Lost in Translation: Using Interpreters in Client Depo Prep
Elevate your understanding of deposition preparation with a unique focus on Spanish-speaking clients in our latest episode. We promise you’ll gain valuable insights on the role of translators in this process, offering your clients a deeper layer of comfort and preparation. With firsthand experience from the field, we share how employing a translator for role play during deposition prep can drastically improve your client’s understanding and readiness, setting them up for success.
Venture further into the world of legal translation as we highlight the importance of hiring certified court translators. We unpick the ethical code they adhere to, nuances of regional dialects, and the potential risks of miscommunication. We also address the significant challenge of translation delays and suggest ways to keep this process as concise as possible. By the end of this episode, you’ll be equipped with a new perspective and practical strategies to effectively utilize translators in your deposition prep process, ensuring no stone is left unturned.
In this episode, you will hear:
- How a translator can help Spanish-speaking clients prepare for deposition
- The importance of hiring certified court translators
- Ensuring confidentiality and comfort of clients
- Understanding the importance of brevity to avoid delays
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Supporting Resources:
If you have questions or a particularly challenging client preparation, email Elizabeth directly for assistance: elizabeth@larricklawfirm.com.
Episode Credits:
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Episode Transcript:
Elizabeth Larrick: [00:00:00] Welcome to Trial Lawyer Prep. What if you could hang out with trial lawyers and jury consultants, ask them about connecting with clients and juries more effectively, then take strategies, tactics, and insights to increase your success? Each week, Elizabeth Larrick takes an in depth look at how to regain touch with the everyday world, understand the emotional burden of your clients and juries, and use focus groups in this process.
Elizabeth is an experienced trial lawyer, consultant, and founder of Larrick Law Firm in Austin, Texas. Her goal is to help you connect with juries and clients in order to improve your abilities in the courtroom. Now, here’s Elizabeth. Hello and welcome back to the podcast, trial lawyer prep. I’m your host, Elizabeth Larrick, and I’m glad you’re here.
This is episode 99 and I’m celebrating already before a hundred because it has been a journey and I’m so glad that you have been here with me. If you’re new to the [00:01:00] podcast, welcome. This is a podcast dedicated to lawyers preparing cases better, getting ready for trial. We talk about Preparing clients. We talk about preparing for trial focus groups and a few little tidbits along the way.
I like to have guests and join us and next episode, which is a hundred. I’m going to do something totally different, but I want to talk a little bit about how we’re going to do the podcast going forward. And I’m going to change a few things up, test some things out and you guys can let me know whether you like it or not.
But my hope is that to give. More context to what we’re talking about. So today’s episode, we’re going to talk about deposition preparation specifically for clients who do not have English as their first language and using a translator in preparation. So this episode is for folks who have clients who don’t have English as their first language.
And in my experience, most of the folks that I have or have [00:02:00] worked with are Spanish to English. Translation, but this is not limited to that. I mean, I think what we’re going to talk about as far as the problem and the translator helping with this goes to any translator, any kind of language that we are working with, mainly because there are so many different variations of Spanish and best example I can give you is, of course, I know book Spanish, but when I go to speak with somebody who is a native speaker from Mexico, like we’re kind of lost.
Now, let me just. I don’t speak it. I can, I can understand what they’re saying enough to know that we are lost in translation. So what I want to dig into today is how to take your preparation for these particular clients to a whole nother level and to really gear them up for using a translator in the deposition.[00:03:00]
So I always suggest to use a translator. Or hire a translator, somebody not in your office to come in and help during deposition preparation. And particularly if you’re going to, when you do the role play session, definitely get that translator in there to help in that session, because there’s so much that has to be learned extra on our clients in this situation, because they’re having to be very patient for our translator.
They’re having to be very patient, listening and waiting for their turn. You know, if there’s objections and understanding all those things, which is normal for a client, but then knowing they have to kind of wait for the translator and most people, most clients that I have dealt with know enough English to know what’s happening and going on.
They’re just much more comfortable. They want to testify in Spanish because that’s what they understand very well. So, I’m working with some folks right now, and we’re using a translator during preparation, not just during the role play. [00:04:00] And it has been such an eye opening experience because of the vast difference between the translator’s version.
of Spanish to English and then his version. And it’s not that either one is wrong, but it has been such a education for me in the words that we may say in a question and how they get translated and then given over. And then there’s this huge block and it’s a car wreck case. And so we’re talking about, you know, navigating the road and passing cars and getting around cars and Of course, there’s a thousand ways to say it in English, but there’s only so many verbs in Spanish.
And so that’s why, like, we just kind of got lost in translation. So it’s been so helpful for him to kind of understand, oh, like this. It’s the word that I use here is, is so important. And they were also, you know, kind of lost with this [00:05:00] translation of easy versus better. And so he kept saying easy when he was intending to say better and she was just translating it that way again, you know, nothing wrong with the way she was translating it, but that’s just the way, you know, from the book Spanish, that’s what it says.
So, I know that when we use translators in deposition prep, it gives them a whole nother layer of what to expect and how to teach themselves to be patient, to wait. But also, what I tell them is like, this is really. This is helpful because you are going to have a lot more space to understand no, you’re going to have to work with the translator, somebody you have no idea with, but that also sometimes when we have this.
Translation chain, a lot of the times translators don’t translate tone. Some do. I don’t know if you’ve ever had that experience where you’re sitting in a deposition and [00:06:00] opposing counsels asking your client question and the translator is actually translating the tone, which doesn’t need to be done because we all understand tone.
We don’t really, as kids, we know what a bad tone is, a good tone is, so we don’t really need the translator to, to do the tone, but you know, hopefully. You get the impression, the tone of the question and it’s translated and hopefully that gets a little bit minimized right by the time they get the question to them.
But it’s been so helpful to have a translator as somebody outside of your office because there’s always a comfort level with speaking with somebody in your office or even speaking with you. If you, if you speak in Spanish or another language with your clients, they’re, they’re Is a whole other layer of preparation that you can give them by bringing in a stranger and having them go through that experience.
And this is another reason why we always say, bring in a different lawyer or bring in a new face to do that role play no matter [00:07:00] what, because they need that experience of a complete stranger asking them questions, you know, hammering them on the details and giving them the answers. You know, what happens in a deposition, a real life experience, and it bringing in a translator significantly helps because they’re going to realize, Oh, wow, I’m not only do I have to answer this question, but I’ve got this other person who’s translating who may get it wrong.
And I need to work really hard to make sure I understand that question the way that they’re doing it. with the words they’re using. And so that’s my little tidbit for today. You know, I’ve always suggested, I’ve done this myself in cases and I’ve, I’ve, anytime we’ve used a translator in preparation, I’m always glad that we do.
And in this particular instance, the, why I’m talking about it with you today is we did, we had a translator for more sessions and it just has been So much more helpful to get that help and assistance and know, Oh, here’s this challenge with like talking about [00:08:00] what happened in the crash because of all these different verbs.
And let’s get, what is the truth? What is it that you want to say so that we make sure it’s, it’s, it’s translated correctly in English. And the concern that I had, of course, because not having had somebody there for such an extended amount of time was, well, what is, what is the ethical concern? Like, does this break confidentiality?
And so we talked with a translator with quite a bit about it before we felt comfortable and she said, no, no, that’s, that’s fine. You know, that’s an ethical code that we have, like as an official, you know, court certified interpreter translator, like it’s, it’s confidential. We’re not breaking confidentiality by, by translating, being here and translating.
So if you had that concern pop up like I did, she assured us, nope, that’s, you know, she would never be able to reveal anything, you know, she’s translator and that’s kind of the code of ethics they have for a translator. certified court certified interpreter. So be thinking of that. If you’re going to go get someone and hire someone, you want to go basically get, get some money.
[00:09:00] from a certified or court list, not just maybe the other person who speaks Spanish down, down the hallway in your office, or, you know, some, somebody not, I’m not gonna say off the street, but somebody else that’s like in your home with a friend or family that, you know, you, you really want to get somebody who’s going to be stuck with this very, and I call it book Spanish because that’s really what it is.
And when I’m using Spanish as the example, but there are same thing with, I mean, people who, Speak Russian. There are so many different flavors of that. And when you kind of understand the flavor that your client is speaking or that your deponent will be speaking, it’s going to benefit you tremendously to also learn what are some of those differences.
In that, in that specific dialect, because then you can ask questions in that way to make sure you’re hitting those verbs that you want, we’re hitting that translation that you want. So it’s [00:10:00] helpful always to do this in your clients with, with deposition prep, but always be keeping that in mind when you are going to go to post somebody where they’re from regionally and how that may change the questions when you’re going through a translator.
And yeah. Again, English, we’ve got a thousand ways to say one different phrase. So, you know, keep that in mind when you’re asking questions. And I’ll just add one other little story that I had come up again with the translators running a focus group, getting this case ready for trial. And we’re running a clip from the deposition and the client is a Spanish speaker and there’s translator and opposing counsels asking these questions.
And it’s about speed, you know, how, how fast were you going and, you know, he testifies he’s going 60, 65, which ultimately we know from black box data and [00:11:00] reconstruction, like he could not have been going 60, 65. But what was interesting was we played this clip and we did some other things. And then one of the participants said, you know, That translator was using a different kind of Spanish than that speaker.
That speaker, that, he, he’s from somewhere in Central America and that translator, he wasn’t, he wasn’t translating it 100 percent correct what that guy was saying. And it was like, oh, wait a second. Like, because this whole, of course, speed thing is, It’s kind of a hang up in the case if you couldn’t tell already.
And so it was like a light bulb when I was like, Oh, wait a second. Like that is probably, there’s, there’s probably something lost in translation and that’s kind of what she was trying to say was, I don’t think that he actually was saying that. I think the way that question came off, we understood as English, but he got a different version of it and then he came back with a little bit of dialect and then it got translated with book Spanish.
[00:12:00] And, and so it was. And so it’s like, wow, I’m so glad that she mentioned that. Again, what a nice little gem from a focus group that really hadn’t been thought of, like because the case had come along and gone through, uh, you know, a different set of lawyers and then this is the trial set, right? Lawyers are going to try the case.
So super important to always be keeping that in mind when it comes to, um, uh, uh, uh, Like translating and dialect and regional stuff. And if you’ve got a deposition in your file that has a translator, like go back and look at that, go back and figure out like, you know, maybe there’s, there are definitely some places where it just doesn’t translate the same when you have got dialect versus kind of that book, you know, kind of Spanish or whatever the second language is.
All right. This is a short and sweet episode on purpose. So thank you all so much for listening. I hope that this was helpful, you know, just keep it in mind. It’s a little bit of an added expense to bring [00:13:00] someone in to translate during depo prep, but. I guarantee it will tremendously help the client and probably reduce a little bit of time and tension in the actual deposition because they’re going to have had that process and that patience that they’re going to have to build in more so than English speakers.
I know we always tell them, let’s wait so I can object. Well, my gosh, they have to sit there even longer waiting for that translation. So anyhow, keep this in mind, use it a little bit, but just think about using. Somebody else for that to help get that little edge on translating. All right. I hope this was helpful.
I can’t wait until next episode, which is a hundred and I hope that you tune in or catch it later on, on your favorite podcast platform. If you enjoy this podcast, please rate and review it wherever you are listening. And until next time, thank you so [00:14:00] much.