Legal Language Services ranks New York as a state with moderately regulated legal interpreting requirements.
Legal Language Services ranks New York as a state with moderately regulated legal interpreting requirements.
New York 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 New York also offers federal court certification and accepts certification from NAJIT (National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators) and the ATA (American Translators Association).
New York offers certification in 24 languages:
The New York Judicial Department defines legal interpreters in the following six ways:
Not all venues in New York require certified interpreters, but all interpreters are required at minimum to pass a written, multiple choice English proficiency examination. Please consult with Legal Language Services for the rules pertaining to your specific venue and language.
According to a recent American Community Survey, approximately 29.28%% of the New York population speaks a language other than English.
What’s more, more than 76% of the non-English speaking population in New York speaks one of the following 10 languages:
Other languages spoken in New York include Mandarin, Bengali, Arabic, Tagalog, Hebrew, Greek, German, Urdu, Hindi, Portuguese, Kru/Ibo/Yoruba, Albanian, Japanese, Panjabi, Malayalam, Persian, Vietnamese, Gujarathi and Ukrainian.
*This table was created based on respondents’ written answers, the majority of whom wrote “Chinese” while others specified “Cantonese” or “Mandarin.”
Legal interpreting requirements can vary by district in New York. This state has 13 judicial districts that encompass 62 counties:
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 New York is believed to be accurate at the time of posting; however, Legal Language Services is not responsible for any errors or omissions.