Navinkumar Patel, of Shawnee, looks on in court Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2015, as he waived his right to a preliminary hearing in an attempted first-degree murder case. The 46-year-old owner of Super 8 in Lawrence was accused of stabbing his wife twice in the abdomen at the motel, 515 McDonald Drive, on June 24, 2015. Patel is pictured in front of his interpreter.

On Thursday Navinkumar Patel, accused of stabbing his wife last summer at a Lawrence motel, pleaded no contest to felony charges of attempted second-degree murder and criminal threats.

Thursday was the court’s fourth attempt to hear Patel’s plea. His first plea hearing in late January was rescheduled because of a language barrier.

Patel, a native of India, speaks Gujarati and requires an interpreter to translate court proceedings.

Navinkumar Patel, of Shawnee, looks on in court Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2015, as he waived his right to a preliminary hearing in an attempted first-degree murder case. The 46-year-old owner of Super 8 in Lawrence was accused of stabbing his wife twice in the abdomen at the motel, 515 McDonald Drive, on June 24, 2015. Patel is pictured in front of his interpreter.

A third attempt on the plea from Patel in late February was also pushed back because his attorney, John Kerns, said he needed more time to work with his client and the interpreter had limited availability.

Douglas County District Court often requires the use of interpreters, said Court Administrator Linda Koester-Vogelsang. More often than not the court needs someone to translate court proceedings to and from Spanish, but it’s not unheard of for less common languages to pop up.

“We have had occasions where it has been extremely difficult to find somebody,” Koester-Vogelsang said.

Several years ago one person in court spoke only Mixtec, a native language of Mexico, Koester-Vogelsang said. To ensure the case went smoothly took a bit of creative thinking.

“To find a certified interpreter was incredibly difficult,” she said. “We finally found somebody in California.”

The final solution required two interpreters, one to translate from Mixtec to Spanish and another to translate from Spanish to English and vice versa, Koester-Vogelsang said. But these types of situations are less common.

The court’s need for interpreters can be somewhat sporadic, Koester-Vogelsang said. And the need might arise for any type of legal situation.

“I can’t say really how many times a week,” she said. “Sometimes it’s multiple times a day, and other times it’s every other day or once a week.”

When the need for an interpreter arises the court reaches out to several resources in the area to find a suitable candidate, Koester-Vogelsang said. Kansas University is often a good place to start, but other local companies or agencies can help fill the position.

Local court rules generally pay $35 an hour for an interpreter, Koester-Vogelsang said. Those rates can vary or carry an hourly minimum, especially if the interpreter is coming from out of town.

The court’s need for interpreters isn’t limited to spoken languages; another common need comes from those who are deaf or hard of hearing and need to communicate in sign language, said Robert Cooper, executive director for the Kansas Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

“You’d be surprised how often it happens. I’d say about five times a week we get a call,” Cooper said. “We are the central finding place; we help make references … We check the interpreter’s certification, put them on our list and that list is given to the courthouse and they pick or choose the interpreter.”

While some longtime American Sign Language, or ASL, interpreters are locally certified and grandfathered into their position, all newcomers must be nationally certified, Cooper said. The certification process takes nearly a decade.

Generally speaking, an ASL interpreter needs two years of experience before he or she is accepted into a four-year bachelor degree program, Cooper said. After they earn their degrees, they must complete three years worth of interpreter training and a final examination before they earn their certification.

“The job of an interpreter is not an easy job,” Cooper said. “It requires a lot of detail, mental exhaustion, translating from one language to another. It’s really challenging, and you really have to be bilingual.”

Currently there are around 240 certified ASL interpreters in the state of Kansas, Cooper said. On average they can earn $50 an hour, but those rates can vary as well.

Alongside District Court, the Lawrence Police Department has a need for interpreters several times a month as well, said Sgt. Trent McKinley.

For the most part the department uses a telephone language line that charges an average of $1 a minute, McKinley said. These phone calls are generally used for in-the-field situations like car stops or interviews.

“We use them frequently for English to Spanish translations, but have also used them in cases of individuals who spoke languages such as Korean and Arabic,” McKinley wrote in an email.

The department also offers a cash incentive for prospective employees who are fluent in Spanish, McKinley said.

Currently the department employs about 10 officers who are fluent in Spanish, McKinley said. These officers are often called by others to help in interviews or investigations.

For longer court proceedings administrators will try and find an interpreter who can come to each appearance to create a sense of consistency for everyone involved, Koester-Vogelsang said.

For Patel’s two most recent court appearances he was joined by Interpreter Rasila Thakur, although it was not immediately clear whether she would be present for subsequent appearances.

Patel is scheduled to appear in court on May 6 at 2:30 p.m. when the results of his pre-sentence investigation and court-ordered mental health evaluation will be considered.