With 220 languages spoken in Calif., courts face an interpreter shortage
By Maura Dolan, Los Angeles Times
Federal law enforcement began investigating California’s courts seven years ago after receiving complaints that two Korean-speaking women in Los Angeles had been denied court interpreters.
Courts in other states also were examined and faulted. Along with California, they began working to comply with U.S civil rights law, which bars discrimination based on national origin. Failure to act meant the possible loss of federal money.
But nowhere has the task been so challenging as in California, the most linguistically diverse state in the nation.