The Couch: Coaching the Defendant

The Couch is a place to exchange ideas and brainstorm, not only for its contributors but also for our readers who engage in the ensuing discussions. Sometimes, you want to “keep calm and keep interpreting,” but external factors make that simple solution difficult to achieve. A thank you goes out to this week’s anonymous contributor for the Couch!

You are interpreting for a rather routine criminal trial on a drug offense. The LEP defendant has been consistently cooperating with their lawyer throughout the proceedings. However, you start to notice that the defendant occasionally whispers to their lawyer during the trial. You can’t hear the content of their conversations, but the body language and urgency seem to suggest that the attorney might be coaching the defendant on how to answer questions or providing instructions during testimony.

As the interpreter, you want to focus solely on the interpretation, but this behavior is distracting to you. On one hand, it could be a sign of unethical behavior. On the other hand, you don’t want to jump to conclusions and risk creating unnecessary tension in the courtroom. You have concerns about maintaining your impartiality and not overstepping your role as an interpreter.

The person who presented this scenario would also like to add that s/he struggles with shyness and would hesitate to bring to the judge’s attention behavior that s/he finds distracting while the “offender” is in the room.

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Text body photo in the public domain. Taken from rawpixel .