Legal Language Services ranks California as a state with heavily regulated legal interpreting requirements.
Legal Interpreting Guidelines in California
Requirements for Certified Interpreters in California
In California, certification is required for legal proceedings and medical/legal appointments.
California state authorities periodically offer exams, both written and oral, for certification based on the guidelines of the Consortium for State Court Interpreter Certification.
The state of California also offers reciprocity for federally certified court interpreters and to individuals who have successfully passed the Bilingual Oral Interpreting Exams offered in Consortium for Language Access in the Courts member states.
California offers certification in 14 other languages:
- Arabic
- Cantonese
- Eastern Armenian
- Farsi
- Japanese
- Khmer
- Korean
- Mandarin
- Portuguese
- Punjabi
- Russian
- Spanish
- Tagalog
- Vietnamese
- Western Armenian
Classification of Interpreters in California
The Judicial Council of California defines legal interpreters in the two following ways:
- Certified Interpreter: An interpreter who has passed a written exam and a bilingual oral interpreting exam, including portions on English language grammar and vocabulary, court-related terms and usage and ethics and professional conduct.
- Registered Interpreter: An interpreter who has successfully passed the written exam, passed the oral proficiency exam in both English and their chosen non-English language, and is determined to be qualified to serve as an interpreter for a language that does not have a certification program or when a certified interpreter is not available.
Common Languages Spoken in California
According to a recent American Community Survey, approximately 42.98% of the California population speaks a language other than English.
What’s more, more than 87% of the non-English speaking California population speaks one of the following 10 languages:
Other languages spoken in California include Russian, Hindi, Arabic, French, German, Panjabi, Portuguese, Mon-Khmer/Cambodian, Hmong, Italian, Thai, Gujarathi, Hebrew, Urdu, Laotian, Formosan, Telugu, Tamil and Indonesian.
*This table was created based on respondents’ written answers, the majority of whom wrote “Chinese” while others specified “Cantonese” or “Mandarin.”
Judicial Districts in California
There are 58 judicial districts in California, one for each of the state’s 58 counties. However, certification requirements in California are statewide and remain consistent across all local jurisdictions.
Call Legal Language Services at 1-800-788-0450 to find California interpreters who meet state interpreting rules for courtroom trials, hearings, depositions, arbitrations and other legal proceedings.
Please Note
The content provided on this page is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice. The information about legal interpreting guidelines in California is believed to be accurate at the time of posting; however, Legal Language Services is not responsible for any errors or omissions.
