The Schuylkill County Public Defender’s Office will have help talking with clients who don’t speak English after the County Salary Board on Wednesday approved a stipend for a staff member to serve as the office’s translator.
Luis Benitez of Mahanoy City, a Secretary I in the office, will receive $70 every two weeks for the translation work. The stipend takes effect Nov. 2.
Chief Public Defender Karen Domalakes said the need comes up daily.
“We constantly, every day, have someone come to our office that can’t speak English, and we used to rely on their family members, but sometimes they don’t come with a family member,” Domalakes said.
Other times, she said, the office has to call a client, so there is no chance to have a translator lined up ahead of time.
Benitez is not a court-certified translator and cannot interpret in the courtroom, Domalakes said. But he can help clients at the office with the basics of their cases.
“He can tell them how to fill out an application for a public defender. He can tell them when to show up for court. Whereas we just stumble over words and hope that we told them the right time in Spanish,” she said.
She said he can also make it clearer to clients where they need to go, what they’re doing, and that the people they’re talking to are their lawyers.
Before, she said, finding someone in the office who could do the work and translate was “kind of hit and miss.”
Certified court translators are harder to come by.
“To be a court-certified translator, you have to pass a difficult test, and so there’s not that many of them anymore,” Domalakes said.
Asked whether the county should invest more in translation services, Domalakes said she isn’t sure that’s possible.
“I don’t know that they can. I don’t know it’s a service that’s available,” she said.
Because the office sees so many Spanish speakers, Domalakes said she has encouraged students to get certified, telling them they might make more money translating than in whatever they plan to major in.
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