Audit of the Executive Office of the Trial Court - Office of Court Interpreter Services

This is a Massachusetts State Auditor performance audit of the Office of Court Interpreter Services, covering mainly November 15, 2019 through October 31, 2020.

“This report details the audit objectives, scope, and methodology for the audit period, November 15, 2019 through October 31, 2020.”

The audit looked at whether OCIS followed its own standards for scheduling court interpreters and hiring qualified interpreters.

“In this performance audit, we examined OCIS’s compliance with Section 9.01 of the 2009 Standards and Procedures of the Office of Court Interpreter Services regarding interpreter scheduling and Sections 5.02 and 5.03a–5.03e of the same document regarding the hiring of qualified interpreters.”

Court interpreters help people who do not fully understand English take part in court and access justice.

“[OCIS] was established on the premise that all people in the state, regardless of their literacy or English proficiency, have the right to equal access to the courts and to justice, and have the right to access all of the services and programs provided in court facilities.”

If you or someone you know needs language help in a Massachusetts court, this office is responsible for arranging interpreters so court users can understand and participate.

“To provide equal language access to the Massachusetts court system, OCIS is responsible for scheduling interpreters to all requesting courts and providing linguistic services to all court users and departments.”

The auditor concluded that OCIS met the tested requirements for both scheduling interpreters and recruiting qualified interpreters.

“Below is a list of our audit objectives, indicating each question we intended our audit to answer and the conclusion we reached regarding each objective.”

The report does not list required corrective actions, because it did not find significant reportable noncompliance. It also notes that the office was later renamed the Office of Language Access.

“On January 20, 2021, the Chief Justice of the Trial Court promulgated the Standards and Procedures of the Office of Language Access.”

The finding is important because OCIS handles a large volume of language services across many languages, so compliance affects many court users.

“Annually, OCIS provides more than 90,000 interpretations in over 113 languages.”

A per-diem interpreter is not a regular employee; the report describes them as vendors who are paid for completed shifts.

“Per-diem interpreters are considered vendors rather than employees.”