New AZ law: Firms have no legal duty to have translators

azstarnet.com ^ | 5/17/10 | Howard Fischer Capitol Media Services

[Nachum]

PHOENIX - A Glendale optometrist's yearlong legal fight over what services he had to provide for a Spanish-speaking customer has translated into new protections for other businesses.

Gov. Jan Brewer has signed legislation affirming that nothing in state law requires businesses to provide "trained and competent" interpreters when a customer comes in speaking a language other than English.

Assistant Attorney General Michael Walker said that has probably always been the law. But that didn't save John Schrolucke from having to spend time and money defending himself and his practice before Walker's office finally dismissed the case.

[Nachum]

Hijole!

[WOBBLY BOB]

the moonbats will be apoplectic

[rawhide]

The woman was looking for an easy ride to riches with this asinine lawsuit. I hope she gets hit with a reverse lawsuit and is forced to pay the legal bills of the winning party!!!

[FrankR]

[benewton]

I’m starting to get itchy feet...

[AAABEST]

Schrolucke told lawmakers the incident stems from a patient who spoke only Spanish. Although she did bring her 12-year-old child with her to the office, he said allowing the child to interpret for the parent would have gotten him into legal trouble.

He said he faced a potential malpractice lawsuit if the child did not properly translate some of the more technical explanations being provided, so he turned the woman away, telling her through her child to come back with someone at least 18 years old.

Schrolucke said he also gave the woman the option of going to one or two other optometrists who speak Spanish.

Instead, he said, the woman filed a discrimination complaint with the Attorney General's Office.

So the wench shows up in a foreign country and starts bringing lawsuits against doctors because she can't speak the language?

In a just world she'd out of the U.S. on her ass.

[TSgt]

When did common sense become so uncommon?

I’m going to have to look at buying property in Arizona. The last bastion of common sense.

Caveat: Only if McCain gets the boot in August

[MrB]

You know, some of them actually think they are on the side of the angels by requiring businesses and state offices to have spanish speakers to deal with people who don’t speak English.

The reality is that NOT requiring, or incentivizing immigrants to learn English is holding them back.

Now, I said SOME think they’re in the right,
then there are the truly evil libs, not just the STUPID libs,
that WANT these people to not ever succeed in our society,
so that they’ll be forever dependent.

[CaptainK]

Sanity is returning to the nation in the forms of Arizona and New Jersey.

[presently no screen name]

I’m starting to pack! ;)

[freekitty]

I love AZ

[Myrddin]

Excellent! It is wrong to force a business to have translators on the payroll. We speak English in the U.S. as the primary language. Folks who speak another language need to bring a competent translator if they aren't up to the task. When I visit another country, I make every effort to learn the basics of the language before I travel. I stress that I'm VISITING with a proper tourist visa. I'm not invading the country as an illegal alien and demanding special treatment from the native business community.

[presently no screen name]

Maybe the next thing for AZ - no more pressing ‘1’.

[Jack Hydrazine]

Holy Frijole! You better get me a bowl of guacamole!

[GeronL]

That’s three times now. Go Bewer!

[GeronL]

That’s three times now. Go Brewer!

ugh

[Jack Hydrazine]

What has New Jersey, the armpit of America, done lately that indicates it is returning to sanity?

[RobRoy]

Theodore Roosevelt on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN

“In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man’s becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile...We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.”

- Teddy Roosevelt in 1919

[ExTxMarine]

“It is wrong to force a business to have translators on the payroll.”

Look, the last time I checked, there are plenty of Spanish speaking dentists in Arizona, so why should THIS dentist be REQUIRED to treat this patient? We each have a RIGHT to associate and deal and work with whomever we want! That is why most companies have a sticker on their door or a poster that says they have the right to refuse any customer - given time, I am sure the ACLU will file a suit about this!

[machogirl]

Thanks for posting this. I hadn’t heard about this. Those who won’t learn English or bring THEIR OWN DAMN TRANSLATOR, have NO RIGHT to force private enterprise to provide them one. The lawyer that brought the case OUGHT TO BE FORCED TO PAY the Doctor’s bills. Can this PANDERING TO THOSE WHO SPEAK SPANISH only, get any more OUTRAGEOUS?