News-Record.com

The following is a Counterpoint:

By Joseph E. Turner

I was struck by your editorial on interpreters in the court system (Nov. 17). Your opening hypothesis concludes: "That happens (not knowing what has been said in court in English) more often than you think, especially in a place like Guilford County, whose residents speak more than 100 different languages." Actually, that has not happened in Guilford County for many years.

As of Feb. 24, 2005, Guilford County's courts formalized a procedure that had been in effect informally for several years. We also formalized a contractual relationship with two certified part-time Spanish interpreters who are present in the courtroom every day in Greensboro and High Point.

We have a judicial assistant who obtains all other interpreters. She has developed relationships with translation services in the county, the state and the nation in order to provide accurate, simultaneous translation for all of our non-English-speaking citizens upon reasonable notice.

Your editorial said, "The new system (of providing court interpreters) ought to bring greater accountability and increased efficiency." In fact, the state's plan is being modeled after the salient features of the Guilford County plan, including certification. Your editorial concludes that courts overspent the budget for interpreters last year and "That's inexcusable in any language." The fact is the Administrative Office of the Courts requested $775,000 and the legislature budgeted $0 for a service that is mandated by the Constitution.

I believe your opinion was based on a statewide news release reported several days earlier. Your readers and our fellow citizens would have benefited more if the editorial had provided a local context of what is happening in our courts. Then, perhaps you would have formed the opinion that we should not be required to fix what is not broken but actually works economically, efficiently and effectively here in Guilford County.

The writer is chief District Court judge.