Language Services Home |

Registry of Interpreters and Interpretation/Translation Agencies

Language Services Section

Robert Joe Lee, Court Executive

Special Programs Unit
Programs and Procedures Division
Office of Trial Court Services
Administrative Office of the Courts
P.O. Box 988
Trenton, NJ 08625-0988

May 2004

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

This Registry constitutes the approved vendor list for contracting interpreters, whether directly with individual private contractors or agencies, whether for services to be delivered on site or by telephone. Vicinage Coordinators of Interpreting Services and their assistants should contract only the interpreters and agencies listed herein.

Please report any mistakes, updates, or new information via e-mail to , or by calling 609-633-8107 and leaving a message. This way the Judiciary can promptly identify changes that need to be made and update the Registry accordingly.

WHAT INCLUSION IN THE REGISTRY MEANS: INDIVIDUAL INTERPRETERS

Each registered interpreter has completed the one-day seminar on the Code of Professional Conduct and has signed an affidavit. The purpose of the affidavit is to ensure that persons who register (1) agree to abide by the Code of Professional Conduct for Interpreters, Transliterators, and Translators when working on a contractual basis for the courts, (2) understand that their services will be managed under the "Guidelines for Contracting Free-lance Interpreters in the Superior Court" and that they accept the conditions of those Guidelines, including the rate structure; and (3) affirm that all information and answers provided are true.

Furthermore, each registered interpreter has indicated in the affidavit that he or she understands that (1) classification into the various levels will be made according to [A] the results of an AOC test (or the equivalent) for languages for which the AOC tests, [B] results of certification by the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf for sign language interpreters, or [C] according to criteria established by a panel of managers of court interpreting services for all other languages; (2) the initial classification can be appealed if the interpreter believes it was not applied in a manner consistent with the established criteria. Furthermore, by the affidavit they affirm that they can perform the sight, consecutive, and simultaneous modes of court interpreting in a manner consistent with Canon 2 of the Code of Professional Conduct for Interpreters, Transliterators, and Translators.

Interpreters who work in one of the languages for which there is a test are either approved or allowed to work in some status short of approval. Approved interpreters include both Master (80% or higher tested accuracy) and Journeyman (70% or higher tested accuracy) interpreters. Unapproved interpreters who are allowed to work when no approved interpreter is available include Conditionally Approved (60% or higher tested accuracy) and Eligible Unapproved (50% or higher accuracy) interpreters.

Interpreters who work in a language for which there is no test are classified according to the same scheme, but they are considered "registered" interpreters, not "approved" interpreters. This is because there has been no objective demonstration through a valid and reliable test. Registered interpreters have been classified according to three criteria: (1) professional experience as an interpreter (translation experience is sometimes considered as well), (2) professional training in the fields of interpreting and translating; and (3) any other testing that may have been involved.

WHAT INCLUSION IN THE REGISTRY MEANS: AGENCIES

All agencies included in the AOC's mailing lists in 1994 were sent a separate package that focused exclusively on agencies. Over time, agencies that are newly created or never applied for inclusion are given materials for registering and invited to register.

Owners of agencies are required to send an official representative to take the Seminar on the Code of Professional Conduct for Interpreters, Transliterators, and Translators as a condition of registration. Agencies also affirm via their affidavit that they will (1) provide only interpreters who have been screened by the agency and have demonstrated that they possess the knowledge, skills, and abilities identified by the AOC, including the Code of Professional Conduct, and (2) use the names of the languages employed by the Courts as they appear on the AOC's "List of Languages and Language Codes."
CAUTION: Interpreters provided by agencies should not be viewed to be "approved" or "certified" by the AOC. Some individuals sent by agencies may be "approved" by the AOC, but experience has shown that most are not, even in languages for which the AOC has court interpreter approval exams. They are merely "registered", as are the registered individual free-lance interpreters who work in languages for which there is no AOC exam.

REGISTRATION AS A BUSINESS WITH THE DIVISION OF REVENUE

Pursuant to legislation, every vendor who sells a product or service to the State of New Jersey is required to register as a business with the Division of Revenue. All individual contract interpreters and all agencies listed herein have completed this requirement.

MAINTENANCE OF THE REGISTRY

The Registry is updated regularly and updates are posted almost monthly on the Judiciary's Internet and intranet websites. It is maintained by:

  1. Making all required changes in name, address, telephones, etc., when such changes of registered interpreters or agencies are reported;
  2. Adding new interpreters and agencies as they are eligible to be included; and by
  3. Removing registered interpreters (or agencies) due to the following:
    1. Failure of an interpreter to qualify on an exam administered in a new language for which the interpreter had been registered and for which there had not previously been any exam.
    2. Request by the interpreter to be removed due to, e.g., retirement, moving out of state, or career change.
    3. Failure to provide updated information when they become unreachable due to disconnected phones and the like.

HOW TO USE THE REGISTRY: CONTRACT INTERPRETERS

Individual contract interpreters are listed according to the following sorting scheme:

  1. Language
  2. Classification level
    a.  Master (1-Mas)
    b.  Journeyman (2-Jou)
    c.  Conditionally Approved (3-Con)
    d.  Eligible Unapproved (4-El U)
  3. County
  4. City
  5. Name (Last name, first name)

Accordingly, take the following steps to find interpreters for on-site interpreting:

  1. Find the language. All languages are listed in alphabetical order. If you don't find the language you are looking for, consult the list of languages in the appendix before concluding that no interpreters are registered for a given language.
  2. Find the set of approved interpreters in that language, i.e., Master and Journeyman levels. Remember that effective September 1, 1999, Spanish interpreters who are Conditionally Approved are no longer eligible to be used in Superior Court.
  3. Following the rotation policies indicated in the "Guidelines for Contracting Free-lance Interpreters in the Superior Court," select the interpreter who is next on the rotation list.
  4. Contact the interpreter and find out if he or she is available to take the assignment.
  5. Proceed with the rotation policy or exceptions to the rotation policy as articulated in the "Guidelines" until an interpreter accepts the assignment. Except for Spanish, this includes using Conditionally Approved and Eligible Unapproved interpreters when no approved interpreter is available.
  6. If no free-lance interpreter is available, contact three agencies for estimates and proceed according to the "Guidelines".

All of the primary ways of reaching interpreters by telephone are included as follows:

  • Daytime telephone numbers (Day)
  • Evening telephone numbers (Eve)
  • Beeper telephone numbers (Beep)
  • FAX telephone numbers (FAX)
  • Cellular telephone numbers (Cell)
  • E-mail addresses are also included to permit electronic contact.

Finally, the availability of interpreters is reported. For the first time, this edition reports a much broader range of possible options indicating when interpreters are actually available.

HOW TO USE THE REGISTRY AGENCIES

Agencies are listed in alphabetical order and all are equally eligible to be used for any interpreting assignment subject to the "Guidelines for Contracting Free-lance Interpreters in the Superior Court". Vicinage Coordinators of Interpreting Services and their assistants are reminded that any registered agency may be used, but some form of bidding must take place in advance with a minimum of three agencies.

TELEPHONE INTERPRETING

The registry designates interpreters who have geen trained to deliver telephone interpreting services. Anyone for whom the Registry indicates "Yes" after "Tel." has completed the mandatory training and should receive preference for telephone interpreting assignments over interpreters who have not had the training.

Agencies that have registered to provide telephone interpreting services are included in a separate section of the Registry. Coordinators of interpreting services may use any of the registered vendors listed when no staff interpreter or individual free-lance interpreter is available to deliver the required service.

For situations in which telephone interpreting is required, coordinators of interpreting services should consult and be guided by the document, "Manual for Managers Who Coordinate Court Interpreting Services Delivered by Telephone".

KEEPING THE REGISTRY CURRENT

All persons who are included in or use the Registry are encouraged to report updates, errors, or other modifications to the AOC as indicated on the title page. The Registry is a dynamic document that is revised periodically and its utility is limited to the degree that such information is not supplied in a timely manner.

Since interpreters or agencies often register between editions of the Registry, managers of interpreting services may want to check about the status of other interpreters or agencies who claim to be registered. Contact to confirm whether individual interpreters or agencies have registered or to confirm a change in registration in between editions.

USE OF THE REGISTRY BY PERSONS SEEKING TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENTS FOR THE NEW JERSEY MOTOR VEHICLE COMMISSION
(FORMERLY DIVISION OF MOTOR VEHICLES)

Effective December 2, 2002, the then-named Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) ended use of its own translator list and began requiring that translations submitted to it be produced by individuals or companies listed in this Registry. The DMV was abolished by legislation signed on January 28, 2003, and replaced by the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission (MVC). Anyone who has questions about MVC's policies or procedures should contact the MVC directly, not the Language Services Section of the Administrative Office of the Courts. Questions may be directed to 609-633-9477.

Privacy Policy | Contact Us | © New Jersey Judiciary