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Interpreters for Workers' Compensation Hearings

An injured worker who does not speak English testifies about how the injury happened, what the job required and what they can still do — and the judge, the insurer and the doctors rely on that testimony. Workers' compensation is run by each state, so who provides the interpreter, and what credential the interpreter needs, depends on where the claim is. Here are two large states' rules, and what the work demands.

At the hearing itself, the board or the insurer usually covers the interpreter

New York. The Workers' Compensation Board says an interpreter for your hearing is provided at no cost to you; you request one by calling the Board (NY WCB toolkit), and its language access page explains how to complain if the interpretation was not adequate. If your hearing is in New York, ask the Board, not us.

California. The claims administrator pays a certified or provisionally certified interpreter, at the employee's request, for an appeals board hearing or arbitration, for a deposition of the injured worker taken at the claims administrator's request — including preparation immediately before it and reading the transcript back before signing — and for a conference with an information and assistance officer (8 CCR 9795.3(a)). The party producing any other witness who needs an interpreter arranges one (9795.3(f)). For hearings, depositions and arbitrations, the DWC says the interpreter must be on the state's certified lists, or be provisionally certified by agreement of the parties or a finding of the judge or arbitrator (DWC FAQ).

Every other state sets its own rules; ask the state workers' compensation agency what it provides before you book anyone. Who books us: applicant and defense attorneys, for client meetings and preparation outside the hearing, interviews with coworkers and other witnesses, and depositions and mediations where the forum's rules allow the parties to choose; employers and claims administrators, for statements and meetings with workers. Where a credential is required, tell us which one when you request; we confirm whether we can staff it before you book.

What comp testimony asks of an interpreter

Testimony is consecutive: question, answer, each rendered whole. Workers' compensation adds two vocabularies at once. One is the system's — temporary and permanent disability, maximum medical improvement, apportionment, modified or light duty, average weekly wage, qualified and agreed medical evaluators — which the attorneys use as shorthand and the worker often does not know in any language. The other is the worker's trade: the names of tools, machines, loads and tasks in construction, agriculture, warehouses, kitchens or cleaning crews, often in regional or work-site slang that a textbook interpreter has never heard.

Numbers decide claims, and they are where interpreting slips: how many pounds, how many times an hour, how many hours a day, which date, which hand. A worker who says "about fifty pounds, sometimes more" has said something different from "fifty pounds," and the transcript should show which. Prior injuries and prior claims are asked about precisely because inconsistency costs credibility, so a careless rendering can damage a worker's case without anyone noticing.

Depositions and mediations through an interpreter

• Seat the interpreter beside the witness, where the court reporter can hear the English clearly; the reporter takes down the interpreter's English, not the worker's words.
• Ask short, single questions. Compound questions get compound confusion, and the answer fits only half of the question in the transcript.
• The interpreter interprets objections and colloquy between counsel unless told otherwise; agree on that at the start.
• Reading back the transcript before signing is sight translation of the whole deposition; in California it is one of the events the claims administrator pays for when it took the deposition (8 CCR 9795.3(a)(4)). Budget time for it.
• At a mediation, the interpreter moves with the worker between the joint session and the private caucus rooms, and stays for the explanation of any settlement document before it is signed.
• Decide whether the preparation interpreter should also interpret the testimony. Some attorneys prefer a different interpreter for each so no one can question impartiality; tell us which you want.

Booking for a hearing, deposition or mediation

In person is $110 an hour per interpreter with a two-hour minimum, billed from the scheduled start. A three-hour deposition is $330 plus travel at $0.70 per mile from the interpreter's location; a half-day mediation of four hours is $440. A full day of testimony usually needs two interpreters working in relay, because accuracy drops when one person interprets for hours on end: eight hours with two interpreters in person is $1,760, plus travel. A one-hour preparation meeting by video is $80.

Send with the request: the state and the forum (board hearing, deposition, mediation, arbitration), any credential the forum requires, the worker's language and country or region, the expected length, the address or platform, and a short glossary — the employer, job title, equipment and body parts involved, and the doctors' names. Medical reports and earlier statements that the worker needs to read in their language are written translation, quoted separately.

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.

• California Code of Regulations, Title 8, § 9795.3 — Fees for Interpreter Services (Division of Workers' Compensation)
• California Division of Workers' Compensation — Answers to frequently asked questions about interpreter certification
• New York State Workers' Compensation Board — Injured Worker's Toolkit: language assistance
• New York State Workers' Compensation Board — Language Access

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