Opinion No.

Ms. Nancy F. Braswell Smith County Auditor Smith County Courthouse Tyler, Texas 75702

Re: Whether defendants in criminal cases may be required to reimburse a county for the cost of employing interpreters, and related questions (RQ-236)

Dear Ms. Braswell:

You ask six questions about the payment of interpreters in criminal cases. You explain that, where a defendant was unable to communicate in English, a county court-at-law judge has assessed interpreters' fees as costs in some criminal cases and, in others, has imposed the repayment of such fees as a condition of probation. The imposition of…