Language Barriers

The Central District of California is one of the most racially and culturally diverse districts in the nation. Not surprisingly, debtors in the Central District speak a variety of languages and may encounter language barriers when seeking services. Clerks at the filing window and telephones regularly assist parties with significant difficulty speaking and understanding English. Data collected from the United States Trustee’s Language Assistance Program (October-December 2011) identifies foreign language interpretation service requests for 19 different languages throughout the Central District. The need for Spanish interpretation services is greatest at 85.9 percent, followed by Korean (5.8 percent), Vietnamese (2.2 percent), and Armenian (2.1 percent). As filings by self-represented parties continue to increase, the need for interpretation services will also rise. As detailed further in the exhibits at the end of this report, interpretation needs include a broad range from Arabic to Vietnamese.

The Court has attempted to address this need by making available as many bilingual staff members as possible, but having a qualified person with the needed language skills onhand every time a non-English speaking party calls or visits the Court is simply not possible. Court hearings regularly get continued when non-English speaking parties appear and the judge must wait for the parties to bring in their own interpreters. Because these parties usually cannot afford paid professional interpreters, the Court is faced with the dilemma of either allowing a family member, friend or other English speaker to do the interpreting, or denying the party any opportunity to be heard on their case. While the cost of interpreters at evidentiary hearings is a challenge in all cases in such a diverse district, in attorney-represented cases, the attorney is still able to present the issue to the Court so that the client’s concerns can be addressed by the Court.

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