ASLegalese

"One of the most challenging experiences for court interpreters is converting Legalese—the
specialized and technical language of the legal profession—into meaningful, culturally-appropriate ASL concepts. The field of law incorporates Latin, old-English common law concepts, and case law precedent that can challenge even the most knowledgeable and experienced court interpreter. This workshop will be focused on understanding the meaning behind legal terminology and get to the heart of the concept. There are two kinds of legal vocabulary—1) words derived from the Latin, Greek, or French, which are often easy to recognize as being legalese, and 2) English words that are implicitly legalese, such as “consideration,” “information,” “motion,” and “brief.” Too often, we hear the Latin-root legal term and are lost at the meaning. When this happens, we often resort to fingerspelling the words or dropping it from the interpretation. Even more often, we hear legal words in English and interpret it according to the English, and not the legal meaning. In both instances, the meaning is lost and therefore not conveyed accurately to the Deaf individual or LEP person."