The Office of Interpreter Services provides the services of professional judicial interpreters to those who have limited English proficiency during court proceedings, hearings, interviews and other court-related communicative events. As officers of the court, interpreters help assure that such individuals may enjoy equal access to justice and that court proceedings and court services function in a timely, efficient and ethical manner. The services of court foreign language interpreters are provided at no cost to the individual in need of the service.
The Circuit Court of Cook County provides court interpreters to facilitate the participation in court proceedings of persons who either:
- do not speak English; or
- do not speak English as their primary language and who have limited ability to read, speak, write or understand English (known as Limited English Proficiency or LEP).
How to Request a Foreign Language Interpreter
If you do not speak English — or have limited English proficiency as your primary language and have limited ability to read, speak, write or understand English — when you arrive in the courtroom, you must inform the court clerk or the judge that you need the services of an interpreter.
If the court determines the services of a court foreign language interpreter are necessary, court staff will fill out the official request form and will contact the Office of Interpreter Services to arrange for an interpreter on your behalf.
With judicial approval, interpreters are available on a first-come, first-served basis in any type of criminal or civil case for Spanish and Polish only. Although some interpreters are available daily, on a first-come, first-served basis, resources are limited.
Contact Information
Office of Interpreter Services
Main office:
Leighton Criminal Courthouse, Room 4B02
(773) 674-3210
Most Frequently Requested Languages:
Spanish Polish | Arabic Russian | American Sign Language (see below) |
Other Requested Languages
The Circuit Court can also provide interpreters for the following languages, however, a minimum of 48 working hours notice is required for these languages, with the exception of Emergency Orders of Protection and in Custody requests.
Albanian Amharic Armenian Assyrian Bengali Bulgarian Burmese Cambodian Czech Eritrea Farsi French German Ghana/Ewe Greek Gujarati Haitian Hebrew Hindi Hmong Hungarian | Ibo Ilongo Italian Japanese Karen Korean Kurdish Lao Lithuanian Macedonian Malay Malayalam Mandarin Mongolian Nepalese Oromo Polish Portuguese Punjabi Pashto Romanian | Slovak Somali Spanish Sudanese Swahili Tagalog Taiwanese Tamil Thai Tibet Tigrinya Toison Turkish Twi Ukrainian Urdu Vietnamese Visayan Wolof Yoruba |
Sign Language Interpreters
American Sign Language interpreters are available daily through Deaf / Hard of Hearing Access services. Every effort is made to accommodate same-day requests, but resources may be limited in some locations. If possible, please make your request for accommodation 14 days prior to your scheduled court date.
Other types of ADA Accommodations can be requested through Accessibility Services.