Partnering with Interpreters When Representing Limited English Proficiency Clients

Janis Palma | IKIGAI

Janis Palma is an English Spanish interpreter and translator with over 40 years of professional experience. She became federally certified as a judiciary interpreter in 1981, certified by the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators (NAJIT) as an English Spanish interpreter and translator in 2004, and is licensed by the State of Texas as a Master Court

Interpreter as of 2017. She holds a B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin in Spanish with a major in Latin American Literature and a minor in Art History, and an M.A. from the Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Puerto y el Caribe in San Juan, with a combined major in Puerto Rican History and Literature. More recently she obtained a master’s in legal studies from Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor School of Law, a PhD from Bircham University in Spain, and is enrolled in the Rhetorics, Communication and Information Design PhD program at Clemson University in South Carolina.

She has been a NAJIT Life Member since 2006, a Board Member from 2020 to 2022, was elected Chair of the Board in 2021, and is currently serving as Board Secretary. She has also served on the Board of the Society for the Study of Translation and Interpreting (SSTI), the Texas Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators (TAJIT), and the Asociación Puertorriqueña de Traductores e Intérpretes (APTI). Ms. Palma has worked as an independent contractor for private attorneys, government agencies, state and federal courts, and worked as a staff interpreter for the U.S. District Court in Puerto Rico for 15 years, from where she retired in 2017. Palma now lives in San Antonio, Texas where she occasionally freelances for the federal courthouses along the lower Rio Grande Valley and teaches webinars on topics related to judiciary interpreting. Her main research interests are the intersection of law and language.

I. What is the difference between interpreter and translator | 1:00pm – 1:20pm

II. What to look for when you need a competent interpreter to communicate effectively with a client| 1:20pm – 1:30pm

• Accuracy and completeness standards for interpreters in the legal domain
• Ethical principles of impartiality and confidentiality applicable to professional interpreters
• Attorney-client privileged communication in the presence of an interpreter

III. What to look for when you need a written document translated | 1:30pm – 1:40pm
IV. What to look for when you need a foreign language audio or video recording transcribed and translated | 1:40pm – 2:00pm

Break | 2:00pm – 2:10pm

V. When and how to present a motion for the court to appoint an interpreter | 2:10pm – 2:30pm

• Applicable state laws mandating language access in court
• Relevant case law on the appointment of an interpreter for court proceedings

VI. Qualifying interpreters | 2:30pm – 2:50pm

• Model voir dire to qualify or challenge an interpreter as an expert
  • Daubert principles when qualifying as an interpreter

VII. Fundamental protocols for attorneys when communicating with a client through an interpreter | 2:50pm – 3:00pm

VIII. Case studies highlighting the challenges and successes of using interpreters in various legal contexts | 3:00pm – 3:10pm