Sworn Translation in Court
- Place: Online sworn translation(interpreting) in the office of MIW Marszałkowska for the District Court for Warszawa-Żoliborz
- Interpreter: Maciej Wróblewski – sworn translator online
- Service: interpreting during a hearing
- Planned interpretation time: 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m
- Online interpreting time: 3 hours
- Price: interpreting ordered by the court – rates for certified interpreting according to the regulation apply
At 11:30 a.m., I start online interpreting for the District Court for Warszawa-Zoliborz. It’s a completely different experience than sworn interpreting into English in a court building. Today I’ll tell you a few words about the technical aspects of this interpreting assignment.
Translation in court
When the interpreter appears in court, he translates everything that happens in the courtroom for the non-Polish-speaking party. When the other participants in the trial speak in Polish, the sworn online English interpreter translates simultaneously, in the form of whispered translation.
If, on the other hand, a person who does not know Polish speaks, the interpretation changes into the consecutive mode. This means that the speaker stops speaking after a few sentences so that the interpreter can translate the last part of the statement. This is the most common form of online interpretation in court. However, if the hearing is held remotely, all this looks quite different.
Sworn Online Translation
The limitations imposed by the system used by the courts for sworn online translation do not allow for using two separate audio channels. The idea is simply that all participants can only speak to everyone else. There is no way for the interpreter to speak only to the party speaking English.
You can imagine what kind of cacophony everyone would hear if they insisted on doing simultaneous sworn English interpreting. You don’t have to imagine it, because sometimes the participants interrupt each other. In practice, this means that little can be understood. Therefore, translation of everything that happens in a virtual courtroom is in effect impossible.
Consecutive Interpreting
Therefore, online translation in court is limited to the consecutive part. That is, actually translating the questions to the English speaker and the speaker’s utterance. Unfortunately, under current conditions, sworn interpreting in English must look like this due to technical limitations.
There could be a technical solution that would allow the interpreter to communicate directly with the recipient of the translation. However, this would probably involve changing the platform used for remote hearings. We can only hope that soon there will be no need to conduct proceedings remotely.
My interpreting today was conducted from my MIW Marszałkowska office, from where I warmly salute you!
Maciej Wróblewski
