Thank you for volunteering to share your language
skills with the Maryland Immigrant Legal Assistance Project to help immigrants
in deportation proceedings get legal advice about their case.
Please read the following statements and indicate that you
agree by typing in your name and today's date in the boxes at the bottom of this form.
In my role as a facilitator today I promise to:
- Treat as confidential all personal information I learn about the clinic clients and ensure that no one will be able to overhear my conversations with the client;
- Send any written notes I created as a part of the consult to MILAP (including notes on my computer or in writing and screenshots of texts which may have been sent to the client) immediately following the clinic;
- Delete or shred any notes remaining on my phone’s camera, email outbox, computer, or in handwriting on paper immediately after a MILAP staff member has confirmed that MILAP has all the information they need about the consult and have instructed me to do so;
- Delete the PBRC contact number from my WhatsApp Business or WhatsApp account immediately upon instruction from a MILAP staff member.
In addition to those as a facilitator, in my role as interpreter today I promise to:
- “Echo” the words of those for whom I am interpreting, in their own voice (using “I” and “you”, NOT “he/she said”);
- Ask the parties to slow down or pause more frequently if that is needed to enable me to correctly and completely interpret what is being said;
- Strive for accuracy in meaning; avoid adding, omitting, or changing anything that is said;
- Remember that I am a conduit for the spoken word, and encourage those for whom I am interpreting to focus on addressing each other, NOT addressing me, allowing me to be their “echo” voice;
- Avoid having side conversations with the LEP individual;
- Avoid interjecting my own opinions or attempting to give the client my own advice;
- Refer to the legal glossary when needed to make certain that I am using the correct interpretation of terms that may have a distinct meaning in a legal context;
- Ask for clarification if I encounter a term or phrase about which I am uncertain, which is not in the glossary.