COURT News:SANTA FE ― Managers of programs providing interpreting services for state courts across the country gathered in New Mexico last week for a national conference.
New Mexico Supreme Court Chief Justice Barbara J. Vigil and Artie Pepin, director of the Administrative Office of the Courts, officially opened the conference. Supreme Court Justice Edward L. Chávez delivered a keynote address.
Other New Mexico presenters included Paul Kippert, assistant general counsel with the Department of Finance and Administration, and Lisa Dignan and Roger Robb with the Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
New Mexico has been a leader in offering interpreting services to individuals with limited English proficiency and the deaf and hard of hearing to ensure equal access to justice. New Mexico is the only state with a constitutional right for citizens to serve on juries regardless of their ability to speak or read English.
The conference featured training and discussion sessions, including on the use of video remote interpreting services and continuing education programs for court interpreters and translators.
Paula Couselo, senior statewide program manager of the New Mexico Center for Language Access, was among the presenters at the conference. She demonstrated a program used in New Mexico for training bilingual court employees and a downloadable court interpreter orientation program, a collaborative project jointly funded by Alaska, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Virginia and Texas state courts.
The Council of Language Access Coordinators concluded its conference Wednesday in Santa Fe.
Click here to learn more about the Center for Language Access, which is a program of the Administrative Office of the Courts.
