Six times a New York City woman appeared in Family Court to get an order of protection against her ex-partner. Four of those six times her case was adjourned because an interpreter wasn’t there to translate a language from Sri Lanka for her adversary.

Finally, she gave up.

“She felt like it just wasn’t worth it to her to keep having to go to court, prepare for court and confront somebody who had been abusive in the past,” said Susanna Saul, a supervising attorney at Her Justice. “We felt we had somehow let her down. We represented that this court system was going to [help] her.”

The woman’s plight highlights what many attorneys say is a significant problem in state courts—the difficulty of finding interpreters when the number of those working full time for the state has been trimmed and per diem interpreters are often unavailable or delayed.

In Saul’s order of protection case, the state’s sole interpreter who speaks Sinhalese was not available for the proceedings. M. Audrey Carr, director of immigration and special programs at Legal Services NYC, called the case “a pretty egregious example” of delays caused by the interpreter shortage, “but not uncommon, unfortunately.”

There are about 270 staff interpreters on the OCA payroll, down from 335 in 2009, according to Ronald Younkins, executive director for the state’s Office of Court Administration.

In an interview, Younkins said the lower head count is largely due to staff retiring or leaving for other positions. He said five interpreters were laid off in 2011 due to lack of court funds but were later rehired. More.

See: New York Law Journal

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