Article
Court Interpreters a 'Growth Industry' in S.C.
South Carolina’s federal court dockets are being flooded with cases requiring interpreters, especially for defendants accused of bringing illegal drugs into the state.
Cases involving interpreters are sometimes more complex and time-consuming, the Columbia, S.C., State reports. In one pending drug trafficking case, with 24 defendants accused of dealing in “black tar” heroin from Mexico, the interpreter evidence includes 540 hours of recordings and 10,000 pages of documents with a $500,000 tab for taxpayers, the paper reports.
“It’s certainly a growth industry,” Chief U.S. District Judge Joseph F. Anderson Jr. is quoted saying. “It’s a growing part of our budget each year.”
