Category: Business Spanish Courses Online – Legal Spanish Tips

Adjective. Able to respond to an economic debt or take charge of an obligation. E.g.: Escrivá defiende que la Seguridad Social es “solvente” y reconoce la falta de personal: Escrivá stresses that the public pension system is “solid and solvent”.
The noun is la solvencia. E.g.: Motivos que dificultan la concesión de una hipoteca ajenos a la solvencia: Reasons that make it difficult to grant a mortgage other than solvency. The verb is solventar. E.g.: Para poder solventar los gastos de la vivienda, subalquilaba dos habitaciones: To be able to afford the apartment she sublet two rooms.
In another note, solvente, as a noun, means solvent; the liquid in which a solid is dissolved to form a solution. I used to deal with it a lot when I was a child and ‘helped’ my father with his job as a carpenter to remove paint from wood. dc

Feminine noun. This term has two interrelated meanings: 1. Force or violence done to someone to force him/her to say or do something; 2. legitimate power of the Law to enforce compliance or prevail over its infringement. E.g.1: La acusación debe demostrar sus argumentos sin recurrir a pruebas obtenidas por coacción o por fuerza: The prosecution must prove its case without resort to evidence obtained through coercion or oppression. E.g.2: De hecho, el Estado central tiene menos poder de coacción en las regiones porque éstas se autofinancian y no siempre tienen…: Indeed, the central State has less coercive power in the regions because they are self-financed and do not always have the…
The adjective is coactivo/a, and the adverb coactivamente.
When I moved to Rome from Argentina in 2001, one of the first words from romanesco I learned was coatto. Thanks to my knowledge of Legal Spanish, I immediately guessed its meaning: a bully. Study legal Spanish with me and you will not just learn, you will also open your mind. dc

Feminine noun. Beginning of the effectiveness of a legal norm.
The verb is entrar en vigor. E.g.: Como regla general, si en ella no se dispone otra cosa, entra en vigor a los veinte días de su publicación en el Boletín Oficial del Estado (CC, art. 2.1): As a general rule, if it does not provide otherwise, it enters into force twenty days after its publication in the Official State Gazette (CC, art. 2.1). dc

Femenine noun. You may have heard this term several times and you may have translated it as ‘university college’. E.g.: Faculatad de Derecho: College of Law.
In Legal Spanish, facultad has two more meanings: 1. power or right to do something. E.g.: El derecho subjetivo es la facultad propia de un sujeto para realizar o no una cierta conducta: The subjective right is the power of a person to carry out or not a certain conduct. 2. Physical or moral aptitude to do something. In the first case, facultad can be a synonym of potestad; in the second case, a synonym of capacidad.
The verb is facultar: to empower, and the adjective facultativo/a: optional.
On another note: un/a facultativo/a, noun, is a doctor: Sanidad no encuentra un sustituto que supla al facultativo durante sus vacaciones por el plan de contingencia por la pandemia: The Health Department cannot find a substitute to replace the doctor during his holidays due to the contingency plan for the pandemic I cannot imagine the link. dc

Adjective, mainly used as a noun. Expert or knowledgeable in something. As a noun, in Legal Spanish we use this term to make reference to the expert who gives evidence in a hearing (audiencia pericial) or by a document (informe pericial). E.g.: Homicidio de Tino John: Un perito afirma que no hubo enfrentamiento: Homicide of Tino John: An expert witness affirms that there was no confrontation.
The adjective is pericial and the verb is peritar: to judge expertly.
My country has a famous glacier in the South called Perito Moreno. When I was a child, I assumed that Perito was the Christian name of a chap called Moreno, or a version of Pedrito (Pete), after all everybody called my father Pierino (Pete in Italian); but no, Mr. Moreno was an Argentine explorer who in 1902 was appointed perito, in which capacity he disproved Chilean claims to the continental divide in the Southern Cone and he was awarded with a glacier named after him. His name was Francisco Pancracio Moreno. I guess you understand why we prefer to call him just Perito. dc