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Superior Court of Pennsylvania· 5/5/1994

Commonwealth v. Wallace

Citations

  • 641 A.2d 321
  • 433 Pa. Super. 518
  • 1994 Pa. Super. LEXIS 1318

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

  • holding that where necessity of an interpreter was not readily apparent and party never requested an interpreter, trial court did not abuse its discretion in failing to sua sponte appoint an interpreter
  • finding no abuse of discretion when the record revealed that trial court was not aware the litigant’s hearing impairment affected his ability to comprehend the proceedings
  • finding no abuse of discretion when the record revealed that trial court was not aware the litigant’s hearing impairment affected his ability to comprehend the proceedings
  • the determination of whether an interpreter is warranted in a particular case is within the sound discretion of the [trial] court
  • “The [C]onfrontation [C]lause requires that a defendant be given the opportunity to be physically present at trial, that the defendant be competent to assist in his own defense, and that the defendant understand the language of the forum.” (citation and quotation omitted)
  • “A defendant’s ability to use an interpreter encompasses numerous fundamental rights. The failure to understand the proceedings may deny him his right to confront witnesses against him, his right to consult with an attorney, or his right to be present at his own trial.”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).

Judges: Wieand, Olszewski, Hoffman

Read full opinion on CourtListener

Cited by

13 cases in this archive cite this case.

Cites

53 cases in this archive are cited by this case; the 20 most cited are listed.

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Sourced from CourtListener / Free Law Project (CC0).

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