Assembly Bill 1032 – Summary of Changes

Beginning Jan. 1, 2025, AB 1032 (Stats. 2023, ch. 556), makes extensive changes to the Trial Court Interpreter Employment and Labor Relations Act.

New Terms and Definitions

• “Intermittent, part-time interpreter” replaces “interpreter pro tempore,” but there is no change to the definition.
• “Local compensation” means any amounts paid to employee interpreters by an individual trial court that are not paid pursuant to the regional memorandum of understanding (MOU) and are not calculated on an hourly basis. For example, local compensation can include hiring bonuses paid by a trial court.
• “Relay interpreting” is defined as the process by which two interpreters with different language pairs work in tandem to communicate between the target language and English.
  • Section 71802 authorizes courts to hire relay interpreters as employees, if the court also has “employed an interpreter of the same second language pair.”
  • Section 71803 authorizes courts to hire as an employee a registered or nonregistered language interpreter to perform relay interpreting as an intermittent, part-time interpreter.

Privately Retained Interpreters

• Changes in Government Code section 71802(b)(3) clarify that an independent contractor interpreter may be appointed by the court when the interpreter is certified or registered and paid directly by the parties.

New Limits on Provisional Qualification and Appointment

• Under AB 1032, noncertified Spanish interpreters are limited to working 45 partial or full court days per calendar year, per court.
• For languages other than Spanish, including relay interpreters, noncertified and nonregistered interpreters are limited to 75 partial or full court days per calendar year, per court.
• The judge has discretion to extend new limits as necessary.

Bonuses or Stipends

• Local courts can negotiate additional local compensation, which may include retention bonuses or other one-time stipends, for interpreter employees.
• Agreements for additional local compensation must be agreed upon by the court and the union and cannot modify any existing agreement or MOU between the union and the region.

Changes to Rule 2.893 and Related Forms

• To conform with changes under AB 1032, the council approved changes to Rule 2.893 and the following interpreter forms: INT-100-INFO, INT-110, INT-120, and INT-140, effective January 1, 2025.
• The revised rule and forms may be found on the Judicial Council website:
  • California Rules of Court
  • Judicial Council Forms

Additional informational materials on AB 1032 have been created to assist courts with the implementation of the legislation and are available at https://jrn.courts.ca.gov/programs/interpreters/cip-legislation.htm