Welcome back to the Judicial Council of California's Video Remote Interpreting online training. In this module, we'll go over professional standards for California court interpreters when conducting Video Remote Interpreting, or VRI. We'll also discuss how to handle some ethical situations when working remotely. Let's start with professional standards. As a court interpreter, you should follow the same professional standards when working remotely as you would when interpreting in person in a courtroom. You should show courtesy to the judge, attorneys, and other parties. And you should prepare for your interpreting assignment in advance. You must respect courtroom decorum, even if working from home. This includes dressing appropriately for court. It also includes working from a professional workstation that is free from noise and distractions. For instance, you should avoid calling from a car, a public location, or other busy spaces. Not only are such locations less professional, but they can also pose risks to confidentiality. We'll discuss this further later in this module. Your workspace should be clean and presentable. If allowed, you may use a virtual background that is appropriate for court. Another good practice is to enter a screen name that clearly identifies you as the interpreter when logging into a remote hearing. For example, you might enter Joe Smith, Interpreter, or Jane Smith, Spanish Interpreter. This way, others in the hearing can immediately recognize you and your role. Additionally, you should avoid multitasking or doing other work when interpreting remotely. You should stay fully focused on the hearing at all times, even during team interpreting assignments when you are not the active interpreter. Finally, you should remain at your remote workstation and in your role as an interpreter until excused by the court. Just as you would for in-person hearings, wait for the judge's instructions before leaving. Similarly, you should always remain on camera unless otherwise instructed by the court. Now let's move on to ethical considerations when conducting VRI. As with professional standards, you must follow the same code of ethics when working remotely as you would for in-person events. A key code of ethics to keep in mind is the duty to report impediments. As it relates to VRI, there may be times when you must interrupt a VRI event because you can't hear or understand something being said. This can happen because of technical difficulties, background noise, internet connection issues, lagging audio or video, or other challenges. If you cannot hear well enough to interpret, you must notify the court of the problem. The court may need to fix audio or connection issues. The court may even need to reschedule a matter to a later date or arrange for the hearing to be held in person. The same holds true for persistent issues. As stated in the Professional Standards and Ethics for California Court Interpreters, even if you find yourself repeatedly asking parties to speak more loudly or clearly, do not yield to the temptation to simply skip phrases you cannot hear out of concern that you are interrupting the proceedings too frequently. It is better to ask for the court's assistance so that the problem can be remedied and accuracy can be preserved. Consider, for example, the following scenario. You are providing remote simultaneous interpretation from home for a hearing using Zoom's language interpretation feature. Everyone but you is present in the courtroom. You can hear the judge and the limited English proficient or LEP litigant extremely well, but you can barely hear the attorneys at all. You have already stopped the hearing a couple of times to ask for clarification. You can tell that the judge and attorneys are becoming frustrated. What, if anything, do you do? As discussed previously, if you cannot hear and it is impeding your interpretation performance, you must report this to the court, even if it means interrupting the hearing. When reporting an impediment, it is best practice to refer to yourself in the third person. This helps the court maintain a clear record. For example, you may say, your honor, the interpreter is having trouble hearing the attorneys, or your honor, can the attorney please repeat her last question? Because the issue in this scenario is likely due to the audio setup in the courtroom, you may also be able to make suggestions to help resolve any issues. Examples would include, your honor, the interpreter is having difficulty hearing the attorneys, may your honor please inquire whether the speakers could use microphones or headsets? Or, your honor, the interpreter is having difficulty hearing the attorneys, may your honor please request that they move closer to the microphone when speaking? Let's look at another scenario. You are providing remote interpretation services via a video conferencing platform. The court has asked that your interpretation be done in the consecutive mode. At first, everyone is mindful of giving you time to interpret. However, as the case goes on, pauses become less frequent. You are afraid that you will omit something if it keeps going like this. What, if anything, do you do? As in the previous scenario, you must assert yourself and get the parties to pause so that you can interpret accurately and completely. For example, you might say something to the judge like, your honor, given the pace of the speakers and lack of pauses, the interpreter is unable to ensure a complete and accurate interpretation. Could your honor please remind the parties to pause periodically to allow the interpreter to interpret before continuing? This notifies the judge of the problem and lets the judge take control of the situation. Another ethical consideration when working over VRI is maintaining impartiality and avoiding conflicts of interest or even perceptions of conflict of interest. As stated in the Professional Standards and Ethics for California Court Interpreters, an interpreter must be impartial and unbiased and must refrain from conduct that may give an appearance of bias. Let's look at some ways this standard may apply in remote hearings. There are times when you may be called on by the court as the interpreter to contact the LEP party directly. For example, the court may need your help getting the LEP party connected to the hearing or getting them on the right channel for interpretation. If providing this type of assistance, avoid perceptions of bias by identifying aloud what the court is asking you to do. For instance, you may say, your honor, is the interpreter correct that your honor would like the interpreter to call the litigant to help them get online for today's hearing? This will help make it clear to the court and other participants exactly what message you will be conveying. When speaking to the LEP client, be sure to keep the conversation limited to technology help or troubleshooting. You can also explain to them that your ethical requirements prohibit you from discussing any matters or answering any questions about their case. Additionally, if the remote hearing requires you to call the LEP party directly, ask the court to use a court-provided conference line or dial star 67 before dialing their phone number from your own phone to keep your phone number private. But what do you do if you suspect the LEP party may be having other technical issues and the court has not asked for your assistance? Consider the following. You are providing simultaneous interpretation via VRI. All of the participants, including the LEP, are connected by audio and video, but the LEP party is using a mobile device. Whenever the speaker changes during the hearing, you see the LEP party frantically swiping on her screen to see who the speaker is. She has a confused expression. You suspect that she may be having difficulty following who the speaker is, which may make it challenging to follow the hearing. What, if anything, do you do? In this case, it is the LEP party's responsibility to let the court know that they are having trouble following the hearing and the speakers. You would then interpret this to the court. As the interpreter, you are there to place an LEP party on the same footing as an English-speaking party. However, if the issue is causing an impediment for you as the interpreter, you should state this. In doing so, you may also present a solution. For example, Your Honor, the interpreter is having a hard time tracking each speaker and thus relaying that adequately to the party. May the court ask that each party identify themselves before they speak? Alternatively, and depending on the number of participants, you might request to the court to identify speakers as part of your interpretation. For example, Your Honor, the interpreter is having a hard time tracking each speaker and thus relaying that adequately to the party. May the interpreter identify each speaker before interpreting that speaker's words? If granted, you would add an identifier, such as judge or attorney, before your interpretation. Let's look at another scenario specific to VRI. You are interpreting for a hearing in which you and all other participants are participating remotely. You notice that the LEP litigant has sent you a private chat message in the non-English language, asking about what is being said in court. What, if anything, do you do? You would want to avoid responding to the chat directly, as this may create a communication channel between just you and the LAP court user. Instead, switch to the English channel and announce that the litigant has sent the interpreter a direct private message in the non-English language. Then ask the judge, your honor, how would you like the interpreter to proceed? Or, would your honor like to inform the litigant to not chat privately with the interpreter? Regardless of the judge's response, this informs the court of the issue on the record. It also helps you maintain your ethical duty to remain impartial and avoid perceptions of bias. Additionally, there are some new situations that may arise with VRI. Consider the following scenario. You are providing a remote interpretation and you and the LAP party are connected via phone. The judge has just asked the LAP party a question and you hear someone on the LAP side instructing the LAP how to answer. No one else can hear this since you are the only one connected to the LAP by phone. What, if anything, do you do? In this situation, you would not interpret for anyone other than the party you have been assigned to interpret for. You should tell the court that there is another party present. Then, let the judge admonish the LEP party or ask more questions if necessary. Another ethical consideration when interpreting over VRI is confidentiality. Just as with in-person hearings, any information gained or interpreted over VRI should not be revealed to anyone. This could jeopardize due process. So, let's look at ways of handling confidential information when working remotely. We'll start by looking at privileged communications and how they might be conducted during a remote hearing. Then, we'll discuss what you can do to help maintain the confidentiality of those communications. During a remote hearing, just as in an in-person hearing, there may be times when an attorney needs to communicate privately with their client. In these cases, the court should have a way to place the participants into a private online space to permit confidential communications. Courts may do this by moving the participants into an online breakout room or breakout session, a smaller virtual group that is split off from the main virtual meeting, or the court may leave the participants needing the confidential communication in the main session, pause the recording, and move other participants to a virtual lobby or waiting room. Note that depending on how the court manages where the participants are located, you may need to adjust how you provide interpretation. For instance, in platforms that support simultaneous interpretation through separate language channels, the simultaneous channels are not available within breakout rooms or sessions. In this case, you would need to provide consecutive interpretation. If the court requires simultaneous interpretation, you may need to explain that for this to occur. The parties needing privileged communication could remain in the main session where the simultaneous feature works, while others may be moved to a breakout room or into the virtual lobby or waiting room. With regard to maintaining confidentiality of these communications over VRI, it is important to monitor your devices and mute and unmute them as necessary. For example, if you are connected by phone to the LEP party and their attorney, make sure that your audio connection to the video conferencing platform is muted when interpreting for the privileged conversation. Or if you have joined using two devices, such as for team interpretation, make sure any device not assigned to the breakout room is muted. This way, you will not leak the audio of the privileged conversation into the main session. You should be aware of the privacy of your physical location and make sure that others outside of the hearing cannot hear closed conversations. This includes not only attorney-client conversations, but also juvenile and other types of hearings. If working from home, protecting the confidentiality of these communications or hearings may mean keeping track of family members' whereabouts, or it may mean only accepting assignments for times when you know you will have the necessary privacy. If working from a court workstation, it may mean notifying the court if you suspect confidentiality may become an issue. Remember that even if you are using headphones to contain any incoming audio, others may be able to overhear your interpretation. Confidentiality also applies to court-related documents and materials. Just like with in-person assignments, you may receive evidentiary materials for transcription or translation for remote hearings. These may be photos, documents, or audio or visual recordings. Or you might receive documents ahead of time from the court that you will sight-translate during the hearing. You may take notes to help you with your interpretation. These materials may include information that could jeopardize due process if exposed. When handling materials electronically, there are a few tips to keep in mind to protect confidentiality. Always follow court instructions for accessing or transmitting the materials. This may include getting them through encrypted email or from a secure portal. Make sure you know how to log in or how to download or upload any files securely. Additionally, do not store any confidential materials on your computer or in your personal documents. Make sure to permanently delete or destroy any electronic files received for court, as well as any notes taken during a hearing. If you have made paper copies of any information, shred them to avoid exposing confidential information. With respect to confidentiality, a final aspect to consider is the nature of working online. As you may be providing VRI from home or another off-site location, you can minimize security risks by maintaining a secure internet connection. To do this, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, CISA, of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has put together a few simple tips. One, change the default usernames and passwords for your router and Wi-Fi network. For example, instead of Jane Doe 123, use a strong password that could not be easily guessed. Generally, a longer password of 14 or more characters is better. It should contain a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols, have no ties to your personal information, and should not contain words found in a dictionary. Two, choose a generic name for your home Wi-Fi network. For example, instead of John's Wi-Fi, use something that wouldn't be easily recognized by outsiders. Three, ensure your home router is enabled to use the strongest encryption protocol available. At a minimum, this should be WPA2 or WPA3, but be sure to check for the newest standards as they are updated. The use of third-party software applications, such as software that transcribes speech into on-screen captions, can pose confidentiality risks. While these software applications may aid interpreters when interpreting remotely, they may not meet court's security requirements. If you want to use captions, you can ask the court to make these available through the video conferencing platform. Finally, you should avoid recording, posting, or otherwise sharing any information from a remote hearing online that could jeopardize confidentiality. For example, do not share a screenshot of a VRI setup on social media with any names, faces, or case numbers exposed. We hope this module has helped you learn some valuable information related to professional standards when using VRI. We also hope it helped you learn about some ethical considerations and best practices when interpreting remotely. For more information about VRI, be sure to view other modules in this series. These include VRI Overview and Preparation, ASL Interpretation on VRI, Using Zoom for Court Interpretation, Using Cisco WebEx for Court Interpretation, and Using Dual Channel Configurations for Simultaneous Court Interpretation. You can find links to guides and other helpful information in the accompanying resource document. Thank you.

Video Remote Interpreting

court interpreters

ethical guidelines

confidentiality

technical difficulties