MA · jury_instructions
Instruction 1.270, Criminal Model Jury Instructions for Use in the District Court
Use of interpreter
USE OF AN INTERPRETER
An interpreter will assist in this trial. (He) (she) is here only to
help us communicate. (He) (she) is completely neutral. (He) (she)
is not working for either party. (He) (she) is sworn to interpret
truthfully and accurately.
The interpreter’s role is to interpret what others say so that
everyone understands everything that is said. Do not let your
judgment be affected by a person’s need for an interpreter.
If you understand the language of the witness, you must
disregard completely what the witness says in that language. The
evidence is the testimony as it is interpreted by the interpreter(s).
Even if you think the interpreter has made a mistake, you must rely
on the interpreter’s English translation.
History
Instruction 1.270, Criminal Model Jury Instructions for Use in the District Court (Revised April 2019). Published by the Administrative Office of the District Court, District Court Department of the Trial Court, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, on www.mass.gov. © 1988-2009 Administrative Office of the District Court; reproduced under its title-page permission ("You may freely reproduce or copy this work if you identify its source and any changes made to the original work"). Source: https://www.mass.gov/doc/1270-use-of-interpreter/download. Changes made: the text is extracted from the published PDF (verified by three extraction engines); the running headers, page numbers and line layout are removed, and a closing NOTES section, where printed, is carried as the note.
Provenance
- Source
- mass.gov
- Retrieved
- 2026-09-25
- Edition
- 2026-09-25
- Content hash
0c764077bf698c79159de8d217f178e55293f1ef9821971bb2a31ba3cc110e65
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