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Assistance for the Hearing Impaired and Language Resources

Assistance for the Hearing Impaired

The United States Bankruptcy Court provides access to headphones for the hearing impaired in all courtrooms in Columbia, Charleston and Greenville. If this service is needed, you or your attorney may contact any Courtroom Services personnel upon arrival to the courtroom on the day of the hearing. They will provide a device and brief instruction for you before the hearing.

If you need a sign language interpreter, please consult the following information regarding the availability of interpreters.

 

Availability of Interpreters

I. Court Appearances

Federal law does not provide for language or sign language interpreters during proceedings, hearings or trials before the courts of the United States, unless the United States is a party to the particular matter. See 28 U.S.C. § 1827. You may bring an interpreter with you to court to help you understand the proceeding so long as this is done without disrupting the proceeding or disturbing other parties.

If a language or sign language interpreter is necessary for your presentation of evidence in court you must provide the interpreter. The Court will determine if the language or sign language interpreter is qualified, and you should make the Court aware of the need to determine the qualification of the language or sign language interpreter well in advance. If you have questions regarding available services or need to make the Court aware that a language or sign language interpreter will be involved in your appearance before the Court, please contact the Public Services department at 803-765-5436 and they will direct your call to the appropriate courtroom deputy clerk for assistance.

 

II. Meetings of Creditors

The United States Trustee Program offers, free of charge, telephonic interpreter services for persons with limited English proficiency at the mandatory section 341 meeting of creditors (11 U.S.C. § 341). Interpretation is available in as many as 196 languages. Sign language interpreters are also available to personally attend meetings of creditors. Individuals (or their counsel) may contact either the private trustee assigned to their case or the local office of the United States Trustee (803-765-5250) if interpreter services are necessary. To minimize delays at the meeting of creditors, individuals wishing to take advantage of this free service are encouraged to contact the private trustee or the United States Trustee in advance of the section 341 meeting.

 

III. Website Assistance

If you have a disability and the format of any material on our website interferes with your ability to access some information contained on our site, please click this accessibility link to inform us of your specific situation. To enable us to respond in a manner that will be of most help to you, please indicate the nature of the accessibility problem, your preferred format (electronic format (ASCII, etc.), standard print, large print, etc.), the web address of the requested material, and your full contact information so we can reach you if questions arise while fulfilling your request.

Portions of this website can be translated into Spanish using the "en español" icon at the bottom of the featured web page. You may also translate this site into other languages by pasting the URL in your web browser into translate.google.com and selecting the language in which you wish to view a particular web page. Once translated, you may have problems navigating to other parts of this site or to hyperlinks that appear on a web page. To view other pages or to navigate this site, you must undo the translation, navigate to the page or link you wish to view, and paste the URL for that particular page or link into translate.google.com.


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