The Sacramento Superior Court launched an 18-month pilot program at the Carol Miller Justice Center that will adjust its operating hours to open an hour earlier and close an hour later — 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. — Monday through Thursday.
The expanded hours are meant to increase accessibility for people needing to address traffic, small claims and unlawful detainer cases without needing to take time off work, school or other daily obligations. For those interested in taking a case to trial, the court added a 7:15 a.m. and 4:15 p.m. option to court trial calendars.
“We have people waiting in line in the morning for the courtrooms to open and for public counters to open, and people trying to get in after the doors close at the end of the day,” said Brenda Allen, director of operations for the center.
The center decided to close Fridays because data showed they were the least busy days, according to Allen.
Allen said this is “cutting edge” and that the rest of the state is looking at the justice center to see how it works.
Alin Cintean, supervising judge of the Carol Miller Justice Center, said the program is “going to help streamline the process for a lot of people.”
“We're hoping that more people are going to be able to have access to the courts,” he said.
However, not everyone agrees that this move will create a net positive for the public.
Interpreter access
Alvaro Garcia has been a Spanish interpreter for the Sacramento Superior Court for 20 years. When he learned that interpreters were not going to have their hours extended to match the court's new hours of operation, he got worried.
“[Someone] very well could be there at 7 a.m. and require an interpreter and the person must wait until 8 a.m. to be interpreted for,” he highlighted. “That defeats the purpose of having taken care of the issue in a timely fashion because now the person has to take another day and that doesn't happen for the regular native speaker.”
Alvaro Garcia, a Spanish interpreter for the Sacramento Superior Court, Monday, April 14, 2025, at the courthouse located at 720 9th St.(Gerardo Zavala/CapRadio)
Currently, Garcia said interpreters are not included in the four-day work week program, meaning they work from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. He said that means any non-English speaker who wants to take advantage of the extended hours will not be able to.
Garcia said he took his concerns to a supervisor, who he said “just brushed it off.”
“I'm taking this personally because I am Mexican,” he said. “We have a mix of other cultures and people who speak different languages and they are going to be missing out on the opportunity that is offered to the native speaker. I'm offended and I feel bad because they’re not taking into account other people that need it.”
Garcia said this will disproportionately affect minorities, particularly Spanish-speaking individuals, who he noted make up a significant percentage of people who visit the court. Of the roughly 30 interpreters hired by the court, he said about a third are full-time Spanish interpreters.
“And we also sometimes have contract interpreters that come in for Spanish, which could be two or three on a daily basis,” he said.
According to the court's website, the court interpreter's office contracts with over 125 contract interpreters who provide interpreter services in over 60 other languages.
Allen, director of operations for the center, acknowledged that interpreters will not be available for the 7:15 a.m. trial calendar time, but noted that they will be available between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m.
Garcia said that although this is true, there are several trials scheduled for the 4:15 p.m. time slot, some don't start until around 5 p.m. When that happens, he said interpreters can only stay until 5:15 p.m. at the latest.
“English native speakers can carry on their case up until 6 p.m., but they don't have that option for the people that need interpreters,” he said.
Why is this a problem?
A big part of why the court decided to implement this program is to minimize people missing their court dates, which comes with potentially serious penalties and fines. Cintean, the supervising judge for the center, said missing traffic court could lead to a civil assessment, which he said is generally a $100 additional penalty on top of their ticket.
That makes having access to interpreters during these additional hours critical for non-English speakers. Most of the time, Cintean said the court's bilingual staff or help from a “language line” they utilize are enough to get people through the process.
However, where the court runs into issues is if a non-English speaker were to take a matter to trial. In those cases, an in-person interpreter like Garcia is required by law. Cintean said if an interpreter is unavailable, the process is to “continue the case” to another day when an interpreter will be available.
He also noted that having someone request an interpreter is not uncommon.
Brandy Tuzon Boyd, public information and communication officer for the Sacramento Superior Court, said that as of Thursday — the fourth day the hour change was in effect — the court had not received requests for an interpreter prior to 8 a.m.
“Requests for interpreters for the 7:15 a.m. calendar are one of the data points being tracked during this 18-month pilot,” she said.
Delayed justice
Garcia recounted a time a Romanian speaking defendant requested his interpretation services during night court — not traffic court — because a Romanian interpreter was unavailable and he knew more Spanish than English. The judge, according to Garcia, decided to instead reschedule the case until they found a Romanian speaking interpreter.
“The person in the meantime had to be in custody whereas otherwise the person may have been able to be released had there been a Romanian interpreter,” he said. “Because there was no interpreter available, the case was continued unnecessarily.”
He argued that with the new schedule, situations like this will become more common as people trying to avoid missing work visit the court without realizing they won't have access to an interpreter.
“It defeats the purpose for the people they're supposed to be able to help,” he added.
What's next
Garcia proposed adjusting interpreter schedules to be able to work during the extended hours at the justice center similar to what is done at night court. He explained that while working for night court, interpreters are paid overtime to be available to interpret for non-English speaking defendants.
According to Garcia, he and several other interpreters are willing to work overtime to address the community's needs.
“When you come into this business of interpreting, you do it because you want to help someone,” he said. “To me, I feel it's a calling. You have to be there because you want to be empathetic with their situation and provide them the service that they deserve.”
Allen said interpreter hours are not being extended because they support all of the county's court buildings. She said interpreters would not be available on Fridays if they were to switch to the four day per week, 10-hour workday schedule.
Allen also said bilingual staff and the language line service are able to address most of the interpreter needs people have unless they are taking things to trial. In most cases, she said people could avoid coming to the court unnecessarily by utilizing the court's virtual public counter.
“A party can use a QR code or a link on our website and they're greeted by a clerk on Zoom,” she explained. “They enable their audio and their video and then we assist them just as if they're standing in front of us at the public counter.”
There, she said people can sign up for traffic school and set up payment plans confidentially from the comfort of their home as early as 7 a.m.
“We don't anticipate any impact to the public for interpreters because of the pilot,” she added. “Most people come in, go to the public counter, take care of their cases and we use the language line or bilingual employees for that. It's only for court hearings that we use interpreters.”
Cintean added that Sacramento is one of very few counties in California that allow people to appear for their trial on Zoom, which he said “really helps people access court.”
“We've had people from a different country appear on Zoom and they were able to complete their case,” he said. “I think this is a good opportunity for us to also spread the word that we have remote appearances and people that receive a traffic citation in Sacramento can appear remotely.
“I think we're at the forefront of giving access to people and making it as easy as possible.”
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