Vol. 77, No. 2, February
2004
Making Justice Accessible to Our Newest Neighbors
The Bar's efforts to bridge foreign language barriers helps make the
courts and our justice system more accessible to our non-English
speaking residents.
by George C. Brown,
State Bar executive director
Wisconsin place names serve as excellent reminders of our
state's early history. Cities like Berlin, Krakow, Boscobel, and Athens
were named in remembrance of homelands or to attract recent immigrants
from those countries to live and work there. Others, such as Allouez,
Bonduel, and Marquette, were named for early white explorers, while
Janesville, Port Edwards, and Weyerhaeuser were named in honor of their
founders. Native American place and tribe names abound, from the
Menominee, who were present here for thousands of years, to those tribes
whose forced migration westward to Wisconsin and beyond, like the
Stockbridge and the Chippewa, was the result of white settlement in the
east.
Place names such as Fort Atkinson, Bad Axe, and Butte de Mort remind
us of early Wisconsin battles. Other battles are remembered in the case
law and statutory law of Wisconsin, such as those over the enforcement
of fugitive slavery in Wisconsin in Ableman v. Booth; the 1889
Bennett Law, which required that classes be taught in English in order
to meet the legal definition of a school under the compulsory school
law; and the recent efforts by the Brown County Board to create an
English-only ordinance.
The Brown County Board's decision is a reaction to the first
significant influx of non-English speaking immigrants since the early
decades of the last century. Issues over German, Norwegian, Polish, and
other European languages long ago played themselves out. Most of the
recent immigrants, however, speak Spanish or Hmong. The Wisconsin
Supreme Court, with the active support of the State Bar, has sought
state funding to properly orient, test, and certify court interpreters
in court procedure and the law so that they can provide the best
possible assistance to you and your clients before the courts in our
state. Interpreters can be certified in 14 foreign languages and
American Sign Language. The first group of 37 people took the final exam
in Spanish in March 2004.
Your State Bar and several local bar associations who have received
State Bar-funded Local Bar Grants are creating materials in Spanish and
Hmong to help our new residents deal with everyday legal matters. In
2001, the Brown County Bar Association produced a Spanish language
brochure on "What to Do in Case of an Accident." Also in 2001, the
Marathon County Bar Association developed Hmong-language fact sheets on
juvenile crime, CHIPS proceedings, and family law issues. It is
currently developing a Hmong language small claims and landlord/tenant
booklet and a Hmong legal dictionary. In 2003, the Wisconsin Hispanic
Lawyers Association developed and distributed a Spanish immigration laws
booklet and distributed it throughout Milwaukee.
Currently, the State Bar's Law Related Education Committee is
translating its award-winning booklet "On Being 18" into both Spanish
and Hmong. A Spanish language dubbed version of the State Bar's
"Preparing for Your Deposition" client-training tape is available. And
just released by CLE Books is a Spanish/English glossary of legal terms,
"Critical Terms in Criminal Proceedings in Spanish and English," by
Wisconsin attorneys Ronald Benavides and Luis Cuevas. Available for only
$10 plus tax, shipping, and handling, the book also contains several
useful appendices, including the Wisconsin court's interpreter request
form, the court interpreters' code of ethics, and statutes relating to
court interpreters.
It has been often said that the United States is a nation of
immigrants. Through these many avenues and future ones, Wisconsin's
lawyers and courts are working to make our system of justice more
accessible to our newest neighbors.
Wisconsin
Lawyer