European Legal Interpreters and Translators Association

Basic outline of a national register of legal interpreters and translators

Liese Katschinka

President of EULITA

Needs analysis

What languages are needed?

How often? Where?

What type of procedure?

How is the situation currently being handled? transition to new system

One law / country to cover legal interpreting and translation services

national register covering

- admission procedure for LITs

- scope of application of register

(courts, police, asylum authorities, etc.)

- management of register

Types of admission:

- for specified (renewable) period

- on ad-hoc basis for one case

Types of LITs:

- independent free-lancers

- staff interpreters and translators

Admission procedure for LITs

- general requirements

(nationality, legal capacity, security vetted, no criminal record, etc.)

- special requirements

(educational background, professional experience)

Special requirements / Educational background:

- language competencies (mother tongue and

foreign language(s))- interpreting and translation competencies- terminology competencies (legal, medical, technical,

etc. terminology)- intercultural competencies- courtroom culture

Admission procedure for LITs

- examination

- entry into register (seal, oath, LIT obligations, LIT data in register)

- - - - - - -

- renewal of admission to register

- deletion from register

Scope of application of register

- courts

- police authorities

- asylum authorities

- etc.

avoid parallel regimes

Scope of application of register

- criminal law proceedings

- civil law proceedings

Accessibility of register

- limited to courts, etc.?

- judicial stakeholders?

- general public?

determines LIT data in register

Management of register

- updating LIT data

- assigning LITs to cases

courts? / independent agency? / competitive outsourcing?

Various points to consider:

- protection of LIT title /sanctions for abuse of title

- code of ethics / best practices

- effective communication through LITs

- relation to professional associations

- training and CPD of LITs

Remuneration of LITs:

One law / country to cover remuneration of legal interpreting and translation services (criminal law and civil law proceedings)

Separate payment scheme for LIT services and intermediary management services

Interpreting services:

- travel time, travel expenses- waiting time- working time- supplements- cancellation policy

Translation services:

- fee per page / 100 words / etc.

of original/translation- supplements- certification fee- postage

Any questions?

Thank you for your attention!

www.eulita.eu