Massachusetts Association
of Court Interpreters
Equal Access to Justice
The Massachusetts Association of Court Interpreters (MACI), founded in 2014, is a professional organization of judicial interpreters in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. MACI members are committed to providing language services of the highest quality to persons with Limited English Proficiency (LEP), both in criminal and civil proceedings, to ensure genuine and meaningful access to justice. We are driven by our commitment to the standards of the profession, to the system of justice, and to the LEP population we serve.
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We provide interpreting services to diverse LEP individuals who take part in court proceedings, such as victims, defendants, and witnesses, while simultaneously serving judges, defense attorneys, prosecutors, probation officers, court clinicians, and other court participants. We take pride in delivering accurate, timely, and meaningful on-site interpretation services in all stages of the judicial process, and we are deeply committed to the sustained improvement of interpreting services in Massachusetts courts.
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In the United States, LEP parties who participate in court proceedings are entitled to professional court interpreters, in order to exercise their constitutional and procedural rights. Without professional court interpreters, LEP individuals would not have a meaningful presence in the courtroom, and this would amount to their access to justice being denied.
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We Speak...
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Albanian
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Amharic
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Arabic
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Aramaic
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Armenian
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Bengali
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Bosnian
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Bulgarian
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Cambodian
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Cantonese
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Cape Verdean Creole
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French
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Georgian
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Haitian Creole
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Japanese
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Mandarin
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Polish
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Portuguese
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Russian
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Spanish
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Turkish
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Vietnamese
News Releases
Mass Trial Court Attempts to Outsource Interpreting Services
2/16/2017
Many interpreters in Massachusetts recently received an email from Daniel Shamebo Sabore of Languages Translation Services in the state of Washington. This email indicated that he held a long-term contract with the state of Massachusetts to supply courts and state agencies with interpreters...
Brief for the Massachusetts Association of Court Interpreters, INC. as Amicus Curiae in Support of Petitioner
3/7/16
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Whether the Confrontation Clause permits the prosecution to introduce an out-of-court, testimonial interpretation, without making the interpreter available for confrontation and cross-examination?
Police Must Now Record Conversations with Translators, SJC Rules
9/16/18
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Police must now videotape conversations between non-English speakers and translators “where practicable” during questioning in order to assure a fair trial for the accused, the state’s highest court ruled for the first time Friday...
Scalia was Careful Keeper of Confrontation Clause
3/28/16
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To the editor of the Lawyers Weekly:
I can think of one reason in particular that the legal community in blue-state Massachusetts has for mourning the recently departed Justice Antonin Scalia: his concern for the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution...
MACI on Aifang Ye vs. US
3/7/16
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On March 7, 2016, Attorney Alan Rom, in conjunction with attorneys from the law firm WilmerHale, filed an amicus curiae brief on behalf of MACI with the United State Supreme Court. The case, Aifang Ye vs. US, involves a statement created through an interpreter, submitted as evidence against a defendant, Aifang Ye.The issue on appeal is whether Aifang Ye has the right to call the interpreter into court to be examined.
Court Interpreters Take State to Court
8/25/15
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The lawsuit, filed Friday with the Supreme Judicial Court, accuses the Trial Court of missclassifying the majority of interpreters as private contractors in order to pay them less and breaching the terms of their contract by unilaterally changing the payment standards that have been in place since 1998. It calls for the court to classify per-diem interpreters as state employees and order the Trial Court to pay them damages for lost wages.