Marboulette,
There are two main translators associations in Taiwan. The first one below is basically academically oriented and is probably irrelevant to your concerns in this case. The second one below is an industry self-regulatory association of translation agencies concerned (at least so it says) with exactly the kind of problems you are dealing with. It basically exists to publicize, and encourage, responsible translation and attestation practices among its member agencies. Although I’m a long-time translator myself, I can’t tell you much more about this association because I’ve never been a member. It does not accept individual translators as members – only translation agencies.
1)Taiwan Association of Translation and Interpretation
tati.org.tw
2) Translation and Attestation Association of Taipei taat.org.tw/english-profile.htm
Taiwan does not currently have any official translator licensing/accreditation system. The government is in the process of putting a system in place, but it is still in the early stages. As the first step in this, a national translation competence exam was launched last year by the Ministry of Education. Candidates who pass the test succcessfully get a certificate of competence. You can be fairly sure that anyone who has this certificate is a reasonably competent translator. However, because the examinations are new, and are purely voluntary, the majority of qualified translators in Taiwan do not have this certificate, and it is purely up to individual translators as to whether they wish to take the test or not. As I understand it, the government is leaning toward gradually developing this examination system into a translator licensing system at some point in the future – at least for translation in certain specialized areas such as court translation.
For the time being, it is up to consumers to rely on their own research to find competent translators. As has been mentioned above, one tends to get what one pays for in Taiwan’s translation market.
Nevertheless, even under the current system, non-qualified translators passing off gibberish translations to paying customers would still likely be in violation of fair trade and consumer protection law and general duty of care under civil law and so forth.
Also, I think it is likely that the person who signed the “certificate” you received could be suspected of forgery of documents and/or fraud. There may be some ambiguity as to what is meant by the word “translator” in the signauture line – does it mean simply “a translator” or does it mean “translator of the document being certified”? I think in context, with the colon, it should be understood by most readers to mean translator of the specific document being certified. This would seem, to my layman’s mind, to make it all the more of a fradulent/forged document. And even if read the other way, it still seems fraudulent if the person is not actually a competent translator. Also, since there is no official licensing/accreditation system for translators in Taiwan, who knows what the number on the certificate means! I suspect it may just be the company’s tax number, or ther person’s own ID number.
I think a key question that arises to my mind is: have you been using a lawyer in your dealings with the prosecutor? It is always wise to use a local lawyer in any dealings with courts or prosecutors. You are much more likely to be successful. This is not just true in Taiwan but in every country in the world. Prosecutors and judges don’t enjoy dealing with the self-representing public. Go through a lawyer and you’re much more likely to get your way, or at least to get the benefit of the doubt/procedure in gray areas.