The Oklahoma Bar Journal December 2024

linguistic minorities have equal or near-equal footing with their English-speaking counterparts. The state of Oklahoma has set the same standard. As Debora Charles, general counsel for the Administrative Office of the Courts, has explained: “The mandate for completeness means that every thing should be interpreted for an LEP [limited English proficient] defendant, including arguments of counsel, testimony of witnesses and statements of the court. Even when the defendant is not actually responding to questions, meaning ful language access occurs when everything that happens at the pro ceeding is interpreted for the LEP litigant. Interpreters should never be instructed to ‘stop interpreting’ during the proceeding if the LEP person is a party.” 5 Professional court interpreters understand their responsibility to interpret everything. On the witness stand, they interpret responses consecutively, but for other proceedings, they use whis pered simultaneous interpreta tion to keep linguistic minorities abreast of the dialogue. In my case,

Statements or opinions expressed in the Oklahoma Bar Journal are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Oklahoma Bar Association, its officers, Board of Governors, Board of Editors or staff.

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THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL