Aaron Sussman, an attorney with the National Center for Access to Justice at Fordham Law School, was recently quoted in a PBS article about access to court interpreters. He noted that interpreter resources are often targeted at criminal cases and litigants in civil matters are not always given interpreters.
This is a prominent issue across the country, as more than 25 million people in the U.S. have limited proficiency in the English language. You can read Sussman’s review of access to court interpreters state by state.
“These civil courts deal with important issues,” he said. “This is family court, issues with custody and child support. This is people who are trying to get alimony. You’ve got housing court where people deal with issues with eviction and foreclosure.”