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Interpreters for Housing Court and Evictions

Eviction cases move fast, and much of what decides them happens outside the courtroom: the talk with a legal aid lawyer, the negotiation with the landlord's attorney in the hallway, the agreement signed before the case is called. For the hearing itself the court usually provides an interpreter. Here is where that comes from, where it stops, and how tenants, lawyers and landlords book one with us.

For the eviction hearing, the court usually provides the interpreter — ask early

If you are a tenant or a landlord in an eviction case and do not speak English well, the court usually provides an interpreter for the hearing at no cost to you; you have to ask for one, and early. California courts provide free interpreters in civil cases following the priorities in Evidence Code 756, which put unlawful detainers (evictions) second, after domestic violence; Santa Barbara asks for form INT-300 at least one week before the court date and warns that a case may be continued until an interpreter is found (Santa Barbara Superior Court). Maryland's courts provide interpreters in civil proceedings, paid by the state's court administration, and ask for the request 30 days ahead (Maryland Judiciary). New York's rule covers all civil cases, so housing court too, at no expense (22 NYCRR 217.1).

The federal government is not the source of this. Courts act under their own state rules, and HUD withdrew its 2007 language access guidance for recipients of its funds, effective September 17, 2025 (HUD FHEO withdrawal notice). For a public housing or voucher grievance hearing, ask the housing authority what it provides.

Who books us: tenant attorneys and legal aid programs, for client meetings and the day of court; landlord attorneys and property managers, for meetings with tenants, move-out inspections and settlement conversations; and tenants or landlords who want their own interpreter for a meeting with the other side. We will tell you if what you are asking for is a hearing the court should be covering.

Where eviction cases are settled: outside the courtroom

Many eviction cases end in an agreement rather than a trial: a payment plan for the back rent, a move-out date, repairs the landlord will make. Those agreements are often negotiated in the hallway or a conference room shortly before the case is called, in English, between a tenant and the landlord's lawyer. The court's interpreter is there for the proceeding; California's guide says court interpreters typically do not work outside the courtroom, though some self-help centers have interpreters (California Courts).

That is the moment an interpreter matters most, because a tenant who agrees to dates and amounts they did not follow may lose the apartment for missing a payment they never understood. Before anything is signed, the agreement should be read aloud in the tenant's language, line by line — that is sight translation — and the tenant should hear the answer to one question: what happens if a payment is late or missed.

What housing cases ask of an interpreter

The vocabulary is mostly about money and dates: rent owed, the rent ledger, late fees, the security deposit, a notice to pay or quit, use and occupancy, a judgment, a stay. Numbers are where interpretation slips — $1,450 and $1,540, the 15th and the 50th, a month of rent and a month of arrears — and the interpreter repeats figures back exactly rather than rounding them.

Documents arrive with every meeting: the lease, the notice, the ledger, photos of repair problems, receipts and money-order stubs. An interpreter can tell the lawyer what a tenant's foreign-language receipt or letter says so the meeting can go on; anything that will be filed needs a written translation. For an inspection or a walk-through, the interpreter is in person, moving room to room with the tenant and the landlord or inspector.

Running the meeting through an interpreter

• Speak to the tenant or landlord, not the interpreter, a few sentences at a time.
• Bring the papers: the court notice with the date and courtroom, the lease, any notices, the ledger, receipts.
• Repeat every number and date in the agreement back through the interpreter before signing.
• One interpreter does not serve both sides of a negotiation. If the landlord brings one, the tenant can still bring their own, or ask whether the court's self-help center has one.
• Not the landlord's relative, the building super or the tenant's child. Each has a stake in the outcome.
• End with the next date and the next step, said plainly.

Booking around a housing case

A call between a tenant and their lawyer is usually virtual: $80 for the first hour per interpreter, no travel. For the day of court, in person is $110 an hour with a two-hour minimum, billed from the scheduled start: an interpreter meeting the tenant and lawyer at 8:30 for a 9:30 calendar and staying until 11:30 is three hours, $330, plus travel at $0.70 per mile from the interpreter's location, confirmed before you book. A landlord's move-out inspection in person is two hours, $220 plus travel.

Send the court and the date, the language and country of the tenant or landlord, whether it is a meeting, a court day or an inspection, and the documents. Leases and notices that need to be in another language, or foreign documents that need to be in English, are written translation at $24.95 per certified page; see lease agreement 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.

• Superior Court of California, County of Santa Barbara — Interpreters / Language Access (Evidence Code 756 civil priorities; form INT-300)
• Judicial Council of California, California Courts Self-Help Guide — Ask for an interpreter
• Maryland Judiciary — Court Language Services
• New York Unified Court System — 22 NYCRR 217.1, Obligation to appoint interpreter in court proceedings in the trial courts (LII)
• U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, FHEO — Notification of Withdrawal of Guidance Documents (Federal Register, April 6, 2026; effective September 17, 2025)

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