How to prepare an act involving a Ukrainian interpreter

Summons and participant’s role

When arranging an interpreter's attendance, provide the unit handling the case, case reference, date, location and type of act. The summons indicates whether it concerns questioning, a hearing, inspection of material or another act. For a notarial appointment, information about the planned deed and its draft is needed instead. These details establish what material the interpreter should read beforehand and whether separate document translation will be needed in addition to interpreting. The expected number of participants and their speaking order also matter.

A participant's procedural role should not be replaced by the general term “client”. A witness gives testimony, a suspect or accused person gives explanations, and an injured party may participate in different roles depending on the stage of proceedings. Different material is prepared for questions about an event than for presenting a contract or financial settlements. It is useful to supply the current document defining the subject of the act, together with relevant annexes. A description of the case prepared by a participant can help with terminology preparation, but should be clearly separated from source documents.

When arranging the time, it is useful to specify both the start time and the expected course of the proceedings. Reading a document aloud, questions from several participants and checking attachments require different preparation from a short statement. If the order of matters at the hearing or a planned break is known, this helps arrange attendance. Any change to the date, room or address should be communicated to the person coordinating the interpreter’s participation. Availability should be confirmed for the actual date and scope, particularly if further activities are planned after the first. An earlier agreement for one meeting does not automatically cover all later stages. For work away from the office, travel time and the building’s entry procedure also matter.

A criminal procedural act and questioning a witness in a civil case

Art. 204 § 1 pkt 2 of the Code of Criminal Procedure provides for an interpreter to be called where a person who does not speak Polish needs to be questioned. For an accused person who does not have a sufficient command of Polish, art. 72 guarantees free assistance from an interpreter and their attendance at acts involving the accused. At the request of the accused or defence counsel, assistance also covers communication between them connected with an act in which the accused is entitled to participate. This latter rule must be related to a specific act, rather than all contact with defence counsel. [1]

In civil proceedings, Art. 265 § 1 concerns a witness with insufficient command of Polish: the court may appoint an interpreter. This is separate from Art. 256, which allows the court to require a sworn translator's translation of a foreign-language document. [2] When commissioning support for an act, it is therefore useful to specify interpreting and document preparation separately. Procedural provisions concerning interpreters do not mean that every act automatically requires someone qualified as a sworn translator. Entitlement to produce certified translations and perform interpreting is governed by a separate professional Act. [4]

Draft deed and attachments at the notary’s office

The Notarial Law provides for notarial acts to be performed in Polish. Under art. 2 § 3, additionally performing an act in a foreign language at a party’s request requires the notary’s knowledge of that language to be duly demonstrated or the assistance of a sworn translator. Art. 87 § 1 pkt 1 concerns a participant who does not know Polish where no translation into a language they know has been attached. The deed or other document must be translated, applying the rule in art. 2 § 3. [3] Participation arrangements must be agreed with the particular notary.

The translator should receive the current draft with the annexes referenced in it. For property, the land and mortgage register, plot and share identifiers matter; for a power of attorney, the scope of authority, conditions for exercising it and any restrictions matter. A change in price, account number or payment method requires a new version to be supplied. It is useful to date files and report changes in tables. Interpreting during signing and subsequently translating an official copy of the deed are two separate scopes of work that must be defined when ordering.

Personal details and material for terminology preparation

Identity documents help establish the spelling of names, especially where different versions appear in the files. Art. 14 ust. 2 of the professional Act requires a sworn translator to base transliteration or transcription of names written in a non-Latin alphabet on a travel document or its copy. If neither is available, the rules in the country where the document was prepared apply. [4] Where several people are involved, each document must be clearly attributed to its holder. A difference between an earlier surname and its current form should not be removed by automatically harmonising all documents.

Names of institutions, positions, products, contract subjects and documents appearing in the case are useful when preparing specialist terminology. An earlier translation can serve as reference material, especially for an established rendering of an entity's name. However, it does not replace the current text. If a participant prepares their own list of names, it is useful to indicate which document they come from and where they will arise during the act. Such preparation reduces the need to check designations while someone is speaking, while preserving the content actually presented by each participant.

Order of statements and access to documents

In consecutive interpreting, statements need to be divided into segments that can be faithfully reproduced. When several people speak at once, identifying who said a sentence and to whom becomes harder. For a question concerning an invoice, table or photograph, the interpreter needs access to the same material seen by the questioner and participant. It is useful to agree in advance where the interpreter will sit, how documents will be supplied and whether a number or passage can be repeated. Technical arrangements should suit the organisation of the particular activity and the decisions of the person conducting it.

Hale and Napier's study concerned working conditions of court interpreters in Australia, including the organisation of their participation and perceptions of their professional role. [6] Its scope does not determine Polish procedural rules. For preparation of a particular activity, however, checking audibility, access to materials and speaking order is useful. For remote connections, agree how the document referred to in a question will be shown. A comment about unclear audio should be recognisable as a technical observation by the interpreter, rather than part of the person’s answer or a party’s statement.

How to identify difficulty understanding a statement

In IS, C-564/19, the Court of Justice of the EU emphasised the need for specific measures to ensure adequate interpreting quality and allow judicial review of it. The interpretation must enable the accused to understand the charge and exercise the right of defence. [5] During a particular act, it is therefore helpful to identify the question, term or marking causing difficulty. An inaudible passage, an ambiguous expression and an incorrect document number require different solutions. A precise report links the explanation with the correct point in the act.

A sworn translator has a statutory duty of special care, impartiality and confidentiality. [4] When preparing for attendance, a participant should therefore not expect the meaning of their statements to be changed in their favour. If a discrepancy in translation is suspected, verification material should include the source content and its rendering, and, for interpreting, the date, type of act and the time of the statement as precisely as possible. How a comment is recorded depends on the procedure and organisation of the act; what matters is that its subject is identifiable.

Questions and answers