Legal Interpreting Guidelines in Ohio

Requirements for Certified Interpreters in Ohio

Ohio 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 Ohio also accepts certification from the NJITCE (National Judiciary Interpreter & Translator Certification Examination) and federal certification programs. Other state certification programs may be accepted on a case-by-case basis.

Ohio offers certification in 20 languages:

Classification of Interpreters in Ohio

Ohio ranks interpreters in the following three ways:

Certified Interpreter: An interpreter who has passed either the Federal Court Interpreter Certification Examination or the Consortium test administered by a state judicial department.

Provisionally Qualified Interpreter: An interpreter who meets certain experience, training and testing criteria, but who has not taken or passed a state or federal certification examination.

Language-Skilled Interpreter: An individual who lacks the training and testing to be a qualified interpreter, but has demonstrated, to the satisfaction of the court, the ability to interpret between English and a designated language and has met certain other criteria, such as attendance at a seminar on the Code of Ethics for Court Interpreters and court observation.

Common Languages Spoken in Ohio

According to a recent American Community Survey, approximately 6.31% of the Ohio population speaks a language other than English.

What’s more, almost 68% of the non-English speaking population in Ohio speaks one of the following 10 languages:

Other languages spoken in Ohio include Polish, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Korean, Dutch, Cushite, Ukrainian, Japanese, Hungarian, Kru/Ibo/Yoruba, Telugu, Gujarathi, Romanian, Croatian, Serbian, Urdu, Tamil, Panjabi and Mon-Khmer/Cambodian.

*This table was created based on respondents’ written answers, the majority of whom wrote “Chinese” while others specified “Cantonese” or “Mandarin.”

Judicial Districts in Ohio

This state has 12 judicial districts that encompass 88 counties:

Call Legal Language Services at 1-800-788-0450 to find Colorado 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 Ohio is believed to be accurate at the time of posting; however, Legal Language Services is not responsible for any errors or omissions.