Courts: court interpreters.

2025-2026 Regular Session Introduced by Alex Lee

extends the Trial Court Interpreter Employment and Labor Relations Act to cover sign language interpreters, applying the same employment, compensation, and labor-relations framewor

From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on JUD.

#courts #courtinterpreters

1. Purpose and intent

AB 1916, introduced by Assembly Member Lee, would amend the Government Code to extend the Trial Court Interpreter Employment and Labor Relations Act (the act) to apply to sign language interpreters.

In short, the bill broadens existing procedures governing employment, compensation, and labor relations for court interpreters to include sign language interpreters, ensuring they are covered by the same framework as spoken-language interpreters.

2. Key provisions and changes

Amends Section 71801 to apply the act’s definitions and protections to sign language interpreters.

Definitions updated to include sign language interpreters within the scope of “certified interpreter” and “registered interpreter,” aligning with the act’s system (subject to the bill’s text clarifications and limitations as described below).
Retains and references the act’s terminology for other concepts (e.g., cross-assign, mediation, meet-and-confer in good faith, personnel rules, regional court interpreter employment relations committees, regional transition periods, relay interpreting, transfer, trial court).

Operational date: The section being amended states that provisions shall become operative on January 1, 2025. This sets the timeline for when sign language interpreters would be governed by the act’s requirements, assuming the bill’s full adoption.

Scope note: The text indicates that, prior to this bill, sign language interpreters were not covered by the act. AB 1916 expands coverage to include them, ensuring uniform employment terms, compensation mechanisms, and labor-relations processes.

3. Who is affected

Sign language interpreters employed by California trial courts (as well as those currently classified as certified, registered, or otherwise within the act’s framework for spoken-language interpreters) would become subject to:

The act’s employment procedures
Compensation guidelines
Labor-relations framework (meet-and-confer, mediation, and collective-bargaining-like processes via regional court interpreter employment relations committees)

Trial courts and their administrative structures would also be affected, as they would need to apply the act to sign language interpreters, including compensation practices, working conditions, and personnel policies when handling sign-language interpretation services.

4. Procedural and timeline aspects

Status and action history indicate the bill:

Read second time and ordered to third reading (as of 2026-04-23).
Previously passed committee and referred to appropriations, with normal legislative steps (including a prior JUD referral and a separate APPR referral).

Fiscal considerations: The Legislative Counsel’s digest notes “Fiscal Committee: YES,” indicating that a fiscal analysis accompanies the bill.

No appropriation is requested in the digest (“Appropriation: NO”), though the fiscal impact would depend on implementation specifics and staffing needs.

5. Additional context

The bill’s text includes standard definitions around cross-assignments, mediation, meet-and-confer in good faith, and related terms, ensuring that sign language interpreters are integrated into the same employment governance structure that governs spoken-language interpreters.

Co-sponsor listed: Alex Lee.

If you’d like, I can tailor this summary for a specific audience (e.g., judges, court administrators, or interpreters) or add a side-by-side comparison with the current law to highlight exact changes.

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