TITLE 8
Courts and Civil ProcedureCourts
CHAPTER 8-5
Court Secretaries, Court Reporters, and Electronic Court Reporters
SECTION 8-5-8
§ 8-5-8 Sign language
interpreters/transliterators and Communication Access Realtime Translation
(CART) providers for deaf, hard of hearing, and deaf-blind persons.
(a) In all civil and criminal cases, in workers' compensation, district,
family, and superior court proceedings, mental health court competency
hearings, state traffic tribunals, and in any case in any municipal court,
including, but not limited to, on-site, court-provided, alternative dispute
resolution, mediation, arbitration, diversion/intervention program or
treatment; and in an administrative, commission, or agency hearing; pursuant to
chapter 18 of this title, where a party or a witness is a person who is deaf,
hard of hearing, or deaf-blind, or a juvenile whose parent or parents are deaf,
hard of hearing, or deaf-blind is brought before a court for any reason, he or
she shall have the proceedings accessible to him or her in a language that he
or she can understand by a sign language interpreter/transliterator or CART
provider appointed by the court. In any case where a sign language
interpreter/transliterator or CART provider is required to be appointed by the
court under this section, the court shall not commence proceedings until the
appointed sign language interpreter/transliterator or CART provider is in court
in a position not exceeding ten feet (10') from, and in full view of the person
who is deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind. The sign language
interpreter/transliterator or CART provider appointed under the terms of the
section shall be required to take an oath that he or she will make a legally
equivalent, linguistically true interpretation, transliteration, or
transcription for the person who is deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind of all
the proceedings or hearings of the case or claim in a language that he or she
understands; and will orally transfer the meaning of the answer to questions
and any other statements of the person who is deaf, hard of hearing, or
deaf-blind to counsel, the court, and jury in the English language with
exactitude, while accurately reflecting the form and content of the linguistic
and paralinguistic elements of the speaker's discourse.
Assistive listening devices, or other reasonable and
effective auxiliary aids available, shall be provided for the deaf, hard of
hearing, and deaf-blind who need to maximize their engagement in the
proceedings or hearings in addition to the interpreter/transliterator and/or
CART providers.
(b) For the purposes of this section, "sign language
interpreter/transliterator" means a person who is a certified interpreter as
defined in § 5-71-3 in providing the interpreting and transliterating
services for the deaf, hard of hearing, and deaf-blind. "CART provider" means a
person who is a qualified communication access realtime translation (CART)
service provider certified by the National Court Reporters Association.
"Paralinguistic elements" means a non-verbal element of language, including all
of the pauses, hedges, self-corrections, hesitations, and emotion as they are
conveyed through tone of voice, word choice, level of formality, tone of voice,
and intonation. "Assistive listening device (ALD) or assistive listening system
(ALS)" means instruments that are designed to improve a person's ability to
hear in specific listening situations. Some ALDs amplify a sound signal, but
the primary purpose of an ALD is to make the targeted sound easier to hear by
isolating the sound source from surrounding noise. Examples are induction loop
systems, frequency-modulated (FM) systems, infrared systems, and personal
amplifiers. A sign language interpreter/transliterator, or CART provider shall
be deemed qualified in accordance with United States Department of Justice
regulations effectuating Title II of the federal "Americans with Disabilities
Act of 1990", as from time to time may be amended, Pub. L. 101-336, codified at
42 U.S.C. § 12101, et. seq., including regulations, analysis, and
technical assistance and as determined by the definition of chapter 71 of title
5 and the commission on the deaf and hard of hearing, based upon
recommendations from the, the National Association of the Deaf, the National
Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, the National Hearing Loss Association of
America, and other appropriate agencies. The commission on the deaf and hard of
hearing shall coordinate all requests for qualified sign language
interpreters/transliterators and CART providers and shall maintain a list of
all such sign language interpreters/transliterators and CART providers from
which it shall fill such requests. No sign language interpreter/transliterator
or CART provider is precluded from being further examined by the court system.
(c) Sign language interpreters/transliterators and CART
providers appointed under the terms of the section shall be paid by the state
or municipality a reasonable compensation fixed by the court.
History of Section.
(P.L. 1968, ch. 269, § 1; P.L. 1988, ch. 96, § 1; P.L. 1989, ch. 235,
§ 1; P.L. 1991, ch. 150, § 1; P.L. 1999, ch. 83, § 5; P.L. 1999,
ch. 130, § 5; P.L. 1999, ch. 218, art. 5, § 16; P.L. 2013, ch. 179,
§ 1; P.L. 2013, ch. 218, § 1; P.L. 2014, ch. 528, §
47.)
