About the course
Legal interpreting demands more than fluency in two languages. It requires a deep, working knowledge of the legal system itself. This presentation (Part 1 of 2) tackles that challenge head-on by building vocabulary from the ground up across four court domains: criminal, civil, juvenile, and probate. It opens with a diagnostic quiz covering terms like mens rea, voir dire, exculpatory evidence, and habeas corpus to reveal knowledge gaps before diving into the material. From there, it walks through the criminal court process flow, defines common courtroom actions like objections and rulings, and catalogs approximately 150 legal terms with plain English definitions. The core philosophy running through every slide is simple but powerful: the interpreter's job is to move from Legal English to Plain English to ASL, and that chain only works when the interpreter genuinely understands the concept behind each term. The presentation reinforces this with a three-column reframe worksheet that gives interpreters a structured method for breaking down phrases like "motion to suppress the evidence" into meaning they can render accurately. It closes with a curated list of resources and the reminder that preparation is not optional. If you don't understand the court flow, you can't interpret it.
Anna McDuffie CI, CT, SC:L & NIC
A native of Atlanta, Anna graduated from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 1996 with a Bachelor of Science in Interpreting for the Deaf. She began her career in Boston as a staff interpreter at The Learning Center for Deaf Children, a bilingual/bicultural school for the Deaf, and also worked part-time interpreting for graduate programs at Boston University. Anna returned to Atlanta in 1999 and has worked as a freelance interpreter for the past 25 years. She earned her Certificate of Interpretation and Certificate of Transliteration from RID in 1999, her Specialist Certificate: Legal in 2008, and her National Interpreter Certification in 2011. Anna began teaching medical interpreting workshops with her co-presenter, Heather Brown, in 2008, and together they co-authored Health Care Providers and the Americans with Disabilities Act, published in the Journal of the American Association of Physician Assistants in January 2011. She expanded into legal interpreting workshops in 2018. Anna is passionate about standardizing best practices for medical and legal interpreting — the driving force behind every workshop she designs. Anna lives in Marietta, Georgia, with her husband, Eric. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her step-daughter, Cece, her fur kids, Kiwi and Pippa, traveling, and playing tennis.