Google Translate used in place of interpreters in British Courts

[Black-Ice]

Channel 4 News has evidence of a series of failures in Britain's privatised court interpretation services, including claims that unqualified translators are being sent to cover criminal court cases.
Every single day, in courts across the country, professional interpreters help to translate proceedings for defendants, witnesses and victims. They take pride in their work - or at least, they used to.
At the beginning of Febuary, the Ministry of Justice privatised the system of booking interpreters across the criminal justice system. It awarded a lucrative contract, worth £300m, to a relatively small company from Oldham called Applied Language Solutions (ALS). The contract was supposed to save £18m a year - but critics say it's already costing that much.
Professional interpreters say Britain's reputation as having the fairest legal system in the world is being undermined by privatisation. ALS have cut the rates of pay offered to professional interpreters, and as a result many are boycotting the company. It's claimed that as a result, the company is struggling to recruit enough translators.
Desperate measures
We've travelled to courts across the country and heard of cases having to be adjourned and even dismissed every single day, when ALS interpreters fail to turn up. Many court clerks have told us they aren't even given notice.
In some cases, the clerks have to resort to desperate measures. "The clerk had to go online and use Google translate to explain the bail conditions because the ALS interpreter didn't turn up. That's just not right."

I know certain mods who would rage over the use of google translate in courts.
Fortunately for them, this is a British problem

 

[emigre]

Welcome to Britain. If there's a problem, privatisation will solve it. This generation of politicians' obsession with the private sector is insane.

Saying that I think the changes to legal aid will undermine the prevalence of justice in Britain.

 

[Densetsu]

I know certain mods who would rage over the use of google translate in courts.
Fortunately for them, this is a British problem

This is infinitely worse than using Google to translate games. In this case, someone's freedom is on the line.

As for this being a British problem, if Britain is capable of this kind of stupidity, then I wouldn't put it past the US government to follow suit and even outdo the Brits in retardedness.

 

[Foxi4]

I cannot even think of how many times Google Translate created freakish sentences when translating other languages into English, this is really not a good idea. If they want to automate the process then they should probably buy software that was made for this purpose by professionals in linguistics and programming alike.

 

[Black-Ice]

I cannot even think of how many times Google Translate created freakish sentences when translating other languages into English, this is really not a good idea. If they want to automate the process then they should probably buy software that was made for this purpose by professionals in linguistics and programming alike.

Panic can make anyone do anything.
But this is just ridiculous

 

[FAST6191]

Ouch- I know if I play in patent world and something needs to be translated the translators there purely by virtue of it being a legal related field demand and quite rightly get paid far more than more other translators out there and are quite often cross trained in the fields to half decent levels as well similar to the judges in the actual cases. Equally the field quite often hinges upon interpretations of words and phrases which for my money means machine translation is right out.

 

[triassic911]

Google translate should not be used for delicate situations such as these.

 

[xist]

I cannot even think of how many times Google Translate created freakish sentences when translating other languages into English, this is really not a good idea. If they want to automate the process then they should probably buy software that was made for this purpose by professionals in linguistics and programming alike.

QUICK SEND THEM VALWINATOR!

 

[Nathan Drake]

Someone is going to be confused when they see that the bail conditions include something about cookies and pens when translated by Google.

 

[Flame]

me gusta las tetas grandes, ¿tiene esto sentido?

 

[Gahars]

This is terrible. I'd hate to think of all the cases that could be... lost in translation.

Spoiler

 

[shakirmoledina]

what kind of cases? not the "big" ones. its probably a biased and hand-picked situation of dealing with low importance cases in this way

 

[Qtis]

I cannot even think of how many times Google Translate created freakish sentences when translating other languages into English, this is really not a good idea. If they want to automate the process then they should probably buy software that was made for this purpose by professionals in linguistics and programming alike.

QUICK SEND THEM VALWINATOR!

That's be the end of the legal system. Trust me. Half of the cases will end up being dismissed, since the Judges don't know what they're supposed to be judging..

 

[FAST6191]

what kind of cases? not the "big" ones. its probably a biased and hand-picked situation of dealing with low importance cases in this way

Serious as to the well being of an area probably not but any time you find yourself in front of the beak if you are not used to it tends to get the pulse racing a bit and I imagine doubly so if you need a translator.

 

[Depravo]

I also heard they were still using Google Wave for their internal communications.

 

[Judas18]

Sometimes I'm so embarrassed to be British.

 

[triassic911]

Sometimes I'm so embarrassed to be British.

Trust me, this is nothing compared to what people in the US have done. -_-