Strategic Plan for Language Access in the California Courts<\/a>, establishing 75 recommendations intended to ensure equal access to court services for people with limited English proficiency.<\/p>\nAccording to the Judicial Council\u2019s 2025 report, more than 60 of those recommendations have been completed, while several remain in progress. The report also states that the council is developing training and guidance for court staff on the appropriate use of machine translation tools.<\/p>\n
The organizations that submitted the joint public comment, however, said key language access measures remain inadequately implemented and criticized courts for using machine translation since 2020 without sufficient oversight by qualified human translators and interpreters.<\/p>\n
Their comments included examples of automated translation errors drawn from actual court data.<\/p>\n
In one case, instructions from a court staff member were translated as,\u00a0\u201cSting the judge to reduce a fever,\u201d\u00a0a phrase bearing no resemblance to the intended meaning.<\/p>\n
In another case,\u00a0\u201cDUI,\u201d referring to driving under the influence, was translated as \u201cIUD,\u201d\u00a0the abbreviation for an intrauterine contraceptive device.<\/p>\n
The organizations warned that such errors can have consequences far beyond inconvenience. Court users may miss hearings or filing deadlines, lose opportunities to reduce fines or avoid points on their driver\u2019s licenses, or make important legal decisions without fully understanding their cases.<\/p>\n
Joann H. Lee, the attorney overseeing language access at LAFLA, said California, as the nation\u2019s most linguistically diverse state and home to the country\u2019s largest court system, has a responsibility to ensure that language does not become a barrier to justice.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor many people, court proceedings involve some of the most consequential moments of their lives,\u201d Lee said. \u201cYet too often, they are left unable to fully understand or participate in decisions that affect their families, housing, safety and livelihoods.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aging and limited interpreter workforce<\/p>\n
Securing enough qualified court interpreters is another growing concern.<\/p>\n
As of March 2025,\u00a01,856 certified and registered court interpreters\u00a0were listed with the Judicial Council, covering\u00a0114 spoken languages and American Sign Language. However,\u00a032% of interpreters on the master list were over age 65, highlighting concerns about an aging workforce.<\/p>\n
As of 2024, there were\u00a025 certified Korean court interpreters\u00a0in California. Korean, meanwhile, remains one of the 10 most frequently interpreted spoken languages in the state court system.<\/p>\n
Norma Ventura, Indigenous Justice Program Director at CRLA, said safeguards are essential as courts and other public agencies expand their use of machine translation and other AI technologies.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we see an increase in the use of machine translation tools and other AI technologies in courts and other public agencies, it is imperative that these entities implement safeguards that ensure accuracy,\u201d Ventura said in the statement. \u201cSafeguards such as qualified human review ensure equal access to services for all communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vanessa Ter\u00e1n, policy director at MICOP, said the Judicial Council\u2019s 2015 language access plan represented important progress but has yet to fully deliver on its promise.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore must be done to ensure that everyone, regardless of the language they speak, can fully understand and participate in proceedings that profoundly affect their lives,\u201d Ter\u00e1n said.<\/p>\n
The legal and community organizations are urging the Judicial Council to fully implement its existing language access plan before expanding automated translation and to stop using machine-generated translations that have not been reviewed by qualified professional interpreters or translators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2013 Errors in automated translation systems used by California courts are raising concerns that residents with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1137,3150,1168,171,9779,61307],"class_list":["post-118538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-korea","tag-ai","tag-asian-american","tag-california","tag-korean","tag-korean-american","tag-language-barriers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}