Skip to content
MYRIGHTZ
conduct

An Interpreter In Court

ORC 2311.14 — an obligation on the court, not a request you have to know how to make

Email

The provision is three sentences long and it is written as a duty on the court rather than a request somebody has to know how to make. That is the whole design of it, because the person who needs an interpreter is by definition the person least able to ask for one in the language of the room.

  • Where, because of a hearing, speech or other impairment, a party to or a witness in a legal proceeding cannot readily understand or communicate, the court shall appoint a qualified interpreter to assist that person.
  • Before entering on the work, the interpreter takes an oath to make a true interpretation of the proceedings to that person, and to truly repeat that person's statements to the court, to the best of the interpreter's ability.
  • The court determines a reasonable fee for the service, paid out of the same funds as witness fees.
It is not only about speaking another language. The section expressly reaches the language and descriptions of a person with a developmental disability who cannot be reasonably understood, or who cannot understand questioning, without the aid of an interpreter. Nearly every summary of this provision treats it as a translation rule. The text is wider than that, and the wider part is the half almost nobody is told about.
An indigent party is not charged for it. Where the party taxed with costs is indigent, the section says the court shall not tax the interpreter's fees as costs. The county pays instead, or the municipal corporation the court sits in where it is a municipal court that is not county operated. The cost of being understood does not fall on the person who could not afford the case in the first place.

A court is also a public entity, so the federal rules on communicating effectively with a person with a disability run alongside this section rather than instead of it. Two separate obligations, from two separate bodies of law, pointing at the same moment.

“I cannot follow this. Can the court appoint an interpreter under section 2311.14?”

This is the statute. What a particular court has in place, how far ahead notice is needed, which languages and which kinds of interpreting a county can actually arrange, and how a request is made are all local questions with local answers, and most Ohio courts publish a language access plan of their own. A licensed Ohio attorney and the clerk of the specific court are who answer them.

Sources for this section (4)
  1. ORC 2311.14 — Appointment of a qualified interpreter in a legal proceeding
  2. ORC 120.16 — County public defender, and representation of the indigent
  3. 28 C.F.R. 35.160 — Effective communication, auxiliary aids and services, and primary consideration for what the person asks for
  4. 42 U.S.C. 12132 — Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which covers the services, programs and activities of a public entity

Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of September 2026. Talk to a licensed Ohio attorney about your situation.

Words in this section

Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.

Nearest pages

Sections that share statutes or vocabulary with this one. Most questions turn out to sit across two of them.