In March 1990, people with disabilities
made their way up the capitol steps to
demand, and demonstrate the need
for, equal access. The Americans with
Disabilities Act passed four months
later.
© Tom Olin Collection, MSS-294.
Ward M. Canaday Center for Special
Collections, The University of Toledo
Libraries
Civil Rights
Ensuring Language Access in Administrative Courts
The Office of Administrative Law (OAL) in New Jersey hears cases referred by dozens of state agencies. For example, the OAL may hear cases in which a person with developmental disabilities objects to the placement or services a state agency has offered, an officer objects to being fired by the state police, a low-income person objects to the denial of welfare benefits, or a student objects to a proposed suspension or expulsion from public school.
In October 2023, the Education Law Center approached the firm about a problem it had encountered at the OAL: the Spanish-speaking mother of a student facing expulsion from school was informed that she would have to bring her own interpreter to the hearing. The OAL relied on a policy and regulation stating that litigants were required to supply their own interpreters.
The Office of Administrative Law now provides interpreters for all litigants who need them.
This policy and regulation conflict with federal and state civil rights laws, which prohibit discrimination on the basis of national origin, including on the basis of language. In addition, the New Jersey Judiciary’s Language Access Plan, issued in part to comply with the Federal Civil Rights Act, commits to “ensuring equal access to the courts by providing free and qualified language access services to all court users who are Limited English Proficient (LEP) or who are deaf or hard of hearing.”
The firm joined the Education Law Center in bringing the issue to the Office of the Attorney General, which agreed that the OAL must provide interpreters for LEP litigants. Based on this cooperative dialogue and on the advice of its counsel in the attorney general’s office, the OAL corrected its policy, reflected the policy change on its website, lined up court-certified interpreters to be available to LEP litigants, and began the process of amending the objectionable regulation. Lowenstein and the Education Law Center will continue to meet with the OAL and its lawyer in 2024 to monitor progress.
