Briefings

The Interpreter Brief is a short monthly note on the points where Arabic interpreting and UK legal practice meet — written for practitioners rather than for other interpreters.

Editions

• “Arabic” on a booking form is not enough: three checks before you book (25 October 2026) — what to ask before booking, why one Arabic is not another, and when a specialist should say no.
• Legal Language Assessment: when your client’s Arabic origin is disputed (12 October 2026) — what a written analysis of a client’s Arabic can and cannot tell you, and how to scope one.
• Remote conferences with an Arabic-speaking client: a set-up checklist (12 October 2026) — Teams, CVP and Prison Video Link: what to sort out before, during and after the call.
• Detained clients and the interview record (5 October 2026) — how detention affects an account, and six things to check in the record before relying on it.
• Three Arabic words to check in any Gulf extradition or Red Notice file (5 October 2026) — تعميم, بلاغ and حكم غيابي, and why loose English renderings matter.
• What “no comment” means for an Arabic-speaking client in a PACE interview (5 October 2026) — the caution, لا تعليق, and what to agree in the consultation.
• A solicitor’s checklist for instructing an Arabic interpreter (5 October 2026) — when to book, what to send, and how to avoid a dialect mismatch.
• Does the English interview record match what your client said in Arabic? (updated 8 October 2026) — what an independent record review checks, when it changes a case, and the dialect points it catches in Gulf and asylum matters.
• When a “contradictory” date isn’t a contradiction (updated 8 October 2026) — why Hijri-to-Gregorian date conversion produces credibility findings that are not inconsistencies at all.