How to secure effective interpretation at your trials that doesn’t put your client’s interests at stake
Maria Xanthopoulou
Conference Interpreter & Certified Translator- I help businesses and professionals efficiently connect and communicate with clients overseas through translation and interpreting services in EN/DE/FR/TR from/into Greek
We need an interpreter for the court next week. But this is a crucial trial with important things at stake. Will you be able to handle it?
Do you feel uncertain about the efficacy of the person you are thinking of hiring as an interpreter at your trial? Did you have a bad experience in the process of court interpreting before, in which a poor linguistic performance harmed the interests of your client and the course of your case? Does this all make you suspicious and hesitant to hire an interpreter again?
It is a frequent phenomenon for lawyers to doubt about our efficacy as interpreters. I definitely understand where this comes from. The problem here is that in Greece there is not a legal framework which can sufficiently ensure proper accreditation of court interpreters? and make sure that only qualified professionals are used in legal proceedings. The registration criteria in court interpreters’ lists are very primitive, do not take into account any scientific standards established for the interpreter’s profession and can’t guarantee the level of quality required by the principle of “fair trial”. Furthermore, underpayments and poor working conditions do not motivate qualified professionals to apply to the relevant Call each year in order to be included in the courts’ lists. This creates huge problems, especially for languages of lesser diffusion.
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Things would definitely be much more convenient for you if the state had established a reliable selection system for court interpreters, through which you could easily find skillful partners who give you security and peace of mind. Such a system does not exist in Greece for the time being and until it’s introduced, you’ll need to take care of the selection yourself.
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Searching and finding suitable interpreters to work with is not an easy task though. Many times you won’t know how to assess a candidate’s profile, because you lack field expert knowledge. You need to have at least a basic understanding of the interpreter’s job and its challenges on the inside to be able to assess someone’s ability and know how you should work with them in order for the task to be executed correctly.
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A professional’s formal training plays of course an important role for the quality of their services. However you’ll be surprised to hear that quality is influenced also by other crucial factors that depend on you.
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We can briefly list the factors a premium quality depends on as follows:
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In our next newsletters our analysis will delve into each factor deeper. Stay tuned!
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About the author:
Maria Xanthopoulou is a trained translator and interpreter with an academic background in law as well. She is the manager of Translation Embassy, an agency specialising in supporting legal professionals with linguistic services. Her team consists of top-notch, experienced translators and interpreters who specialize in the legal domain.
We can support you and your clients by offering:
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Sounds interesting? Then let’s get in touch and discuss how we can work together.
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Email: [email protected]
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