§ 6-703.Appointment of interpreters.

Section 6-703 covers the practical moment when a court appoints an interpreter for a case. The State Court Administrator’s Office is directed to appoint based on the interpreter’s reasonable availability and the purpose the interpreter will serve, so that the most qualified and certified interpreter reasonably available gets the assignment rather than whoever happens to be closest at hand.

The rule builds in flexibility and firm limits at the same time. A court can continue a proceeding while it sorts out a person’s language needs, an interpreter’s qualifications, and whether a certified, provisionally certified, or registered interpreter is available — but Spanish-language proceedings may only use a certified or registered interpreter, and proceedings involving a Deaf or hard-of-hearing person may only use an interpreter who meets the separate statutory standards for that role. For any proceeding running two hours or more, two foreign-language interpreters must be appointed; for Sign Language proceedings running more than an hour, the same two-interpreter requirement applies. Where a second interpreter is not reasonably available for a proceeding lasting more than two hours, the interpreter gets a mandatory 10-minute break every 30 minutes instead.

The rule also creates a rebuttable presumption that an interpreter is needed whenever one is requested or the evidence shows someone cannot readily understand or communicate in English, so a court is not left guessing about whether to provide one. Every interpreter, regardless of category, must be at least 19 years old, take the Interpreter Oath, and confirm in writing that they have read and understand the Code of Professional Responsibility for Interpreters — and none of them count as an employee of the Nebraska Judicial Branch.