Reducing the world to English: My job as a court interpreter

Every day in courthouses across the state, people’s lives are affected in consequential ways. Author Shauna Singh Baldwin of Milwaukee suggests the stakes can be even higher when there’s a language barrier involved.

The Latin words “Vox Populi, Vox Dei” are engraved on the imposing façade of Milwaukee County’s neo-classical courthouse. The voice of the people, it declares, is the voice of God.

Daily, inside that courthouse, many voices of the people speak American English as judges solemnize marriages and judge cases, prosecutors and defense lawyers argue, bargain and plead; mediators try to heal betrayals.

But the lives of real people happen in several languages. Often witnesses, plaintiffs or the accused speak enough English for transacting normal life, but not enough to understand legal discourse.
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