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Interpreters for Criminal Defense and Jail Visits

A criminal case is defended mostly outside the courtroom: in the jail visiting booth, on the phone, over the discovery and over the plea offer. The court's interpreter covers the hearings; the defense team arranges the rest. Here is who pays for that interpreter, what a jail visit asks of one, and how a defense lawyer books one with us.

If you have an appointed lawyer, the defense arranges and pays for the interpreter

A defendant with a public defender or court-appointed lawyer should not be paying for an interpreter to talk with that lawyer. In federal court, interpreters that appointed defense counsel use for out-of-court communication with the defendant or with witnesses are paid under the Criminal Justice Act as a necessary defense service, not under the Court Interpreters Act (Guide to Judiciary Policy, Vol. 5, § 220.10). The CJA guidelines list interpreters among the "other services" counsel may obtain (Vol. 7A, § 320.70.10), and counsel asks the court to authorize them in an ex parte application, or obtains them up to a limit without prior approval, subject to later review (18 U.S.C. 3006A(e)).

If you hired a private lawyer, the cost of interpreters for meetings with the lawyer before and after court is the client's, at a rate agreed with the interpreter (Vol. 5, § 225.20). The court's own interpreter can help only narrowly: a federal staff or contract interpreter may interpret a short attorney–client consultation in the courthouse immediately before or after a scheduled proceeding, if a judge or the clerk authorizes it in advance (§ 220.20). A jail visit, a discovery review or a plea discussion the week before trial is not that. In state cases, ask the public defender's office how it arranges interpreters; if it provides one, you should not be paying us.

Who books us: federal defenders and CJA panel attorneys, on a CJA authorization; public defender offices and assigned counsel, for a language their staff or contract does not cover; and private defense attorneys, often billing the interpreter through to the client or the family who retained them. If a court or office requires a particular credential, tell us when you request; we confirm whether we can staff it before you book.

Getting the interpreter into the jail

Each jail sets its own rules for legal visitors, and an interpreter who arrives without being cleared does not get in. In federal prisons, the regulation gives an attorney's assistants the same visiting status as the attorney once the attorney gives the warden a signed statement vouching for the assistant and accepting responsibility for their conduct, and the warden may still require a personal history form (28 CFR 543.16). County jails and private facilities have their own forms and lead times. Ask the facility what it needs for an interpreter — usually a letter from counsel, the interpreter's name, date of birth and ID — and send it to us early so we can return the interpreter's details in time.

Then plan for the visit itself. Interpreter and lawyer go through security together; phones and bags usually stay outside. In a contact room the three sit at one table. In a non-contact booth there may be one handset on each side of the glass, which means the interpreter sits next to the lawyer and interprets consecutively into a shared receiver, or the facility provides a speaker; ask which before you book. Counts, lockdowns and slow movement of inmates eat into the hour, and time is billed from the scheduled start, so book the block you expect to spend in the building, not the minutes you expect to talk.

Discovery, recordings and the plea offer

Two kinds of meeting carry most of the risk. The first is discovery review: the lawyer plays the body-camera footage, the recorded interrogation or the jail calls, and the client has to hear what is on them. The interpreter renders what is said on the recording as it plays, pausing the file as needed, and keeps it separate from what the lawyer then says about it. If the case turns on what was said in another language on a recording, a written transcript and translation is a separate piece of work from interpreting the meeting; raise it with the lawyer early.

The second is the plea offer. The client must understand exactly what they are agreeing to — the charge, the sentence range, the conditions, and for a noncitizen the immigration consequences the lawyer explains. The interpreter reads the plea agreement aloud in the client's language, line by line, before the hearing where it is entered. That is sight translation, and it should be done from the final text, with time for the client's questions to go back to the lawyer, not answered by the interpreter.

Running a defense meeting through an interpreter

• The interpreter is part of the defense team, engaged by counsel. Have the lawyer, not the family, make the arrangement, and keep the interpreter out of the conversation when the lawyer is out of the room.
• Not the interpreter from the police interview or the court. Someone who interpreted the interrogation may be a witness to how it went; the court's interpreter works for the court.
• Not a relative. A family member who interprets hears everything the client tells the lawyer and may be called to say what they heard.
• Speak in the first person, a few sentences at a time, and let the interpreter ask for a repeat. Dates, amounts and who-said-what are where meaning slips.
• Say what language and region the client comes from. A Guatemalan client whose first language is Mam or K'iche' may follow everyday Spanish and still miss a plea agreement read in it.
• Send the documents ahead: the charging document, the plea offer, the list of recordings to be reviewed.

Booking for a defense team

In person is $110 an hour per interpreter with a two-hour minimum, plus travel at $0.70 per mile from the interpreter's location, confirmed before you book. A two-hour jail visit is $220 plus travel; a morning at the jail from 8:30 to 11:30 covering two clients in the same language is three hours, $330 plus travel. Where the facility offers video legal visits or confidential legal calls, a virtual interpreter is $80 for the first hour with no travel, and a three-hour discovery review by video is $240. A full day of trial preparation may need two interpreters in relay; we will tell you when we think it does.

For a CJA matter, tell us the authorization and any voucher or rate requirements of your district: under the federal guidelines the interpreter's claim goes on a CJA 21 voucher that counsel certifies and the court reviews for reasonableness (Vol. 5, § 220.30.10), and compensation may be hourly (§ 320.15.10). Documents the defense needs in English — foreign records, letters for sentencing — are written translation at $24.95 per certified page; see court certified translation.

By video, by phone or in person

Virtual interpreting runs on Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams, or over the telephone. It is quicker to arrange, costs less and carries no travel charge, and it suits appointments, calls and most meetings.

In person is what venues with their own rules tend to expect, and the right choice when documents are being signed or several people are speaking at once. Tell us the platform, or the city and the venue, when you send the request.

Languages

The standard-availability languages are: Spanish, Portuguese, French, Mandarin, Cantonese, Arabic, Russian, Korean, Vietnamese, Haitian Creole, Polish, Italian, German, Japanese, Hindi, Urdu, Persian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Tagalog, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Tamil, Armenian, Greek, Hebrew, Romanian, Serbian, Bosnian, Somali and Nepali. Every other language we offer carries the 25–30% limited-availability rate. If a language is not on that list it is not because we cannot do it — it is because the pool of qualified interpreters in the United States is small enough that we will not promise a date without checking.

Each language has its own page on what to watch for — dialects, names, dates, who the speakers usually are: see interpreters by language.

What it costs

Rates are per interpreter, per hour, and billed from the scheduled start time rather than from when everyone actually arrives.

• Virtual — $80 per hour, one-hour minimum. Zoom, Google Meet, Teams or telephone.
• In person — $110 per hour, two-hour minimum.
• Limited-availability languages — add 25–30%. Which languages those are is listed below rather than left vague.
• Travel for in-person work — $0.70 per mile from the interpreter's location.

How the travel charge works out

Travel is charged at $0.70 per mile from the interpreter's location, which means you can work it out rather than wait for a quote: a 20-mile round trip is $14, a 60-mile round trip is $42, a 150-mile round trip is $105. There is no separate call-out fee on top.

We will not pretend to know in advance where the interpreter will be coming from — that depends on the language, the date and the venue. What we do is confirm the interpreter and the exact travel figure before you book, so it is never a surprise on the invoice. Virtual assignments carry no travel charge at all, which is one reason most of what we do is virtual.

How booking an interpreter works

• You send the request with the form below: the language, the setting, the format, the date and how long it should last.
• We confirm before you commit: the interpreter, the exact price and the travel figure if there is one. We reply the same business day, and no payment is taken at this stage.
• You confirm, and the interpreter is booked for your date.

What to have ready

The more of this comes in the first message, the fewer exchanges before you have a price:

• The language, the date, the start time and how long it should run.
• Virtual or in person: the platform, or the city and the venue.
• The setting and the subject matter.
• How many people need interpreting for.
• Any credential the venue requires of the interpreter.

Request an interpreter

Tell us the date, the language and the setting and we will come back with the interpreter, the exact price and the travel figure if there is one — before you commit to anything.

Sources

What this page says about the rules was checked against these official sources on October 28, 2026. Rules change; the source is always the authority.

• Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts — Guide to Judiciary Policy, Vol. 5, Court Interpreting, §§ 220–225 (rev. May 6, 2024; technical changes April 23, 2025)
• Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts — Guide to Judiciary Policy, Vol. 7A, Ch. 3, § 320, CJA investigative, expert and other services (rev. October 8, 2026)
• 18 U.S.C. 3006A(e) — Criminal Justice Act: services other than counsel (LII)
• 28 CFR 543.16 — Bureau of Prisons: paralegals, clerks and legal assistants (eCFR)

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