Translation for Forensic Accounting

“Forensic” means “suitable for use in a court of law.” Forensic accounting is the subfield of accounting that analyzes the financial and operating data of involved parties to assist law firms, insurance companies, etc. in building cases and/or evaluating claims. Analysis may be used to determine, for example, whether all those costs listed in an insurance claim are valid or whether sales really fell due to the alleged price fixing. Often the documents involved are obtained by court order and were never meant to be seen by outsiders.

So translating for this field can present some unique challenges.

After the huge earthquake and tsunami hit northeast Japan in March, 2011, large insurance claims arrived at international insurance companies. The supporting documents were of every kind—-some handwritten, some poorly copied, and some for industrial claims consisted of the same company form filled in for hundreds of jobs by dozens of vendor, relating to cleanup and repairs.

The insurance companies gathered the supporting docs and enlisted the forensic accountants to analyze them. The accountants called on us for translation. At JTT we provide these firms with cost-effective solutions. We find ways to avoid “blanket translation” of volumes of documents. Our know-how, born of experience, enables us to work with forensic accountants to streamline the translation work, giving them the information they need while avoiding unnecessary work.