By Cortney Fielding
Daily Journal Staff Writer

LOS ANGELES - Wendy Levine sees the same scenario play itself out every time she's in court awaiting her indigent clients' cases to be called.

Men and women who speak no English attempt to represent themselves, often battling a landlord seeking their eviction while a judge strains to understand.

The only interpreter on hand is an elementary school-age son or daughter they've brought along to translate.

"These litigants don't understand what is happening, and that has a profound effect, especially in housing situations when there is so much at stake and they can't understand an order," said Levine, the deputy director of litigation for Bet Tzedek Legal Services. "There certainly can't be access to justice unless there is adequate access to the courts." While California law provides for certified court interpreters in criminal matters, there is no analogous service for civil cases.

Litigants are expected to pay their own way in civil matters, and advocates say it is a cost the poorest court users can't afford to pay. Many don't even know they are expected to procure a translator.

So family law cases and housing disputes are often heard without a proper interpreter. Legal aid agencies and judges describe a system where friends of the litigant or even strangers sitting in the courtroom have been called to step in and translate, leaving judges to question if they are translating accurately, or what biases they might have. And it's not uncommon for young children to step in and interpret complex legal matters for a parent - even in custody cases.

A state Assembly bill passed this summer by both houses and on its way to the governor's office would begin to address the disparity.

A.B. 3050 creates a pilot program to be carried out in five courthouses throughout the state, providing interpreters for the most serious of these civil cases. The entire cost of the program would be funded by a new vendor surcharge on telephonic court appearances, estimated at around $3 million per year.

Los Angeles County Superior Court, which sees more non-English speakers than any court in the state, has been a vocal proponent of the bill.

During a rally on Thursday, featuring legal aid agencies such as the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund and Bet Tzedek, Superior Court Judge Peter Espinoza echoed the court's support.

Espinoza, the chairman of the court's Fairness and Access Committee said providing interpreters is a civil rights issue. "The court has committed itself to accessing justice on as many fronts and levels as possible, and language barriers are a huge limit to accessing justice," he said.

From a judge's perspective, "You really are at the mercy of the interpreter," he said. "You have no idea if they are translating accurately."

According to a study conducted by the California Commission on Access to Justice in 2005, roughly 20 percent of Californians, or close to 7 million, are not proficient English speakers. More than 4 million California households are "linguistically isolated," meaning that no person in the household age 14 or older speaks English proficiently, and roughly 4 percent of Californians speak no English at all. The state currently spends more than $88 million a year on some 1,395 certified interpreters in 13 languages. More than 1,000 interpreters speak Spanish, though the court offers everything from Arabic to Tagalog.

The pilot program would call for a three-year trial period, beginning in July 2010. While the bill does not designate which counties will participate, lawmakers said Los Angeles County would be among those selected for the program.

"Our belief is that since they represent the largest court with the largest population that there will be an opportunity for them to participate given the magnitude of non-English speakers in the L.A. courts," said Assemblyman Dave Jones, D-Sacramento. "They are very, very supportive."

The state has never tracked how many non-English speakers use the courts each year. But the bill would require trial courts to collect and report the use of interpreters in all criminal and civil proceedings to the Judicial Council to gauge how and where the program could be expanded.

It is largely a rehash of a bill the governor vetoed two years ago, also authored by Jones. But that bill had funds for the program coming from the general fund. In his veto, the governor expressed support for the program, but said supporters must come up with another way to pay for it.

Now, the new legislation calls for the court to enter into one master agreement with a telephonic vendor to conduct off-site court appearances, instead of letting each court choose its own and negotiate for its own rates. The vender will be required to give the court $15 per appearance.

A.B. 3050 also carries a second component targeting fraudulent businesses that call themselves "legal aid" services but charge exorbitant fees, and often procure no results. The bill crack down on the use of legal-aid, allowing legitimate legal-aid agencies to bring civil actions suits against them.

"These people prey on the poor. They typically open up a small storefront in an immigrant community proporting to be offering these free services. They put on a suit and try to be fancy coerce that client, and offer no actions," said Levine of Bet Tzedek.

"Then what are you going to do, take them to court? You hired them to access the courts you don't have access too."

cortney_fielding@dailyjournal.com