Much confusion regarding interpreter qualifications arises from the industry itself. With myriad national boards, lobbying organizations and interest groups, it's difficult to see the forest from the trees when it comes to adequate credentials to do the job of legal interpreting.
Notwithstanding the relative merit deserved by interpreters accomplishing these accolades, only one certification scheme counts in the Florida State Courts System: the ones ascribed by the Court Interpreter Certification and Regulation Program of the Office of the State Court Administrator. In AOSC-14, the Supreme Court Establishes the designations for spoken language court interpreters in the Florida State Courts System.
Registered, Provisionally Approved, Duly Qualified, and Certified.
NAJIT certification, ATA certification, Federal Court Interpreter certification, and Court interpreter certifications from other states are neither necessary nor sufficient to abide by the Florida Rules of Judicial Administration for both appointed and retained interpreters. Granted, the process of becoming a certified interpreter in Florida is made easier in some cases for individuals holding some of these other certifications. A case in point relates to Federally certified interpreters.
Unlike admission into the bar of the United States District Court, interpreters don't need to first be State Certified Interpreters to sit for the Federal Court Interpreter Certification Exam. As such, attaining that Certification alone does not qualify an interpreter to practice their craft in Florida State Courts. The benefit extended by the Office of the State Court Administrator to interpreters having passed the Federal Court Interpreter Certification Exam is the discharge from having to sit for the State oral examination. However, all other requirement would still apply to that individual. This is also the case for interpreters having attained Court interpreter certification in another state that is a member of the National Center for State Courts
