas.

But she and other translators understand the need for their services in the halls of justice. Recently, Pike was one of 20 Spanish interpreters who signed a petition requesting a pay structure that “reflects both the expertise required and the increased cost of living.”

That petition was forwarded to Timothy Andrews, the Eighth Judicial District Court assistant court administrator, who oversees interpreter services in Clark County.

Andrews has launched a study to determine whether the raise is viable by analyzing translator pay rates in comparable jurisdictions across the country.

“It’s no secret we’re running pretty lean, and it requires some creative scheduling on the part of our staff. But we’re able to manage,” Andrews said.

If the pool of interpreters gets any shallower, however, thousands of cases in Clark County could be backed up or stalled.

Four years ago, as the Las Vegas economy spiraled, the pay for Spanish interpreters was cut to $36 per hour, and the group has not received an increase since.

“We hereby request that a two-hour assignment, at a minimum, and the reinstatement of the $50 per hour fee be approved and granted to help us cope with such financial burdens,” the petition said.

Andrews called the role of interpreters “critical. You can’t dispense justice without the interpreters.” He expects to present his findings to the County Commission during budget proposals in January.

Clark County translators for languages other than Spanish, meanwhile, still receive $50 per hour, “which creates an un-level playing field for the Spanish interpreters,” the petition said.

The two full-time county interpreters earn between $45,000 and $70,000 a year. One works at the Regional Justice Center, and the other works in Family Court. Both perform Spanish translation. Another eight part-time Spanish interpreters work about 1,000 hours a year at $25 per hour.

When the pay was cut in 2010, the county had about 90 interpreters on the payroll. Of those, 45 were Spanish interpreters on contract, while three were on staff. As of this month, there were 55 interpreters working for the county, 16 of whom were Spanish-language contract interpreters.

At least 10 interpreters refused to sign a new contract about two years ago, Pike said. Now she and others are finding more work in the private sector and turning down courtroom interpretation, unless they’re handling civil cases.

“The county courts are not good clients anymore for many of us,” Pike said.

Every month this year, there have been anywhere from about 3,000 to 3,500 requests for interpretive services at the Regional Justice Center and about 1,200 to 1,700 requests in Family Court. Those figures dwindled slightly since 2010 but remained relatively steady for the past couple years.

About 90 percent of those requests are for Spanish, Andrews said.

“We currently have enough resources to cover the requests that we get,” Andrews said, but he conceded that there are sometimes delays in the court process because of the drop in workers. “It would be nice to have a bigger pool.”

That group of county interpreters must cover a lot of ground: all criminal and civil matters in Las Vegas municipal and justice courts, Eighth Judicial District Court, North Las Vegas Justice Court, and cases with the Nevada Division of Child and Family Services, Clark County Child Protective Services, Nevada Parole and Probation, Nevada Mental Health Services, the Clark County Detention Center, the state unemployment division, and anything in the outlying courts in Clark County.

Aside from Spanish, translators in Las Vegas facilitate court proceedings in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Tagalog, German, Russian, Serbian, Arabic, Bosnian, Cambodian, Farsi, Swahili and American sign language.

“We just want to help people bridge the language barrier,” Pike said. “That’s our mission, and that’s what I do. That’s my job.”

If the hourly rate doesn’t return to $50, Pike believes, Las Vegas courts could continue to see a drop in translator availability for Spanish-speaking defendants.

“In order for interpreters to be able to afford to practice at the high levels expected of us by the Las Vegas Municipal Court Administrator and the state of Nevada, we must be justly compensated,” the petition said.

District Court Judge Valorie Vega, who was instrumental in establishing the Nevada Supreme Court’s Committee on the Certification of Court Interpreters, worked as an interpreter before she started law school.

Without interpreters, justice would be “unattainable” for those who cannot speak English, said Vega, also a member of the Latino Bar Association. “That and you’re going to end up with a lot of reversals on appeal.”

Vega is married to Review-Journal business reporter Howard Stutz.

Mastering the skill of interpretation, especially in a courtroom setting, takes years of language dedication and continued study, Pike said. Being bilingual is only the first step. Pike works on her craft every day, studying the intricacies of English and her native Spanish.

She was born and raised in Mexico City and studied for a year at a Florida high school. After earning a degree in accounting, she worked for companies that required bilingual speakers. She knew English well, she said, but was not as familiar with “street lingo.”

About 10 years ago, she met her husband while on vacation in Las Vegas and moved to Nevada to get married. Not long after, with years dedicated to fluency in both languages, she started her own translation business.

“If I just repeat it verbatim in Spanish, the message isn’t going to make any sense,” Pike said. “You have to know what you’re saying. It’s not like a parrot just repeating what is being said.”

Vega agreed.

An interpreter must listen, compute a translation, understand the nuances of the language and the culture from which it stems along with any idioms that might pop up in conversation, then find the right words in the “target language,” all in a fraction of a second while speaking as others are speaking.

And a defendant has a right to understand every word that is said on the record.

“You may be able to listen to a beautiful piece of music and appreciate it,” Vega said. “But that doesn’t mean you can sit down at the piano and play it.”

Pike said she would return to work for the county if the $50 per hour rate were reinstated.

Andrews said the economic downturn forced officials to tighten the budget, and the courts saved about $500,000 on interpreter services. But the current petition could help sway commissioners.

Smartphone technology helps maneuver interpreters throughout the 52 courtrooms more efficiently, allowing for fewer workers. Interpreters cannot take phone calls in court, but they can respond to text messages and emails.

There was a time when a quick loss of interpreters might have had an even bigger impact on the court system. Most importantly, court officials want to make sure defendants’ rights are preserved.

When Vega was first appointed as a Municipal Court judge in 1989, she heard interpreters confuse “bumper” with “fender” and “curb” with “sidewalk.”

That needed to change, she thought.

She recalled one case in which she told a defendant he had the right to remain silent. And if he chose to remain silent, that could not be held against him.

She asked if the defendant understood and waited for the interpreter to start speaking.

Eventually, the interpreter turned to the defendant and said simply, “Do you want to talk or keep quiet?”