In courtrooms throughout North Carolina, litigants and witnesses who speak more than 50 different languages need the services of court interpreters. Court interpreters provide an essential public service, giving direct assistance to parties in interest who are limited English proficient or deaf or hard of hearing. The need for qualified interpreters is growing. The demands of court interpreting are great, but so are the rewards. It is the goal of the Administrative Office of the Courts to provide certified, skilled, professional interpreters to work in our court system. Simply being bilingual is not sufficient to ensure equal access to court proceedings and court operations.

In many courtrooms, court officials have no way of knowing if an interpreter is competent to interpret for a limited English proficient party or witness. . Through state certification, the AOC is better able to ensure the quality and professionalism of interpreters provided in courts across the State.

• N.C. Court Interpreter Certification Information
• N.C. State Interpreter Exam Results
• Overview of the English Written Screening Test
• OLAS Interpreter Assignment Solution
• LAC Email Addresses
• Minute to Decimal Conversion Chart
• Interpreter Scheduling Application Manual

Spoken Foreign Language Interpreters

• Standards for Language Access Services in North Carolina State Courts – updated July 24, 2024
• Expansion of Language Access Services to all Civil Superior Court Proceedings – announced July 1, 2017
• How to Schedule Interpreters - Chart for Judicial Officials and Court Personnel – announced July 1, 2017
• How to Schedule Interpreters - Chart for Attorneys – announced July 1, 2017
• Language Access Bench Card for Judicial Officials

Interpreters for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing

• North Carolina Interpreter and Transliterator Licensure Law Fact Sheet
• Disability Access

Associations

• American Translators Association
• Carolina Association of Translators & Interpreters
• National Association of Judicial Interpreters and Translators
• National Association of the Deaf
• National Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (NRID)

Resource Agencies and Organizations

• Council of Language Access Coordinators
• N.C. Division of Services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
• Federal Court Interpreter Certification
• National Center for State Courts' VRI Resource Center

Other Resources

• Ethnologue: Languages of the World

• American Pie Seminars – Offers online continuing education courses for certified court interpreters.
• Athena Sky Interpreting – Online skills-building courses and continuing education opportunities taught by Federally Certified Court Interpreter Athena Matilsky. Courses are available as language-neutral, and also in the specific language pairs of Spanish>English and French>English.
• Castillo Language Services, Inc. – Offers skill building and oral exam preparation workshops for State and Federal certification exams, court, medical, community and conference interpreter training, and continuing education courses.
• ChinaSona Foundation - Training and resources for Chinese language court interpreter candidates.
• Court Interpreter Training Online – Offers online skill building workshops for the oral examination and continuing education training.
• Cross Cultural Communications – Approved CEUs only for Medical Terminology for Interpreters and remote interpreting technology courses via its Blue Horizon training platform.
• DE LA MORA Training – Offers live skill building workshops and continuing education courses, in person and online, self paced English written examination preparation, self paced oral examination preparation, and private tutoring.
• Interpreter Education Online – Offers online skill building and oral exam preparation workshops in multiple languages, and continuing education training.
• Interpreter Translation – Offers court interpreter training for written exam preparation, oral examination preparation, advanced skill building workshops, individual coaching, and interpreter training retreats.
• Interpretrain – Offers online skill building workshops and continuing education courses for court interpreters.
• National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators
• National Center for Interpretation – Offers interpreter training and self-study products, such as Legal Interpretools.
• Southern California School of Interpretation – Offers 9 to 12 month court interpreter training program.
• TransInterpreting – Offers training and continuing education for Spanish speakers and for all languages.

• Monterey Institute of International Studies – A graduate school for international studies and interpretation.
• University of Arizona National Center for Interpretation
• Florida International University

• English-Spanish Legal Terminology Glossary
• Glossaries and Dictionaries for Interpreters of All Languages (PDF)
• Glossary of Legal Terms for Judiciary Interpreters
• Ernesto's Legal Glossary-Spanish-English (PDF)
• English-Spanish Legal Glossary - New Jersey Courts (PDF)
• Glossary by the Florida Institute of Interpretation and Translation, Inc. (PDF)
• Glosario Mexicano Términos Judiciales by Agustin de la Mora (PDF)
• Non-Spanish study Resources (PDF)
• Spanish study Resources (PDF)
• Essential Dictionaries for Court Interpreters (PDF)
• In the Loop: A Reference Guide to American English Idioms (PDF)
• National Center for State Courts Resources

English Proficiency Review

• Grammar Bites Interactive Grammar Review
• Interactive quizzes
• Frequently Asked Grammar Questions
• Modern English Grammar, English 126, Daniel Kies, Department of English, College of DuPage
• Daily writing and grammar lessons and weekly quizzes
• Sentence-Combining Skills
• Consistency of Tense and Pronoun Reference

Synonyms and Antonyms

• Synonyms, Antonyms, Homonyms and Homographs

Idioms

• ESL Idiom Page
• IdiomSite
• GoEnglish.com Pocket English Idioms
• In the Loop: A Reference Guide to American English Idioms

Law and Justice Glossaries

• United States Courts glossary