Richard Schneider, in the Nachrichtenportal, reported (in German) on January 24th about slow court proceedings in Südtirol /Trentino-Alto Adige.

Dr. Karl Zeller, an Italian MP, complained at the beginning of the legal year:

bq. „Das Gericht in Bozen ist eine der wenigen Institutionen in Südtirol, die nicht funktionieren.“ Um die Verfahren zu beschleunigen, sei einerseits mehr Justizpersonal erforderlich, aber andererseits müsse auch Schluss mit dem „Luxus“ sein, jedes einzelne Aktenstück zu übersetzen. Das solle nur noch für Urteile und richterliche Anordnungen gelten. Wer eine Übersetzung anderer Schriftstücke wünsche, müsse diese selbst anfordern – auf eigene Kosten.

bq. (The court in Bolzano does not work well. To accelerate proceedings, more personnel are needed, and we must also put an end to the luxury of translating every single document on the file. Only judgments and judicial orders should be translated. Anyone who wants another document translated should have to request this and pay for it).

Italian and German have equal rights in the area (see website of chamber of lawyers (in German or Italian)).

bq. Der Bürger, welcher einer Straftat beschuldigt wird, ist berechtigt, sich bei der Einvernehmung seiner Sprache zu bedienen. Wer als Zeuge in einem Gerichtsverfahren vorgeladen wird, kann seine Aussagen in der Muttersprache tätigen, auch wenn diese nicht der Verfahrenssprache entspricht. Auch im Zivilverfahren besteht die Möglichkeit der freien Sprachwahl.

(See earlier entry on the proceedings about Ötzi / the Iceman)

Those charged with a criminal offence may use their own language when examined ( bei der Einvernehmung – an Austrian term). Witnesses may speak their own language even if that is not the language of the proceedings. There is a right to free choice of language in civil proceedings too.

All I know about court dress in Germany is that I’ve seen a lawyer who had not yet put his gown on in the Landgericht (higher court of first instance) treated as if he were not there, which reminded me of the English custom where the judge says in reply to the improperly dressed lawyer, ‘I can’t hear you, Mr X’. There aren’t any robing rooms in German courts as far as I know.

Udo’s law blog today comments on the Mannesmann trial that the lawyers should traditionally be wearing white ties, but they aren’t. Here’s an English summary:

bq. Traditionally, a white tie is worn by defence counsel in the courtroom. (Photo of Sven Thomas, Klaus Esser’s lawyer, wearing a yellow tie). A journalist who was in the courtroom confirmed to me that the other lawyers almost without exception are wearing coloured ties. I usually wear a white tie on the first day of the trial if I don’t know how tolerant the court is. Afterwards I wear a coloured tie if I have the feeling that there are any objections – because if there are, it would not be in my client’s interest.

In the comments, there is one by Udo Steger, who reports on his experience as a trainee:

bq. Basic rule: the older the judge(s), the more formal the dress. The higher the court, the more formal the dress.
Amtsgericht (local court): usually doesn’t matter unless it is a pullover and jeans; older judges prefer to see a gown. No trainers.
Landgericht (regional court): dark suit, white/blue shirt, discreet tie, almost all judges insist on the gown. Shoes with leather soles.
Oberlandesgericht (higher regional court and above): Black suit, white shirt, white tie, black shoes with leather sole
Arbeitsgericht (labour court, like industrial tribunal): Slightly, but only slightly, better dressed than the union secretary.

Udo Vetter adds a few details:

bq. The white tie is/was only in criminal matters, Landgericht and above, and at higher courts (Oberlandesgericht, Bundesgerichtshof/Federal Court of Justice).
In civil matters, to say nothing of the Arbeitsgericht, no-one takes any notice.
Gown is mandatory everywhere except at the Amtsgericht.
White tie is OK, but outside court you feel as if you were in fancy dress.

In England, barristers carry their stuff around in a cloth bag with a tin for the wig. You might see them walking from the Law Courts in London to their chambers in court dress, but they will normally remove the party gear before leaving court.

I expect Adrian will tell me how far barristers are obliged to wear black suits, or often black jackets with pinstriped trousers (if male).

Earlier entries about court dress in Germany and England.

Languagehat reports the following correction from the International Herald Tribune, printed in this week’s New Yorker:

bq. Because of a translation error, an article in some editions Thursday misquoted Monica Frassoni, a member of the European Parliament, as comparing Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, to Attila the Hun. Frassoni, who represents a Belgian constituency but who spoke in Italian, said Berlusconi had arrived “alla guida dell’unione.” This was translated as “at the tiller of the union” which was misheard as “Attila.”

It looks as if the original IHT article is an old one, reporting the European Parliament session in July 2003 when Berlusconi implied that a German MEP was a Nazi. So the Thursday in question was Thursday, July 3rd. Presumably it is only the New Yorker report that is recent.

Bikes outside the station.

A new German phone box.

Metal and glass banks.

A Litfaßsäule (advertisement pillar).

I think it’s standard practice for professional associations not to recommend prices, as this is in restraint of trade. I recall the American Translators Association were investigated many years ago by the FTC and have been very cautious since then.

At all events, a newspaper article has been syndicated to various papers all over Germany in which the BDÜ is wrongly stated to have recommended a price per line to charge. I wasn’t going to blog it, but it refuses to die. Here’s one of the articles.

There has also been an article in the fortnightly German computer magazine c’t, about how expensive German versions of software are, because of the costs of localization. That appeared in the 12th January issue and is not online. c’t is an excellent, serious magazine. It has a few past articles translated into English, but I’ve never looked at them. This article referred to a figure of 1 euro per line ‘as quoted by the BDÜ’. I can’t find anyone who knows where the c’t writer got this from.

The former article has been refuted, the latter I’m not sure. Robin Stocks had an entry in Carob (scroll down to 17th January, ‘Odd price data from BDÜ’ – with links). And Richard Schneider’s Nachrichtenportal has even more, on January 14th (in German).

One of the statements credited to Norbert Koschyk of the BDÜ is that almost one in every nine translators is a freelance – of course, it’s about the other way round. He is also wrongly said to have said that an average of 1 euro is earned per line of 55 characters (including spaces!) He did not say this, and he did tell the journalist he spoke to that the BDÜ is not allowed to state prices. Perhaps the figure of 1 euro ‘quoted’ in the c’t article is taken from here.