Translator is officially considered to be a person who translates a conversation of two speakers who speak face to face or they converse by means of a telephone. Hence, the translator is the only person who we would imagine to provide the simultaneous translation. The difficulty of responsibility of a translation is not for both parties who partake in a conversation, but only toward the person who employs the translator. The translator is expected to translate the converation well, without misunderstandings, and the responsibility for the uttered information rests upon the speakers.

Court interpreter is something else

Court interpreter is additionally called court translator, since the court interpreter is a person authorized by the court who issues a certified translation of documents and who with his/her signature and his/her seal guarantees that the translation is identical to the original. Their role is important in public state institutions which take part in the interstate cooperation, be it economic sector, international politics or cooperation of the institutions for fighting crime.

Court interpreter is a language professional whose services are used by court for its needs, and legal persons and physical persons may use those services as well. Although the court interpreter is obliged to accept any invitation of the court, along with the prescribed tariff for his services, court interpreter is free to choose the assignments he will accept from the physical persons and legal persons and to propose the amount which court interpreter wants for his work. Essential difference between a translator and a court interpreter is that the court interpreter owns a seal with his name and surname and registered number, certifying with it his/her translations. That means that court interpreter with that seal guarantees that the translation is identical to the original text. Without that particular licence the translations do not have authority and power to confirm that some document which they translated into their maternal or their working language does not stray from the original. Documents translated by the court interpreter are translations of the legal documents, excerpts from the registers of birth, marriages and deaths, certificates, documents of citizenship, and that is why it is really important that the state chooses meticulously who and under what conditions may perform the assignments of a court interpreter.

 You need to pass a special examination in order to become a court interpreter

Ministry of justice issues a public notice specifying in detail the requirements to be met by the future court interpreter. There is no specified time period by law as to when the public notice will be issued – the regulations say that the Ministry of justice estimates when a new court interpreter is needed on the market. That means that the issue of the public notice may take years to happen, but that also means that a court interpreter may be in demand every month (admittedly, in various municipalities or in extraordinary circumstances such as a sudden death of the only court interpreter for a language). To put it in a wider perspective, in practice that public notice is published once a year and namely only for the municipalities where there is a need to employ a court interpreter for a certain language.

If the court interpreter, namely, the candidate is not a person who completed his/her studies at the faculties of philology, where a diploma could serve as evidence about the knowledge of the language, the future court interpreter should present a certificate about the knowledge of the language. The person applying to become a court interpreter should have a translation experience of five years at least and to enjoy a reputation in the municipality wherein the public notice is issued, meaning that the person does not have a criminal record. The court interpreter should also be a citizen of age of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who has a registered domicile which belongs to the municipality where the court interpreter is needed.