Absent interpreters

IWe’ve had a spate of this recently. Interpreter requested on SSCS1, TS assures us that this has been recorded, client turns up for hearing but no interpreter. We’ve had three hearings adjourned on this basis in the past month or so alone.  Most distressing for clients and frustrating/time wasting to say the least.

Just wondered if it’s a local phenomonen or if it is widespread?

I’ve just been instructed on one where the Croatian interpreter claimant asked for didn’t turn up. That’s had to be adjourned (fortunate for this particular claimant as it has allowed him to get advice).

Case heard by an experienced DTJ who directed that the re-hearing must take place in the afternoon on the expectation that this will make it easier for an interpreter to get to the hearing. Possibly worth bearing in mind?

Apparently HMCTS have change contractors for interpreters recently (so said a tribunal clerk exasperated because, yet again, one hadn’t turned up for the hearing). It seems to be yet another of the ever growing problems with HMCTS’s administation

Is it possible for HMCTS administrative problems to grow?

I suspect there’s a three part issue here.

1 - administration of appeals is very poor quality as TS keep shipping out clerks to the courts and then magically discovering they need them back and then sending them away again and then… There is a conspicuous lack of knowledge amongst listings clerks (as opposed to the outdoor clerks with a real sense of what’s needed and why) and it’s reflected in a near total lack of insight as to what’s needed and why. I had a brilliantly enlightening recent phone conversation with a Liverpool based clerk who simply could not grasp why an “Arabic” interpreter was not good enough and a specific one of the 13 dialects might be better!

2 - TS instructions to interpreters often don’t make their way to interpreters. They might make it to their company but not necessarily to them. Consequently an interpreter has no means of distinguishing between a phone conversation that needs to take place some time after 2pm and a tribunal that must start at 2:10pm at the latest. Indeed the company may be responsible for jamming in the 1:30pm phone conversation that pretty much guarantees that 2:10pm won’t happen. If you were such a company you’d have to ask which one you could afford to blow out? The 30 minutes or less interpretations or the 2 hours at a tribunal venue that might only be 20 minutes and with no money earner afterwards for at least 1 hour 40!

3 - Interpretation is a key source of income for lots of people but it’s often not the only source of income or the only commitment. I have had one interpreter rant at a punter because the punter was talking the “wrong” language. I’ve had an interpreter try to conduct a three way phone conversation with his two kids in the back of the car (so, effectively, a five way conversation!). Who hasn’t had an interpreter in an appeal hearing where the judge is advised by the tribunal member who speaks the same language as the appellant that the interpreter is either getting things hopelessly wrong or actually just “interpreting” in a very wrong sense? Who hasn’t sat outside a tribunal room with an interpreter who spends the dead time between arrival and the start of the hearing lecturing you on welfare rights and the deserving and undeserving poor. An interpreter who “interpreted” as he saw fit because the appellant was female and culturally inferior. A veritable minefield.

It’s a service which is simultaneously absolutely critical and end to end stretched to the limit; poorly trained, funded and supported. I really don’t think this as an issue falls wholly on HMCTS. Booking an interpreter can be a nightmare. Granted, having competent adminstrators to do that would help but that’s just the start of the woes. I recently spent 6 calls and 2 hours trying to get one phone call to happen. Imagine being TS and doing that for a lot more cases!!!

One word. Crapita.

The ongoing fiasco of privatised court interpreting services

To be fair, it was hardly better when it wasn’t privatised. In many instances it was worse.

Glad it isn’t just us then.

We’ve been fairly lucky with the standard of interpreting when interpreter is present- or, at least, we’ve not had many horror stories from our clients- it’s the turning up in the first place that is the issue.

Not an easy job though. A colleague of mine has worked as an interpreter on & off for some years and she has some choice ‘don’t shoot the messenger’ stories.

I was listening to a clerk just the other day grumbling that they’d had 5 interpreters arrive for the same hearing. It seems they’re all in the Midlands!

have to say i havent had any issues with this at hearings or booking them myself….granted if it relates to things not being interpreted im unlikely to pick up on that.

maybe im not using them as often as others or we are lucky up here!

We’ve had a couple of problems recently.

If HMCTS falls under the MOJ contract, the provider has changed end of October and interpreters are now provided by ‘The bigword’ ( see http://www.nrpsi.org.uk/news-posts/NRPSI-Newsletter-47-October-2016.html)

The bigword have the same bad reputation amongst interpreters and translators to Capita. You can find a copy of their standard interpreting service agreement online. For example, for MOJ bookings they do not pay travel time for the first hour. So it would not be surprising if they’ll find it hard to find interpreters. Or maybe the problems were just due to change in service provider?

Is it possible to identify someone with a good reputation?