Ensuring “Meaningful Access” to the Courts for Individuals with Limited English Proficiency

• Author: Rosie Hidalgo
• Date: 01 September 2013
• Published date: 01 September 2013
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/jfcj.12011

Ensuring “Meaningful Access” to the Courts for

Individuals with Limited English Proficiency

By Rosie Hidalgo

When a victim of domestic violence calls the police, goes to civil court seeking an

order of protection, is called as a witness in a criminal case, meets with a Child Protective

Services (CPS) caseworker, or is in front of a judge in a hearing that will determine the

custody of the children, one of the most critical aspects of those interactions is the ability

to understand what is being said and to be able to communicate vital information to the

people who will make important decisions about the lives of the victim and the victim’s

family. As demonstrated by the story of Diana (see pages 35-44), the lack of meaningful

language access can result in a dual arrest for domestic violence or arrest of the victim due

to miscommunication. This can put the victim on the path to deportation and to the loss

of the victim’s children.

While some suggest that providing language access is too expensive when provid-

ing the critical services mentioned above, it is important to recognize that when systems

fail to provide meaningful language access, the costs to individuals, families, and society

are high: innocent people may go to jail, children can enter foster care unnecessarily, and

victims will find it difficult to get court orders to protect them from domestic violence.

These consequences could be detrimental to a large number of U.S. residents who do not

speak English as their primary language.

Individuals who do not speak English as their primary language and who have a

limited ability to read, speak, write, or understand English are considered Limited

Rosie Hildago, JD, is the Director of Policy at Casa de Esperanza, and has worked in the movement

to end domestic violence for the past 18 years, including at legal service programs where she provided

representation in the areas of family law, domestic violence, child welfare, and education. Casa de Esperanza

operates the National Latin@ Network for Healthy Families and Communities, a national resource center,

that provides timely and relevant information and resources to people working to prevent and eliminate

domestic violence within Latina/o communities.

Author’s Note: This article appeared in Synergy, a newsletter of the NCJFCJ’s Resource Center on

Domestic Violence: Child Protection and Custody (RCDV: CPC). Synergy, Vol. 16, No. 1 (Winter 2013),

focused on immigration and child protection and custody issues in the context of domestic violence, was

guest-edited by Casa de Esperanza, and was translated, for the first time, into Spanish. For a copy of the

English and/or Spanish newsletter, please contact the RCDV: CPC at (800) 527-3223 or visit http://

www.ncjfcj.org/resource-library/publication/domestic-violence. This article was supported by Grant

Number 09EV0415 from the Administration of Children, Family and Youth Services Bureau, U.S. Depart-

ment of Health and Human Services (DHHS). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the author(s) and

do not necessarily represent the official view of DHHS or NCJFCJ.

bs_bs_banner

Juvenile and Family Court Journal 64, no. 4 (Fall) 45

© 2013 National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges