No attempt has been made to develop new signs for legal concepts; On the contrary, the existing language was used in short translations of sentences to convey the legal content. In fact, one of the reasons this work was done was to combat the onslaught of new signature systems and maintain the integrity of the ASL. Context-specific terms, such as sexual assault, suggested to the reader that the interpreter question the lawyer about the context in order to interpret the term. There are unique parameters that influence the work of interpreters in this environment and are the result of judicial, legal and evidentiary proceedings. Typically, the knowledge and skills required by interpreters to work in this environment are acquired after completing a solid academic foundation in interpreting, coupled with several years of practice, followed by specialized training in legal interpretation and supervised field experience. Washington courts are encouraged to make every effort to appoint certified deaf interpreters to partner with certified court interpreters for all legal communication meetings with people who are deaf, deafblind, deaf and deaf, late deaf or hard of hearing. Interpreting in the legal environment has long been a recognized specialty in the field of ASL English interpreting. The legal framework is broad and includes law enforcement investigations, interviews and interrogations, client-lawyer interactions, and a wide range of judicial and judicial proceedings. Traditions in the field of linguistic interpretation and the legal community contribute to the conventional way in which legal interpretation is carried out. In addition, the practices of ASL-English interpreters have been designed over time through a process of applying the theory of scholarship of the profession. As a result, practice models and best practices have been identified that guide the work of practitioners in this area of specialization.
From 2005 to 2010, the National Consortium of Interpreter Training Centers (NCIEC) was the parent center of six state-funded interpreter training centers. The NCIEC Legal Interpretation Working Group has created, collected and hosted many legal resources that have been transmitted to the MARIE Centre and, more recently, to the CLIMB project. The original manual contained about 900 commonly used legal terms. The words have been arranged alphabetically, each with its own character or short description. Each word or sentence entry was provided with its legal meaning and an illustrative sentence to help the reader understand and convey the meaning. Some words had multiple meanings and each meaning was explained. Although the manual was originally developed for deaf people who were said to be “speech incompetent,” the goal was to preserve the way ASL was used at the time. The manual has been out of print for a long time.
Highly qualified interpreters are needed to work in legal settings – especially in judicial and law enforcement proceedings, which often focus on high-risk issues and individual freedoms. According to several needs analyses carried out by the NCIEC (2007; 2010), there is a lack of qualified interpreters working in legal frameworks. Therefore, one of the objectives of the NCIEC is to promote the training and certification of interpreters in this area of specialization. NCIEC has developed the following products to support the judiciary and interpreters specializing in legal interpretation. From 2017 to 2021, the CLIMB project contributed to practice and theory by creating trainings and pathways for interpreters from underrepresented communities (people of colour and/or from the cultural heritage signature community) to specialize in legal interpretation. In 1974, a group of legal interpreters met in Michigan to develop a manual for the training of legal interpreters. The experts worked on a list of commonly used legal terms and created what they hoped would be standardized translations of those terms. From 2010 to 2016, the Mid-America Regional Interpreter Eduction (MARIE) Center served as a center of excellence for legal interpretation. The MARIE Center offered specialized courses on interpretation in the United States.