Double Negative, Bench Conference, and a Case Number You Cannot Lose
Phase Two simultaneous interpretation. A federal bench trial. Opposing counsel speaks at roughly 180 words per minute and occasionally overlaps the witness. The witness testifies: "I never said he didn't threaten me - I said I didn't hear him say it." Moments later counsel objects, and the judge holds a 25-second bench conference with the attorneys, then announces: "Sustained. The witness will answer only the question asked." You are working alone - no booth partner, no relay, no recording available afterward. Your lag is about four seconds when the witness begins a rapid series of figures: "March 3rd, 2021, $3,245.50, then 14 days later, case number 21-cv-00847." The defendant is listening through a headset and is watching you, not the witness.
1. Render the witness's "I never said he didn't threaten me - I said I didn't hear him say it" and justify the choices that protect it.
Read the worked answer
A workable rendering: "Yo nunca dije que él no me amenazó; lo que dije es que no le oí decir eso."
What the sentence is actually doing:
- It contains a negated report of a negative - the witness is denying that she ever asserted the absence of a threat. Her credibility turns on that structure. If you resolve it into "he threatened me" you have testified for her; if you resolve it into "he never threatened me" you have testified against her.
- Keep the double negative. Spanish tolerates "nunca dije que no…" cleanly, so there is no fluency excuse for flattening it.
- Watch the mood. Sliding into "nunca dije que no me amenazara" (imperfect subjunctive) nudges the clause toward a counterfactual reading - as though the threat were established and she were merely denying having spoken of it. The indicative keeps her denial at the level of what she said.
- Keep the second clause separate. "- lo que dije es que no le oí decir eso" preserves the contrast the witness is drawing: not whether he threatened, but whether she heard him say it. Merging the two clauses is the most common way this answer loses its point.
General rule for the whole testimony: ambiguity that is in the source stays in the target. Your job is to reproduce uncertainty, not to relieve the court of it.
2. How do you handle the 25-second bench conference and the ruling that follows?
Read the worked answer
Two different events; two different treatments.
- The bench conference is off the record and not addressed to the witness or the defendant. You do not interpret it unless the judge directs you to; you do not summarize it to the defendant; you do not relay it to counsel. If the defendant turns to you and asks what is happening, you tell him, in Spanish, that the attorneys are speaking with the judge and that his attorney will explain. You do not characterize what was said - even to be helpful, and even if you heard it.
- The ruling is on the record and is directed at the witness. Interpret it fully and promptly: "Sostenida la objeción. El testigo responderá únicamente a la pregunta que se le ha formulado." Compliance depends on the witness understanding the instruction, so this is not a place for compression.
Use the pause rather than wasting it: it is your only chance in this passage to clear lag before the numbers arrive. When the judge says "Sustained," you are being handed a 25-second reset. An interpreter who spends the sidebar straining to hear it and then starts the ruling four seconds behind has thrown away the only gift in the transcript.
3. You drop one of the figures in the rapid sequence. What do you do, and what is the rule for the date and the amount specifically?
Read the worked answer
Never guess a number. A fabricated digit in a case number or a dollar amount is not a small error; it is a false record entry that may never be caught.
The protocol:
- Interpret around it immediately so the flow is not lost: "…y luego, catorce días después, el número de caso…" and stop cleanly rather than blurting something plausible.
- Ask, audibly and briefly: "Su Señoría, se me escapó una cifra - ¿me la repite, por favor?" Courts accept this; what they do not accept is invention or a whispered consultation with the witness.
- Write figures as they are spoken, in digits, in a fixed column on your pad. Numbers are the one category where your memory should not be asked to work.
Format rules:
- Dates: March 3rd, 2021 → "3 de marzo de 2021." Do not transpose day and month; a March 3 date read as 3 March is harmless for a U.S. listener but a 3/5 date read backwards is a factual error.
- Amounts: $3,245.50 → "tres mil doscientos cuarenta y cinco dólares con cincuenta centavos." Say the full amount; do not shorten to "unos tres mil" - approximation in a restitution or loss figure is a substantive change.
- Case numbers: read them digit group by digit group, exactly once, and be prepared to repeat them. If the number is read too fast to capture, that is precisely the moment to ask.