Bilingual Professionals: Interpreters & Translators In Law

Bilingual professionals refers to the people who have made a profession out of fluently speaking more than one language. According to the 2019 Census Bureau, almost 68 million people in the United States speak a language other than English at home. That is roughly 21.6% of the entire U.S population! Interestingly, about 8% of the country - or 27,334,038 people - reported being more comfortable speaking a language other than English.

If we look at detained immigrant statistics, people are 5 times more likely to hire a lawyer if they have someone helping them fill out forms... something that seems so simple, is what many don't have. In fact, only 14% of these detained immigrants go to court with a lawyer by their side.

So, what do bilingual professionals do regarding the law?

When even one person doesn't receive adequate due process of law, everyone suffers. If it's okay for a small group of people to be denied justice, then it's setting a precedent for the future. That it will also be acceptable for everyone to be denied justice. And while interpreters and translators don't need to go to law school, their work is just as important. Here's a look at what bilingual professionals do for work in both interpreting and translating mediums...

Legal interpreting work:

Legal interpreting work involves hearing spoken conversation in one language, and repeating it in another. This could be happening in the moment, as with simultaneous interpreting. Where the interpreter is listening to the English speaker, and repeating what is said in Spanish at the same time, without any breaks. Or they could be working with a consecutive interpreting approach. Either way, legal interpreting is difficult and requires a lot of skill just to be able to hear in 1 language and repeat in another. Legal interpreting training teaches all of this, while also teaching legal terminology, concepts and more.

Our legal interpreting course prepares bilingual adults to provide language interpreting services in a variety of legal settings. This type of work involves depositions, client meetings, pretrial hearings, and much more. Legal interpreters don't have to be lawyers themselves, but many bilingual legal assistants and paralegals pursue this type of training. Especially as it can provide additional compensation and more varied opportunities for work.

Legal translating work:

Legal translating work is similar to interpreting. With the main difference that legal translators work with written texts. Legal translator training requires a vastly different skill set than interpreting. It is not always guaranteed that the reader will grasp the message of your writing. People have been deciphering and debating the intended meaning of text for thousands of years. So it is the legal translators job to not only read that text, but transcribe it into another language without the reader noticing.

A successful legal translator will work by translating documents for trial, or providing contracts in another language. They might transcribe any written text from one language to another that is required for legal proceedings. Their skills and techniques are different than interpreters, and so too must their trainings be different as well.

Our online translator classes are taught by expert instructors ✅ who have real-world experience in their interpreting specialty. They have worked hard to make fully remote online courses that are unique and engaging ✅ using a hands-on approach that is unparalleled by the competition. If you or someone you know is interested in our online Medical Interpreter Training Programs with live instruction✅, our fully remote yet real time classes ✅ are offered in Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Russian, Chinese, Haitian Creole, Vietnamese, Farsi, French, Hindi, Korean, Somali, Urdu, Ukrainian languages online and onsite.