Abstract
In response to the increasing use of video links in UK courts, this research study examines the
challenges court interpreters face when working in court-prison video links at a busy court complex in
London, the interpreters' perspectives on these challenges, and the coping strategies they use to
overcome them. This is a multi-method study that combined qualitative methods, which consisted of
observing and interviewing interpreters and quantitative methods, namely the TEIQue self-report
inventory used to assess interpreters’ levels of emotional intelligence. Drawing on the psychological
concept of Emotional Intelligence (EI), we investigate the influence of court interpreters' EI levels on
their views regarding video-mediated interpreting (VMI) and their unique coping strategies in VMI.
Our research reaffirms some of the difficulties with VMI that have been established in previous
research, and it shows that interpreters in our study adapt their strategies in response to these
problematic aspects and that under pressure, they sometimes reluctantly compromise to satisfy
competing needs of the remote defendant and the court. A further finding that is consistent with
previous research is that interpreters' perspectives on VMI varied. To gain a deeper understanding of
these variations, we examined potential relationships between the attitudes towards VMI held by the
interpreters in our study and their respective EI profiles. By conducting a cross-analysis of the
qualitative data (interviews and observations) and the quantitative data (EI scores), we were able to
identify links between interpreters' EI profiles and how they view and respond to VMI challenges.
These findings can inform the implementation of video courts in which interpreters are needed, as
well as help enhance existing VMI training as part of court interpreters’ professional development.
They can also be fed into best-practice guidelines for VMI so that VMI can be used more effectively
enabling a better experience for all parties involved.