Tribunal judges up in arms
I attended my very last SSCS Tribunal as an interpreter today, at Sheffield (I was booked by HMCTS at end January, so was the last "proper" interpreter to attend this venue, I think). The judge thanked me afterwards and asked "When do you think we'll be getting proper interpreters again?" He told me he'd had an utterly incompetent Polish interpreter from ALS last week who underststood nothing (and the judge didn't understand her either) and he had had to adjourn the case. He said he wrote a stiff complaint in his report afterwards, and other judges are doing the same. He described the present state of affairs as madness and a waste of public time and money. We had a very pleasant chat and I encouraged him and his colleagues to carry on complaining. This must be happening up and down the country. Hang on in there, colleagues!