The Association of Independent Judicial Interpreters of California (AIJIC) — a nonprofit professional organization that represents independent contractor court interpreters in the state — is suing One Call — a workers’ compensation coordination company — in the Los Angeles Superior Court for allegedly stealing interpreter names and credentials. 

The lawsuit states that One Call “employs individuals that are impersonating certified court interpreters in California worker’s compensation cases, resulting in harm to workers alleging industrial injuries who cannot proficiently speak or understand English, employers entitled to information on worker claims, insurance companies that must assess worker claims, courts that must hear worker claims, attorneys who are entitled to information on worker claims, and certified court interpreters.”

According to the lawsuit, in 2021 and 2022, unknown One Call employees impersonated California certified interpreters nine times in depositions that took place over Zoom video conferencing. In December 2022, AIJIC informed One Call about the incidents. Allegedly, One Call stated that it would no longer do business with these individuals, but refused to identify any of them by name. Then, starting in July 2023, the impersonations continued.

“In some instances, these individuals provided fake Judicial Council of California badges bearing the names of the certified court interpreters they were impersonating,” the lawsuit states. “At all times, defendants failed to prevent the impersonation of California certified interpreters.”

The AIJIC Board wrote in an email to colleagues, “Bringing legal action against One Call was not a decision that we made lightly. However, after a year of useless communications between our attorneys and One Call, this fraud continues with no apparent consequences. We felt that the huge financial risk that we’re taking to protect our profession is worth it, and we’re hopeful that we’ll prevail in court.”

The lawsuit cites California’s Unfair Competition Law, which protects against fraudulent business practices and false advertising. According to the lawsuit, “AIJIC’s losses include diverted directors’ and officers’ time and costs associated with AIJIC’s representation in communicating with One Call about the results of its investigation.”