Simultaneous interpretation of a mock trial on MS Team

Law firms use Mock trials both during lawyers’ training and to prepare for complex court cases. A mock trial is a “test run” of a court hearing. A (usually retired) judge assumes the role of the court where the case will be heard later in real life. The role of the opposing party is played by lawyers from another law firm that is not involved in the case.

This kind of dummy run enables lawyers to subject their lines of argument to critical testing before the case is heard in the “real” court. This particular case was a patent dispute that had gone on for several years and the last possible appeal was due to come before the Federal Court of Justice, (Bundesgerichtshof, BGH) in Karlsruhe in January 2022. Our client wanted to hear the statement of a potential witness in advance as part of its preparations.

An English-speaking witness from the US was examined online before the actual court hearing

Of course the parties to the dispute are not allowed to brief or influence witnesses, but they can use a mock trial as a test run to find out what statements the witnesses will make. This helps them prepare for the real hearing.

The potential witness spoke only English and lived in the US. It would therefore have been very expensive to have him travel to Germany for a mock trial. And the lawyers felt that examining the witness immediately before the hearing would leave too much to chance. After extensive consultation with us, the law firm therefore decided to try something they had never done before: they conducted the mock trial online with simultaneous video interpreting.

Online simultaneous interpreting saves time and money

In court we normally interpret what is said in German into English by whispering with a tour guide system so that the people who want to follow what is going on can do so even if they don’t understand German. Witness statements in other languages are interpreted consecutively so that all the participants in the courtroom can hear and understand them. However, consecutive interpretation takes twice as long. So the participants were all the happier that we found a technical solution for interpreting the witness statement simultaneously online.

Remote simultaneous interpreting on MS Teams

The law firm normally uses MS Teams for its online meetings.

We organised a bilingual Teams meeting and interpreted it from our interpreting studio in Mannheim. The counsel and a retired judge took part in the mock trial from their offices in Germany, and the witness joined from the US. Some of the client’s employees also joined the meeting as observers from Germany and the US.

On-site English interpreters for the witness in the “real” court hearing

The real hearing took place a few weeks later at the BGH in Karlsruhe. The presence of international participants made it complex and it was even interpreted into Japanese by our colleagues. In fact “our” witness was not called to speak during the hearing. But if he had been, we would have interpreted what was being said in the courtroom into English for him, using a portable transmission system. We would also have translated his statements into German for all those in the courtroom to hear.

Law

Video conference

Mock trial

7

Organising the technical implementation, arranging the interpreting team, interpreting

Remote simultaneous interpreting (RSI)

German, English

Mannheim, Germany

Have a look at this selection of our past projects and compare your requirements with the events where we have realised complete solutions with interpreter services and equipment.