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Title 28, Judiciary and Judicial ProcedureRelease 119-102

§1828 Special Interpretation Services

Title 28 › PART V — PROCEDURE › CHAPTER 119 — EVIDENCE; WITNESSES › § 1828

Last updated Aug 21, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts must set up a program to provide special interpretation in criminal cases and in civil cases brought by the United States, including habeas corpus petitions filed in the name of the United States by relators. The program must be able to give simultaneous interpretation in cases with more than one defendant. If someone in a case that isn’t already covered asks for these services, the Director, with the judge’s okay, may provide them for a fee. Rates follow section 9701 of title 31, and the Director may require payment upfront. The costs for the basic program come from federal judiciary funds, but a judge can make the parties share the cost or have it taxed as court costs, and any money collected must be used to repay those funds. The same funds may be used when services are provided on request, and money collected for those services can also reimburse the judiciary.

Full Legal Text

Title 28, §1828

Judiciary and Judicial Procedure, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)The Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts shall establish a program for the provision of special interpretation services in criminal actions and in civil actions initiated by the United States (including petitions for writs of habeas corpus initiated in the name of the United States by relators) in a United States district court. The program shall provide a capacity for simultaneous interpretation services in multidefendant criminal actions and multidefendant civil actions.
(b)Upon the request of any person in any action for which special interpretation services established pursuant to subsection (a) are not otherwise provided, the Director, with the approval of the presiding judicial officer, may make such services available to the person requesting the services on a reimbursable basis at rates established in conformity with section 9701 of title 31, but the Director may require the prepayment of the estimated expenses of providing the services by the person requesting them.
(c)Except as otherwise provided in this subsection, the expenses incident to providing services under subsection (a) of this section shall be paid by the Director from sums appropriated to the Federal judiciary. A presiding judicial officer, in such officer’s discretion, may order that all or part of the expenses shall be apportioned between or among the parties or shall be taxed as costs in a civil action, and any moneys collected as a result of such order may be used to reimburse the appropriations obligated and disbursed in payment for such services.
(d)Appropriations available to the Director shall be available to provide services in accordance with subsection (b) of this section, and moneys collected by the Director under that subsection may be used to reimburse the appropriations charged for such services. A presiding judicial officer, in such officer’s discretion, may order that all or part of the expenses shall be apportioned between or among the parties or shall be taxed as costs in the action.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

1982—Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 97–258 substituted “section 9701 of title 31” for “section 501 of the Act of August 31, 1951 (ch. 376, title 5, 65 Stat. 290; 31 U.S.C. 483a)”.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

Section effective ninety days after Oct. 28, 1978, see section 10(b) of Pub. L. 95–539, set out as an

Effective Date

of 1978 Amendment note under section 602 of this title.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

28 U.S.C. § 1828

Title 28, Judiciary and Judicial Procedure

Last Updated

Aug 21, 2026

Release point: 119-102