Article published In:
Translation and Interpreting Studies: Online-First Articles

“Please make sure we don’t get this interpreter again”

Australian legal aid lawyers’ experience of working with interpreters

ORCID logo | The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Based on data obtained from semi-structured interviews with legal aid lawyers in Australia, this study examines lawyers’ experience of working with interpreters in confidential legal settings. These interviews focused on lawyers’ knowledge of the interpreting profession and their expectations of interpreting services. The findings show that lawyers overall possess a sound knowledge of how to work with interpreters, as evidenced in their recognition of the interpreter’s ethical role, their awareness of the need to accommodate the interpreter’s professional needs, and their ability to use various strategies to evaluate interpreting quality. In terms of lawyers’ expectations, they value interpreters speaking the right dialect, being patient, and complying with ethical requirements. The lawyers’ expectations of interpreting services are closely related to their professional goal. However, lawyers raise serious issues about telephone interpreting, including interpreters not working in a secure location and engaging in other activities during interpreting.
Keywords: lawyer-client interviews, role, interviews, legal interpreting, telephone interpreting
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Lawyers’ experience of working with interpreters
    • In the courtroom
    • In interpreter-facilitated legal interviews
  • The status quo of the interpreting profession in Australia
  • Method and data
    • Research method
    • Data collection and analysis
  • Results
    • Knowledge of how to work with interpreters
    • Expectations of interpreter competence
    • Issues with telephone interpreting
  • Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 22 March 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tis.21070.xu
References (41)
References
Ahmad, Muneer I. 2006. “Interpreting communities: Lawyering across language difference.” UCLA Law Review 541: 999–1086.Google Scholar
Bancroft, Marjory A., Lola Bendana, Jean Bruggeman, and Lois Feuerle. 2013. “Interpreting in the grey zone: Where community and legal interpreting intersect.” Translation and Interpreting 5(1): 94–113. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Benmaman, Virginia. 2000. “The Spanish speaker+ interpreter services= Equal access to the judicial system: Is the equation accurate?” In Research on Spanish in the United States: Linguistic Issues and Challenges, ed. by Ana Roca, 95–109. Somerville: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Berk-Seligson, Susan. 2002. The Bilingual Courtroom: Court Interpreters in the Judicial Process. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Biagini, Marta. 2016. “Revisiting ethnography for dialogue interpreting research.” In Addressing Methodological Challenges in Interpreting Studies Research, ed. by Claudio Bendazzoli and Claudia Monacelli, 61–84. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar
Bryant, Susan. 2001. “The five habits: Building cross-cultural competence in lawyers.” Clinical Law Review 81: 33–107.Google Scholar
Carver, Natasha. 2014. “Displaying genuineness: Cultural translation in the drafting of marriage narratives for immigration applications and appeals.” Families, Relationships and Societies 3(2): 271–286. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cruz, Christine Zuni. 1998. “[On the] road back in: Community lawyering in indigenous communities.” American Indian Law Review 24(1): 229–273. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
De Pedro Ricoy, Raquel. 2017. “To interview or not to interview: A critical approach to assessing end-users’ perceptions of the role of 21st century indigenous interpreters in Peru.” Translation & Interpreting 9(1): 36–50. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Felstiner, William. L. F., and Austin Sarat. 1992. “Enactments of power: Negotiating reality and responsibility in lawyer-client interactions.” Cornell Law Review 77(6): 1447–1498.Google Scholar
Gramajo, Catherine. 2016. “The multi-purpose attorney: The interpreting attorney-mediator.” Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal 16(3): 493.Google Scholar
. 2008. “Controversies over the role of the court interpreter.” In Crossing Borders in Community Interpreting: Definitions and Dilemmas, ed. by Carmen Valero-Garcés and Anne Martin, 99–121. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2011. Interpreter Policies, Practices and Protocols in Australian Courts and Tribunals: A National Survey. Melbourne: Australasian Institute of Judicial Administration Incorporated.Google Scholar
Hale, Sandra, Ignacio Garcia, Jim Hlavac, Mira Kim, Miranda Lai, Barry Turner, and Helen Slatyer. 2012. Improvements to NAATI Testing: Development of a Conceptual Overview for a New Model for NAATI Standards, Testing and Assessment. [URL]
Hale, Sandra, and Jemina Napier. 2013. Research Methods in Interpreting: A Practical Resource. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Hale, Sandra, Jane Goodman-Delahunty, Natalie Martschuk, and Julie Lim. 2022. “Does interpreter location make a difference? A study of remote vs face-to-face interpreting in simulated police interviews.” Interpreting 24(2): 221–253. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hosticka, Carl J. 1979. “We don’t care about what happened, we only care about what is going to happen: Lawyer-client negotiations of reality.” Social Problems 26(5): 599–610. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Inghilleri, Moira. 2013. Interpreting Justice: Ethics, Politics and Language. New York: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kaczmarek, Lukasz. 2016. “Towards a broader approach to the community interpreter’s role.” Interpreting 18(1): 57–88. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Killman, Jeffrey. 2019. “Interpreting for asylum seekers and their attorneys: The challenge of agency.” Perspectives 28(1): 79–89. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Maley, Yon, Christopher Candlin, Jonathan Crichton, and Pieter Koster. 1995. “Orientation in lawyer-client interviews.” Forensic Linguistics 2(1): 42–55. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mellinger, Christopher D. 2020. “Positionality in public service interpreting research.” FITISPos International Journal 7(1): 92–109. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Morris, Ruth. 1995. “The moral dilemmas of court interpreting.” The Translator 1(1): 25–46. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 1999. “The gum syndrome: Predicaments in court interpreting.” Forensic Linguistics 6(1): 6–29. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ozolins, Uldis. 2011. “Telephone interpreting: Understanding practice and identifying research needs.” Translation & Interpreting 3(2): 33–47.Google Scholar
Pecol, Nidia. 2017. “Reflections on interpreting: Help for the criminal practitioner.” Criminal Justice 32(3): 28–33.Google Scholar
Piatt, Bill. 1990. “Attorney as interpreter: A return to babble.” New Mexico Law Review 20(1): 1–16.Google Scholar
Reynolds, Judith. 2020. “Investigating the language-culture nexus in refuges legal advice meetings.” Multilingua 39(4): 395–429. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Roberts-Smith, Len. 2009. “Forensic interpreting: Trial and error.” In Critical Link 5. Quality in Interpreting: A Shared Responsibility, ed. by Sandra Hale, Uldis Ozolins, and Ludmila Stern, 13–35. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sandys, Marla, and Heather Pruss. 2016. “Correlates of satisfaction among clients of a public defender agency.” Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law 141: 431–461.Google Scholar
Silverman, David. 2015. Interpreting Qualitative Data. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Smith-Khan, Laura. 2017. “Negotiating narratives, accessing asylum: Evaluating language policy as multi-level practice, beliefs and management.” Multilingua 36(1): 31–57. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2020. “Migration practitioners’ roles in communicating credible refugee claims.” Alternative Law Journal 45(2): 119–124. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stern, Ludmila, and Xin Liu. 2019. “See you in court: How do Australian institutions train legal interpreters?” The Interpreter and Translator Trainer 13(4): 361–389. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tebble, Helen. 2012. “Interpreting or interfering?” In Coordinating Participation in Dialogue Interpreting, ed. by Claudio Baraldi and Laura Gavioli, 23–44. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tryuk, Malgorzata. 2012. “The judge, the doctor, the immigration officer and the interpreter. Community interpreters’ role perception: A Polish perspective.” The Interpreter’s Newsletter 171: 117–138.Google Scholar
Vernon, Kia H. 2011. “No se habla español: Ethical and practical considerations for non Spanish-speaking attorneys representing Spanish-speaking clients.” Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development 26(2): 223–251.Google Scholar
Xu, Han. 2021a. “Interprofessional relations in interpreted lawyer-client interviews. An Australian case study.” Perspectives 29(4): 608–624. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2021b. “Roles, ethics and lawyers’ reactions: An ethnographic study of interpreters’ role performance in interpreted lawyer-client interviews.” Multilingua 40(5): 617–646. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Xu, Han, Sandra Hale, and Ludmina Stern. 2020. “Telephone interpreting in lawyer-client interviews: An observational study.” Translation & Interpreting 12(1): 18–36. DOI logoGoogle Scholar