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Interpreters for Mediation and Arbitration

A mediation is a long day of offers, private sessions and, if it works, a signed agreement. An arbitration hearing is a trial in a conference room. In both, a party who does not speak English has to understand exactly what they are agreeing to or testifying about. Here is who arranges the interpreter, what each process asks of one, and how to book it.

Who arranges the interpreter

Private dispute resolution has no court interpreter. The American Arbitration Association's rules put it in one line: a party wishing an interpreter makes the arrangements directly with the interpreter and pays for the service (Commercial Rules, R-30; the Consumer Rules, R-27, say the same for any part of the process). Some state arbitration programs say it too: Minnesota's no-fault auto arbitration rules require the party to arrange and pay, let the arbitrator assess the cost, and require interpreters to be independent of the parties, counsel, and named representatives.

For mediation, AAA's procedures make the sessions private: people other than the parties and their representatives may attend only with the permission of all parties and the consent of the mediator (M-9), and a participant's expenses are paid by the party who asked for them to attend (M-16). So the lawyer for the party who needs interpreting books the interpreter and tells the mediator and the other side beforehand.

One exception worth checking: if a court ordered the mediation and it runs through the court's own program, ask the program first. The Justice Department's 2016 booklet on state courts listed participating in mediation among the court services where people with limited English need language help (Language Access in State Courts); DOJ now marks that booklet as historical, and practice varies by court.

What a mediation day asks of an interpreter

A mediation is mostly waiting, then bursts of dense talk. The mediator may open with everyone together, then shuttle between rooms — AAA's procedures let the mediator hold separate meetings with each side (M-7) — carrying offers, pressing on weaknesses, testing numbers. The interpreter stays with the party who needs them, inside that party's room, and is there for every private conversation between the party and their lawyer as well as every visit from the mediator. Those conversations are where the case actually gets decided, and they are confidential: AAA's M-10 bars the parties, unless they agree otherwise or the law requires, from using settlement views, admissions and the mediator's proposals in later proceedings.

The vocabulary is money and conditions: gross and net, lump sum or installments, who pays fees, confidentiality, non-disparagement, a release of all claims. A party can nod at "a full release" without knowing it means giving up claims they have not raised yet. The interpreter renders it; the lawyer has to explain it, and should expect follow-up questions that take time.

Arbitration hearings: closer to a trial

An arbitration hearing has witnesses, exhibits and often a transcript. The arbitrator may require witnesses to testify under oath, and must if the law requires it or a party asks (R-28); a party wanting a transcript arranges and pays for the reporter (R-29). Testimony through an interpreter is consecutive, question by question, in the first person, so the transcript reads as the witness's own words. A party who is not testifying but needs to follow the hearing can be interpreted for simultaneously, in a low voice, which is tiring, and is why hearings that run more than a few hours may need two interpreters in relay.

The other side may bring its own interpreter to check. Agree before the hearing how a disputed rendering will be raised — for example, counsel flags it, the arbitrator hears it, and the record notes the correction — so it does not turn into a quarrel in the middle of cross-examination.

The settlement agreement, read before it is signed

A mediation that settles ends with a term sheet or agreement in English, often drafted at the end of a long day and signed before anyone leaves. The party has to understand it before signing. At the table, the interpreter can sight-translate it — read it aloud in the party's language — which for a two-page term sheet takes a few minutes and for a twenty-page agreement takes much longer. Build that into the schedule; it should not be squeezed in while people are packing up.

If the party needs the signed agreement in writing in their own language afterwards, that is written translation, a separate service; certified translation is $24.95 a page. See contract translation.

Booking a mediation or a hearing

Rates are per interpreter per hour from the scheduled start. A mediation in person from 9 to 5 is eight hours at $110, $880, plus travel at $0.70 per mile from the interpreter's location, confirmed before you book. Mediation days often run past the scheduled end; book to the realistic end and tell us whether the interpreter may need to stay. A half-day virtual mediation of four hours is $320. A three-day arbitration hearing with two interpreters in relay is two interpreters at eight hours a day: $1,760 a day in person, before travel.

For video mediations, tell the host to assign the interpreter to the same breakout room as the party every time the rooms are reshuffled. An interpreter left in the main room while the party is in a caucus is easy to miss, and leaves the party alone at the moment the offer arrives.

What to send in advance

• The type of dispute and the claims, in a sentence or two, and the names of the parties, companies and witnesses.
• Any figures likely to be discussed and what they represent — back wages, repair costs, a policy limit.
• The draft settlement agreement or term sheet template if counsel has one, so the interpreter has read it before 6 p.m.
• For arbitration: the witness list, the exhibits each witness will be shown, and whether there will be a court reporter.
• Any confidentiality agreement the mediator asks every participant to sign.

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 21, 2026. Rules change; the source is always the authority.

• American Arbitration Association — Commercial Arbitration Rules and Mediation Procedures (amended and effective September 1, 2022): R-28, R-29, R-30, M-7, M-9, M-10, M-16
• American Arbitration Association — Consumer Arbitration Rules (effective May 1, 2025): R-27, Interpreters
• Minnesota Rules of No-Fault, Comprehensive or Collision Damage Automobile Insurance Arbitration — Rule 18, Interpreters (amended effective March 1, 2016)
• U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division — Language Access in State Courts (September 2016; now marked historical by DOJ)

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