According to the Law Gazette, judges are concerned that HM Courts & Tribunals Service has allocated little time to ensure digitised forms in family law are correctly translated into Welsh.
At an open meeting of the Family Procedure Rule Committee at London’s Royal Courts of Justice, His Honour Judge Harold Godwin discussed the issue.
HHJ Godwin said, “Once the English forms had been agreed in final form that was the point at which the Welsh Language Unit would be asked to translate. I understand they’ve not been asked to start that project yet. We’re concerned about the practicalities of doing that in the time allowed.”
After the meeting, HHJ Godwin told the Law Gazette that ‘to be sure the translation is the best translation in terms of [for instance] litigants in person, there is quite a lot of work involved’.
He added, “The Welsh language dictionary [is] all the time evolving… For every [English] word there are two or three alternatives in Welsh.”
