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The UK Justice System is in serious threat of miscarriages of justice taking place on the fly! With departmental budget costs and the the ever popular PR gimmick of saving tax payers money which goes down a treat with the public!
The Court Service and their sole contractor - TheBigWord appear to hit the targets and minimise their failings, when in fact it nothing less than a smokescreen to the decline in interpreting standards to the lowest level since it was semi-regulated by the IOL and NRPSI.
To a defendant, and his/her lawyers; their case is difference to a conviction and acquittal. To a parent facing care proceedings, it is the difference of losing a child into the care system!
I speak for Native Sylheti speakers, who after 15 years of campaigning to educate the court system are still being provided with Bengali Interpreters! After 15 years, Bengali Interpreters purport to speak Sylheti!
When an Interpreter claims to have been Court Interpreter asks whether a defendant provides his evidence from the dock or the witness box - that says it all! One wonders which court he has been interpreting for the past four years!
The naked truth is Experienced and Qualified Legal Interpreters have been forced out of the market as it is no longer a profession. The other truth is that in some isolated cases, even Judges are not particularly bothered with the decline in standards.