The Michigan Supreme Court is currently contemplating rules on how to handle English limited proficiency in state courts. Download the proposals. The challenge is that court users interact with the court in a wide variety of ways and have a wide range of needs, and that all court interactions are not equally consequential. It's not surprising, then, that the evidence suggests that technology can provide cost-effective help in some contexts but that certified translators are absolutely necessary in others. Sorting out what works under what circumstances and finding reliable technology are crucial to meeting the growing need. You'll never have a more entertaining illustration of the limits of automated translation than the closed captioning of ABC-News broadcast of Sen. Marco Rubio's Spanish-language response to the State of the Union, prompting Stephen Colbert to deliver the immortal line: ""Rubio is the Republicans' Allen Ginsberg on Peyote:"
For the record: SBM Blog does not believe that Sen. Rubio is Allen Ginsberg on peyote.
