Court cases are hitting a rough patch in Wisconsin because the legal system does not have adequate funds to maintain the required number and variety of interpreters on its rolls. Consequently, non-English speakers are not always getting the interpretation/ translation services they require. With an increasing population of refugees – about 70 Myanmar refugees arrived in Wisconsin the present year, and increasing number of Iranian and Somali refugees in the past two years have further increased the pressure. At present Wisconsin has about 65 court interpreters which includes 59 Spanish ones others specialize in American Sign Language, German, Russian, Chinese Lao, Vietnamese, and Hmong
A solution seems to be on the way as Sen. Herb Kohl who has been driving the cause for sending more funds to states to be used for training and recruiting court interpreters has re-introduced a bill towards this end which he has been trying to get approved for some years.
If the bill is approved courts in Wisconsin would have enough funds to employ and train the requisite number of professional translators and interpreters and court cases, both criminal and civil would move more smoothly.
Wisconsin currently has 65 certified court interpreters. 59 of them speak Spanish. The others include American Sign Language, Russian, German, Hmong, Chinese Lao, and Vietnamese.
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