Fair Work Center to King County Small Claims Court: Prioritize Language Accessibility and Access to Justice
On August 21st, the Fair Work Center, along with 11 other signatories, sent an advocacy letter to the King County District Court’s Small Claims Division to highlight significant language barriers our clients have faced in accessing the Court and to request that the Court works with us and community partners to address it. The present language barriers pose serious access to justice concerns and have had a disproportionate impact on marginalized communities. For many workers, Small Claims Court is their best option to recover stolen wages and it is essential that everyone, regardless of the language they speak, have access to the courts.
A few examples of issues our clients have faced include, but are not limited to,
- Difficulties filing the initial small claims court complaint because many of the required court forms are only available in English and the few forms that are translated are difficult to locate on the website. Further, the option of filing online is impossible for non-english speakers because the portal is exclusively in English.
- Workers received instructions relevant to their case entirely in English despite indicating that they required interpretation in a different language. In one case, because the worker could not understand the notice they received, they missed an important deadline in their case.
- Workers have had less-favorable outcomes in their cases, and in one instance, their case was dismissed, because the Court failed to provide an interpreter and the worker had to navigate the hearing without one.
The above examples highlight a few of the reasons why we wrote this advocacy letter to the Court. Our goal is to elevate these concerns to the Court and to work with them and community partners to enhance language access. We are committed to continuing to fight for more just outcomes for all workers in Washington State, regardless of what language they speak.