Virginia Code 51.5-113: Statewide interpreter service
The Department is authorized to establish, maintain and coordinate a statewide service to provide courts, state and local legislative bodies and agencies, both public and private, and persons who are deaf or hard-of-hearing who request the same with qualified interpreters for persons who are deaf or hard-of-hearing out of such funds as may be appropriated to the Department for these purposes.
Terms Used In Virginia Code 51.5-113
- Process: includes subpoenas, the summons and complaint in a civil action, and process in statutory actions. See Virginia Code 1-237
- State: when applied to a part of the United States, includes any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-245
Those courts and state and local agencies that have funds designated to employ qualified interpreters shall pay for the actual cost of such interpreter. The Department is further authorized to establish and maintain lists of qualified interpreters for persons who are deaf or hard-of-hearing to be available to the courts, state and local legislative bodies and agencies, both public and private, and to persons who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.
The Department is authorized to charge a reasonable fee for the administration of quality assurance screening of interpreters. Such fees shall be applied to the costs of administering the statewide interpreter service.
For purposes of this section, a qualified interpreter shall be one who holds at least one of the following credentials:
1. Certification from any national organization whose certification process has been recognized by the Department for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing; or
2. A current screening level awarded by the Virginia Quality Assurance Screening Program of the Department for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing; or
3. A screening level or recognized evaluation from any other state when (i) the credentials meet the minimum requirements of Virginia Quality Assurance Screening and (ii) the credentials are valid and current in the state issued.
1978, c. 603, § 63.1-85.4:1; 1984, c. 670; 1990, c. 192; 1992, c. 614; 2002, c. 747.