U.S. Department of Justice building in Washington. U.S. Department of Justice building in Washington, D.C. June 6, 2020. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

The Florida court system agreed to pay the former employee $160,000 in damages and implement a host of anti-retaliation policies and trainings. An investigation by the Justice Department's civil rights division found that the interpreter, Claudia Villalba, was improperly fired after court administrators learned that she referred the woman to an outside advocate who had filed a federal complaint against the Florida state courts.

Villalba was a supervising court interpreter in the Seventh Judicial Circuit Court of Florida, which serves four counties in northeast Florida including Daytona Beach, until she was fired in 2015. She was known to challenge court policies and advocate for greater access to proceedings for those who spoke limited English, according to the DOJ's complaint, which was filed in February.