DOJ Reviewing Complaint That TX Courts Violated Civil Rights of Indigent Domestic Violence Survivor Who Was Forced to Pay for Interpreter
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Bibliographic Info:
Author: Lone Star Legal Aid
Source: Press Release, “DOJ Has Begun Investigating Lone Star Legal Aid’s Civil Rights Complaint Against Texas Courts for Denying Access to DV Victim Based on Language”
Date: October 11, 2011
Lone Star Legal Aid writes in a press release: “Lone Star Legal Aid (LSLA) has recently learned that its complaint on behalf of a domestic abuse victim who was denied access to a family court because of her inability to speak or understand English is under review by U.S. Department of Justice. . . .The complaint asks the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice to make a finding that this practice in Texas courts violates federal law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of national origin. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits national origin discrimination by recipients of federal financial assistance. Under the Bush Administration, the U.S. Department of Justice issued guidance to the states including the warning that failure to ensure that people with limited English proficiency can effectively participate in certain activities, including court proceedings, could be a type of discrimination on the basis of national origin. LSLA represented the non-English-speaking woman who was severely beaten by her spouse. The husband was convicted of a felony for the attack and sentenced to prison. The victim filed a divorce case and attempted to complete the divorce before the abuser’s projected release date. Although the Court found that she was unable to pay court costs, the Court’s orders required her to prepay the interpreter’s costs or else her divorce case would be dismissed. The Texas Court of Appeals agreed with the trial court and refused to interfere with the trial court’s ruling. ‘The Court’s action,” [said LSLA attorney Jane] Perreiras-Horta, “effectively denied this woman the only forum she had to divorce her abusive spouse and resolve the custody issues over her children.’ The complaint, which has been assigned to a reviewer, asks the Department of Justice to require Texas Courts to provide interpreters to Limited English Proficient litigants in the future, to develop a plan to ensure compliance with the law, and to post notices advising all litigants of their right to a qualified interpreter.”