There are challenges in having court interpreters in your courtroom.  If you are new judge, or even an experienced judge, but you've never had the experience or don't have it frequently enough to have a court interpreter in your courtroom, it's always a great idea to familiarize yourself with the rules.  There are very few rules that we have that are related to court interpreters, but you should refresh your memory about the rules or read them for the first time.  We also have local rules that dictate when a party must notify the court about the need for an interpreter for a witness.

Finally, we have jury instructions that are very important for jury trials where an interpreter is being used.  If an interpreter is being used for one of the litigants, then there is an instruction about that.  If there's a witness that's going to testify that needs the benefit of an interpreter, we also have a jury instruction for that.  We want to make sure that the jurors completely understand the importance of having the interpreter participate.