Sign language interpreter depo

[Kerry F]

Well, this was a first for me today.  A sign language interpreter for the witness.  The witness was 90 percent deaf, but was speaking her own answers with help from the interpreter if myself or counsel couldn't understand any words she said.  The signer was for the attorneys questions to the witness, not for the witness, but boy I think they should have had her signing the answers.  And the interpreter could only do the signing for two hours and if the depo was longer than two hours, she had to get a replacement.  What, do their hands get too tired from signing?  They should try our job!   Anyway, the depo got "stayed" after ten pages because they learned the witness had a bankruptcy that wasn't discharged yet.........I am curious what the logic is to have the witness answer when she doesn't speak very well instead of using the signer for her too.

[Kelli Combs (admin)]

That's an interesting job to walk into.  I guess you never know what you're going to walk into.  You were probably relieved it was over in 10 minutes if you couldn't understand her.  Whew!!

[Mary Jo Cochran]

I had a sign interpreter depo in October (criminal matter).  Set for an hour.  They had two interpreters, changed every twenty minutes.    In my situation, I did all answers through the interpreter, referenced as Interpreter 1 and Interpreter 2.  If the deponent happened to get out something audible, the I put his separate.

It takes lot of brain energy for sign language. (Remember playing cherades?)  Both interpreters told me, after 20 or thirty minutes, I am wiped out.

I am surprised they took verbal responses from a deaf person.  We learn to speak from the sounds we hear.  That's what our brain interprets..  That's why we all speak difrferent, whites, hispanics, New Yoorkers (accent).  That deaf person did not really have the ability to speak.  I can't imagine what the purpose was.

 

 

[Kerry F]

She spoke kind of like Helen Keller or Marlee Matlin.  Some words were easy to make out, others either I or the attorney couldn't get.  I don't know why the wouldn't have her answer through the interpreter.  I would not want to go back on this kind of job unless they had her answers interpreted.  Because then the signer/interpreter was speaking the words I or the attorney couldn't understand from her answers.  Be very time-consuming to edit and a lot of brain damage to try to write and understand the answers.

[Janiece Young]

I have had to do that one time.

[Janiece Young]

If the witness was hard to understand personally I would have asked that the answers come through the interpreter.

[Kerry F]

Well, it would concern me that the attorneys would not like that request because they must have wanted it this way for some reason.   Just glad it was only 10 pages.  I bet the signer wouldn't have been able to handle that much signing either, doing two people.  Maybe that's why, they didn't want to pay for two signers.

[Janiece Young]

Well, if I couldn't understand the witness, I would speak up.

I had that issue where they brought in a Hispanic man.  Nobody could understand what he was saying.  The attorneys and I were talking off the record and we each thought he was saying something different. They needed an interpreter.  They stopped the deposition.

I have had a lot of contact with deaf people.  They can be very hard to understand depending on how long they have been deaf, if they have any hearing, if they have ever heard.  I understand what you were up against.

[Mary Jo Cochran]

Those attorneys must be a-holes.  Those attorneys obviously have no comprehensive of how we learn language and how we learn to form words.  For her to attempt to speak is comparative to us attempting to speak in Spanish from written lines. It must have been difficult for her too.  I'm surprised the interpreter didn't say this isn't proper.

American Sign Language is the official sign language in the United States.  Each country has its own sign language, whch are comparative, but not exact.  Finger spelling is a killer.  They do have an alphabet made with their fingers.

[Kerry F]

Oh, this witness I'm sure speaks a lot.  She reads lips and does speak I'm sure all the time.  I just don't think it's good enough for a deposition.  She is 90 percent deaf, about 25 years old, seemed pretty intelligent.