Autorizado/a and “authorized” should perhaps be classified as partial cognates, since in many legal contexts autorizado/a may certainly be translated as “authorized.” Examples include expressions such as distribuidor autorizado (“authorized distributor”); firma autorizada (“authorized signature”); personal autorizado (“authorized personnel), capital social autorizado (“authorized share capital”) or uso no autorizado de la marca (“unauthorized trademark use”). But, for example, when referring to notarial instruments autorizado generally means “certified.” In that regard, a documento autorizado por notario is a “document certified by a notary,” a “notarially-certified instrument” or perhaps simply a “notarial (or) notarized document (or) instrument.”

And autorizado/a may also mean “authoritative,” as in la más autorizada opinion (“the most authoritative opinion”) or la versión más autorizada (“the most authoritative version”). Thus, the expression autorizada doctrina may be appropriately translated as “authoritative academic opinion” or “authoritative legal scholarship” when doctrina refers to the writings of law professors and legal scholars. And in an additional context, la autorizada doctrina del Tribunal Constitucional denotes the “authoritative caselaw of the Constitutional Court,” doctrina in this sense referring to the court’s doctrina jurisprudencial, its “established (or) settled caselaw”.

There are several legal contexts in which beneficio cannot be translated as “benefit,” and vice versa. When used with the meaning of “ganancias,” beneficio is often rendered as “profit,” as in margin de beneficio (“profit margin”); beneficio bruto (“gross profit”); beneficio neto (“net profit”); beneficio contable (“accounting profit”) or beneficio de explotación (“operating profit”). Similarly, beneficio may also refer to “earnings,” as in the expressions beneficio por acción or BPA (“earnings per share” or “EPS”); beneficio antes de impuestos or BAI (“earnings before taxes” or “EBT”); beneficio antes de intereses e impuestos or BAII (“earnings before interest and taxes” or “EBIT”) and beneficio antes de intereses, impuestos, depreciación y amortización or BAIIDA (“earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization” or “EBITDA”).*

Another example in which beneficio cannot be translated simply as “benefit” is in the expression beneficios penitenciarios. As defined in Art. 202 of the Spanish Reglamento Penitenciario, beneficios penitenciarios generically refer to all measures that carry a reduction of an inmate’s sentence or the time effectively served in prison (medidas que permiten la reducción de la duración de la condena… o el tiempo efectivo de internamiento). Examples include good behavior (buena conducta), and other aspects such as holding a job (desempeño de una actividad laboral normal) and participating in reeducation and rehabilitation programs (actividades de reeducación y reinserción social). Although often translated literally as “prison benefits,” in many US states and in the federal prison system (Federal Bureau of Prisons) beneficios penitenciarios awarded for good behavior are known as “good time,” or “good time credit,” while prison work and participation in inmate educational programs often are referred to as “earned time.” Thus, depending on the context and for US audiences, concesión de beneficios penitenciarios may be rendered as “award of good time/earned time,” computo de beneficios penitenciarios denotes “calculation of good time/earned time,” and reducción de beneficios penitenciarios is “loss of good time/earned time.”

Similarly, there are a series of expressions in which beneficio denotes a “right” or “privilege,” rather than a benefit. In that regard, in Spanish procedural law contexts beneficio de justicia gratuita or beneficio de asistencia jurídica gratuita (formerly known as beneficio de pobreza) refers to a party’s right to free legal counsel or legal aid (likewise known as derecho a la asistencia jurídica gratuita). In Spanish inheritance law the expression beneficio de inventario refers to an heir’s right to demand an inventory of the decedent’s estate to determine the extent of its debts before accepting the inheritance. And with regard to a cosigner’s liability for a debt, beneficio de excusión, division y orden denote the cosigner’s right to compel the creditor to sue the borrower first (excusión), to be liable only for their proportional share of the debt (división) if there are multiple cosigners, and to have all other remedies first exhausted against the borrower before resorting to the cosigner (orden).

In other respects, in English and in the context of social security law, “benefit” cannot always be translated as beneficio, but rather is often more appropriately rendered as prestación. This is true in expressions such as “social security benefits” (prestaciones de la seguridad social); “unemployment benefits” (prestaciones por desempleo); retirement benefits (prestaciones por jubilación); “contributory benefits” (prestaciones contributivas) or “noncontributory benefits” (prestaciones no contributivas).

Likewise, in the context of labor law the expression “fringe benefits” refers generally to prestaciones extrasalariales, including various types of nonwage compensation provided by the employer such as a profit sharing scheme (plan de participación en los beneficios), stock options (opciones sobre acciones), medical and healthcare insurance (seguro médico), employee housing (vivienda de la empresa), a company car (coche de la empresa) or company daycare (guardería de la empresa).

*For more on amortización and amortization see here

These terms are clearly “false friends.” In English “legitimation” is a family law term, generally referring to the legitimation of an illegitimate child through the marriage of their parents or, in jurisdictions where it is required, acknowledgment by the child’s father. In Spanish family law, voluntary legitimation of a nonmarital child is expressed as reconocimiento de paternidad (“acknowledgment of paternity”), but may also be the result of an acción de filiación (“paternity suit”) in which a sentencia firme de paternidad (“paternity judgment;” “judgment of paternity”) has been rendered.

In contrast, in Spanish legitimación is a totally unrelated civil procedure term that is often mistranslated literally as “legitimation.” In this context legitimación actually refers to what in Anglo-American law is termed “standing” (or locus standi), i.e., the right to bring an action or to challenge a decision in court. Thus legitimación procesal is “standing to sue or be sued,” while legitimación activa specifically describes the “plaintiff’s standing” or “standing to sue,” while legitimación pasiva is the “defendant’s standing” or “standing to be sued.” In this context, excepción de falta de legitimación is a “motion to dismiss for lack (or) want of standing”. And, in an additional example from Spanish inheritance law, legitimación para pedir la partición denotes “standing to demand the division of an inherited estate” among the coheirs.

In other contexts legitimación may likewise denote “authentication.” Thus an expression such as legitimación de la firma refers to “authentication of a signature” or “signature authentication.” And legitimación de capitales is sometimes used as a synonym for blanqueo de capitales (“money laundering”).

Thus, in the examples shown above legitimación cannot be appropriately rendered as legitimation. But can legitimación perhaps be translated as “legitimacy”? I’ve found at least one instance in which this may be possible: when referring to land registration legitimación registral may perhaps be rendered as “legitimacy of registration,” being the presumption that entries on the Registro de la Propiedad are accurate and that rights recorded on the register actually belong to the registered titleholder.

Although these terms might appear to be related, minutas should not be confused with “minutes.” When “minutes” refers to a document in which proceedings are formally recorded, it is appropriately rendered as acta. In this sense the term is used in expressions such as “minutes of the meeting” (acta de la reunion); “minutes of the annual shareholders’ meeting” (acta de la junta general); “minute(s) book” (libro de actas) or “to take the minutes of the meeting” (levantar acta de la reunión).

In contrast, in Spanish minuta has several legal meanings that are totally unrelated to “minutes.” For example, minuta often refers to a “proposal” or “draft” document, being a synonym of borrador. In the expression minuta del acta de la sesión pendiente de aprobación the term minuta has the meaning of “draft” or “proposal” and denotes the “draft minutes of the meeting pending approval.” Similarly, the attorney for a client who wishes to have a contract or other document recorded in a notarial instrument (escritura) often prepares a minuta para el notario stating all of the basic facts that the notary should include in the document. The notary then uses that minuta (“draft” or “proposal”) to prepare the escritura to be signed by the parties to the transaction. Thus, an expression such as queda redactada la presente escritura conforme a minuta indicates that the notarial instrument was “drawn up in accordance with the draft document” submitted by the notary’s client.

Likewise, in Spain certain court orders are often drafted by the court clerk (formerly, secretario judicial and now known as letrado de la administración de justicia—LAJ) to be approved and signed by the judge. These “draft court orders” or propuestas de resolución are also known as minutas.

And in other respects, minuta may also be a synonym of factura, denoting an itemized “invoice” or “bill.” Thus, for example, a minuta del abogado (a lawyer’s itemized bill for services rendered) may include honorarios (“attorney’s fees” or “legal fees”), suplidos (“disbursements”), aranceles (“fees”) and impuestos (“taxes”). In this context minutación is “billing”, which can include minutación por horas (“billing by the hour”) or minutación por gestión o asunto (often termed in English“flat fee billing”). In this context minuta has sometimes been mistranslated as “legal fees” or “attorney’s fees.” But as underscored above, minuta actually refers to the lawyer’s invoice or bill, which will certainly include, among other charges, his “legal fees” or “attorney’s fees” (called honorarios in Spain).

In legal usage “impertinent” and impertinente can usually be considered false friends. In nonlegal Spanish, impertinente has two possible meanings (taken from the DLE): 1) “que no viene al caso” (in English, “irrelevant”) and 2) “que molesta de palabra o de obra” (in English, “impertinent”).

In Legal Spanish impertinente generally has the first meaning: que no viene al caso; que es irrelevante (and, therefore, the matter in question is improcedente; no procede en Derecho). In the Spanish Law of Evidence there are two clear examples: prueba impertinente and pregunta impertinente. Prueba impertinente is defined as “prueba que no guarda relación con el objeto del proceso” (in Legal English, “irrelevant evidence”). This prohibition of irrelevant evidence is set forth in article 283.1 of the Ley de Enjuiciamiento Civil that provides that “no deberá admitirse ninguna prueba que, por no guardar relación con lo que sea objeto del proceso, haya de considerarse impertinente.”

In that regard, evidence can be classified as prueba pertinente or prueba impertinente (“relevant or irrelevant evidence”), prueba útil or prueba inútil (“material or immaterial evidence,” in the sense of being appropriate or inappropriate for demonstrating the fact that it is intended to prove), and prueba directa or prueba presencial (“direct evidence” or “eyewitness evidence”) as opposed to prueba indirecta or prueba indiciaria (“indirect evidence” or “circumstancial evidence”).

The same applies to preguntas impertinentes (in Legal English, “irrelevant questions”) that may not be used when examining witnesses at trial. The DPEJ defines pregunta impertinente as “cuestión que no deba ser respondida en juicio por el interrogado, al no corresponder con los hechos litigiosos o no guardar relación con el declarante.” And in addition to preguntas impertinentes (irrelevant questions), Spanish Law of Evidence likewise prohibits the use of preguntas sugestivas (“leading questions”) and preguntas capciosas (“misleading or trick questions”).

In Spain and in many legal contexts, decreto and “decree” may be considered false friends.

In English, judicial decisions issued by the former courts of equity were called “decrees,” as opposed to “judgments” that were rendered in courts of law. In modern usage “decree” often refers to the final decision in probate or family law proceedings: “divorce decree” (sentencia de divorcio); “decree of nullity (of marriage)” (sentencia de nulidad matrimonial).

In contrast, rather than referring to a judicial decision, as currently used in Spain decreto denotes three types of legislative instruments or orders emanating from the executive branch. The most numerous are reales decretos, defined as normas administrativas para la ejecución de las leyes. Issued by the government, reales decretos are regulations that implement legislation passed by the Cortes Generales (Spanish parliament).

A second type of decree is the real decreto legislativo which is delegated legislation initiated by the government upon an express grant of authority from the Cortes Generales. And a third, the real decreto ley is legislation that the government may enact on an urgent basis, but which must subsequently be ratified by the Congreso de los Diputados (lower house of the Spanish parliament) within 30 days. These three decretos are termed reales because they receive the King’s royal assent (sanción real).

Although these three are often translated literally as “royal decree,” “royal legislative decree” and “royal decree law,” doing so without further explanation might prompt a miscue since, given the meaning of “decree” in English, “royal decree” might be interpreted as denoting a decision rendered by some sort of royal court or in the name of the monarch, rather than to a legislative instrument or an executive order emanating from the government. In that regard, a real decreto may perhaps be described as an “implementing regulation.” And real decreto legislativo and real decreto ley may both simply be referred to in English as “laws.” If a distinction must be made in translation between the latter two, a real decreto legislativo may perhaps be described as “delegated legislation” and a real decreto ley as “emergency legislation.”

In other respects, a 2003 reform of the Ley Orgánica del Poder Judicial empowered Spanish court clerks (formerly called secretarios judiciales and now known as letrados de la administration de justicia) to issue certain types of decisions called decretos. In this case decreto and “decree” may likewise be considered false friends and equating the two could also prompt miscues in translation, since (as noted above) in Anglo-American legal systems “decrees” are issued by judges rather than by clerks of court. In this context, decretos issued by court clerks might be described as “procedural orders” or “procedural decrees” to distinguish them from judicial decrees.

Despite appearances, asesorar and “assess” are false cognates. The verb asesorar does not mean “to assess,” but rather “to advise.” Thus an asesor is an “advisor” or “consultant,” and the term is frequently used in expressions such as asesor fiscal (“tax advisor” or “tax consultant”), asesor jurídico (“legal counsel”) or asesor jurídico de empresas (“corporate counsel”).

In contrast, the verb “to assess” often has the meaning of calcular, evaluar or tasar. Thus, in the context of insurance law and personal injury claims “assessment of damages” may refer to tasación (or) peritaje de daños. In the context of tax law, “tax assessment” often denotes liquidación de impuestos in the sense of calculating taxes due. In that regard, the expression “self-assessment,” widely used in the UK, corresponds to what in Spain is known as autoliquidación del impuesto, i.e., a taxpayer’s calculation of the taxes he owes using a “self-assessment tax return form” (modelo de declaración) for the tax in question. “Assessor” in this context has the meaning of tasador, and a “tax assessor” assesses or calculates (tasa) values (of property, assets, income, etc.) for tax purposes, performing duties similar to those of a Spanish inspector actuario (a “tax auditor-actuary” or “tax inspector-actuary”).

Regarding the noun “assessment,” in the terminology of civil procedure in England and Wales the expression “assessment of costs” denotes what in Spanish courts is called tasación de costas, describing the process of determining the amount of costs to be awarded the prevailing party in litigation (known as “taxation of costs” in the US). And in other respects, asesoramiento generally refers to “advising (or) consulting services,” as in asesoramiento financiero (“financial consulting services”) or asesoramiento jurídico (“legal counsel” or “legal advice”).