Mandarin Chinese and English Phone Interpreting for Legal and Attorneys My blog is at akn6z.wordpress.com.

4. 4 Review the questionnaire, complete it, and then send it back to me. Its purpose is to help us get on the same page as to what information is needed. If the need is urgent (due to court proceedings, etc.) then we can go over the questionnaire on the phone. Note: Filling out the questionnaire and returning it to me is always better and saves time in the long run. 5 Arrange the time and day of the phone call that I will have with the person, per Questions 7 and 8 of the questionnaire. 6 If help is needed in this regard (i.e., the person does not speak any English at all and/or has no relative or friend who can act as a temporary go-between), then I will help if I can. For example, I can use Chinese language software to send the person a Chinese email. The Basics B

6. CASE OF WRONGFUL DEATH A downtown attorney contacts me because of the need to communicate with a Mandarin-speaking person who will become, possibly, a witness for the plaintiff. The attorney team is still learning things about the case and needs to get the story as this person, Mr. Li, experienced it. Mr. Li no longer works for the company that is getting sued; he now operates machines at a factory that belongs to a different company. He speaks some English but he cannot express himself well enough to clearly describe his experience with the former company. I get this story from Mr. Li: That company did not maintain the machines well and because of this, Mr. George’s machine blew up and killed him. Mr. Li thinks that it is not surprising that the surviving family members want to sue, because Mr. George was a very good machine operator and was very safety-conscious. In fact, Mr. George’s death was the main reason for Mr. Li’s move to the new company. Mr. Li knew that due to that company’s negligence some bad thing might happen some day, and he will indeed testify for the family. Scenario A

7. AN IMMIGRATION PROBLEM Again, a downtown attorney contacts me because of the need to communicate with a Mandarin-speaking person. The attorney needs to learn the particulars from this person directly. His firm will assist in her Immigration problem. Miss Zhou is the daughter of a litigant in a large unrelated Personal Injury case. The attorney was presented with the rather complicated problem (by that litigant) the week before and needs a few clarifications from Miss Zhou herself, but she only speaks Mandarin. The problem, according to the father, is that Miss Zhou is in dire straits and is in risk of immediate deportation back to China because she missed a deadline. The father was fearful that If she is deported, she faces jail time, torture, or execution, because she used to associate with a political organization that has been outlawed in that country. What I found out: In fact, there were two sisters and the father was thinking of his youngest who lived in another part of the world. Also, I learned that the real Miss Zhou had been in a minor traffic accident on the day that she was going to send the form to Immigration. In the midst of the havoc and trauma, she forgot about the form. Scenario B

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