Common Spanish legal terms show up in U.S. courtrooms, police stations, and immigration offices every day, and the wrong translation of a single word can cost you a case, a filing fee, or a year of eligibility. The glossary below walks through the terms you’re most likely to hear, grouped by the setting where they come up, with the U.S. legal meaning attached to each.
Criminal Law Terms
The person charged with a crime is the acusado, the defendant. The charge itself is a delito, the general word for an offense. Level matters. A delito grave is a felony, meaning under federal law any offense that carries a possible prison sentence of more than one year.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 3559 – Sentencing Classification of Offenses A delito menor is a misdemeanor, with a maximum sentence of one year or less. That split drives bail, plea options, and long-term consequences like firearm eligibility and background checks.
Fianza is bail, the money the court holds as a guarantee the acusado will appear at future hearings. Amounts range widely with the charge, criminal history, and flight risk. If the acusado can’t pay, they usually stay in custody until a judge revisits the amount or the case is resolved.
When a case ends in a conviction, the judge issues a sentencia. The word covers both the punishment (prison, probation, fines, community service) and the written judgment itself. Two more terms describe what can happen after trial. An absolución is an acquittal, a not-guilty finding. An apelación is an appeal, a request that a higher court review the decision for legal errors. An apelación is not a retrial.
Civil Lawsuit Terms
Civil cases begin with a demanda, the complaint. The person filing is the actor, the plaintiff. The person being sued is the demandado, the defendant. Once the demandado is served, they have a set number of days to respond, and missing that window can produce a default judgment against them.2United States Courts. Civil Cases
Many disputes turn on incumplimiento de contrato, breach of contract, meaning one side didn’t do what the agreement required. The actor asks the court for daños y perjuicios, damages, which is the money needed to make up for the loss. Daños y perjuicios can cover the amount owed, lost profits, and other harm flowing from the breach.
To recover, the actor has to prove responsabilidad civil, civil liability. That means showing the demandado’s conduct caused the harm and that the law provides a remedy. The demanda usually spells out the dollar amount claimed, the legal basis, and the specific relief requested.
Family Law Terms
A divorcio is the legal end of a marriage. What people actually fight about are the decisions that follow.
Custody and Support
Custodia is custody, sometimes called patria potestad, parental authority. It determines which parent makes decisions and where the child lives. Courts decide based on the best interests of the child, weighing each parent’s relationship with the child, home stability, and the child’s own preferences when the child is old enough to express them.3Cornell Law Institute. Best Interests of the Child Custodia can be joint or sole.
Manutención de los hijos is child support, ongoing payments to cover the child’s expenses. Every state uses a formula built on both parents’ incomes, the number of children, and often childcare and healthcare costs. Falling behind carries teeth: federal law allows wage garnishment for unpaid support, and states can suspend driver’s licenses or bring contempt charges.4U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 30 – Wage Garnishment Protections of the Consumer Credit Protection Act
Pensión alimenticia is spousal support, sometimes still called alimony. It’s money one spouse pays the other after separation or divorce, calculated with reference to the length of the marriage, each spouse’s earning capacity, and the standard of living during the marriage. Do not confuse it with manutención de los hijos. Different purpose, different recipient.
Wills and Powers of Attorney
A testamento is a will, the document that directs where your property goes after death. Without one, your estate passes under your state’s intestacy rules, which follow a fixed hierarchy of surviving spouse, children, parents, and more distant relatives.
A poder legal is a power of attorney, authorizing someone to act on your behalf. A durable financial poder legal covers banking, property, and business decisions and stays in effect if you become incapacitated. A medical poder legal covers healthcare decisions when you can’t make them yourself.
Immigration Law Terms
Immigration vocabulary is dense, and getting a term wrong can mean a missed deadline or lost eligibility.
Asylum
Asilo is asylum, available to people who have been persecuted or have a well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1158 – Asylum The application is Form I-589, and applicants generally must file within one year of arrival in the United States.6U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Instructions for Application for Asylum and for Withholding of Removal Miss that window and you’re disqualified unless you can show changed or extraordinary circumstances.
Green Cards and Citizenship
Ajuste de estatus is adjustment of status, the process of applying for lawful permanent resident status (a green card) from inside the United States. The application is Form I-485, with a filing fee currently set at $1,440 for most adult applicants and no separate biometrics charge.7U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. 2024 Final Fee Rule Approval gives you residencia permanente, the right to live and work in the country indefinitely.
Residencia permanente is also the step before naturalización (naturalization) and ciudadanía (citizenship). Federal law requires at least five years of continuous residence as a lawful permanent resident, physical presence for at least half that time, and good moral character.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1427 – Requirements of Naturalization The naturalization application is Form N-400, the Solicitud de Naturalización.
If you need to work while an immigration case is pending, you can apply for a Documento de Autorización de Empleo (Employment Authorization Document, or EAD) using Form I-765.9U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-765, Solicitud de Autorización de Empleo The card is your proof of work authorization.
Removal
Deportación, formally called removal, is the process of forcing someone to leave the country. Proceedings happen before an immigration judge, who has sole authority to decide whether a noncitizen is removable, based on the evidence at the hearing.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1229a – Removal Proceedings A final removal order can bar reentry for five, ten, or twenty years depending on the underlying grounds, with the longest bars reserved for aggravated felony convictions.
Courtroom Procedure Terms
These terms apply whether your case is criminal, civil, or immigration.
An audiencia is a hearing, any session where a judge listens and rules. Not every audiencia is a trial. Many are short proceedings on a single issue, like bail or scheduling. At trial, parties present testigos (witnesses), who give sworn testimony.
The documents, records, and physical items offered to prove or disprove a claim are pruebas (evidence). Attorneys file a pedimento (motion) asking the court to make a specific ruling. A common example is a motion to suppress, which asks the court to exclude pruebas obtained improperly; if granted, that evidence stays out at trial.11Cornell Law Institute. Motion to Suppress
The veredicto is the verdict: guilty or not guilty in a criminal case, liable or not liable in a civil one. After the veredicto, the court enters a final judgment, and either side can file an apelación.
Workplace and Wage Terms
The U.S. Department of Labor publishes official Spanish-language fact sheets using standardized translations for wage and hour concepts.12U.S. Department of Labor. Publicaciones Por Idiomas / Publications by Language
- Salario mínimo is minimum wage, the lowest hourly rate an employer can legally pay.
- Sobretiempo is overtime pay, which generally applies after 40 hours in a workweek under the Fair Labor Standards Act, known in DOL Spanish materials as the Ley de Normas Justas de Trabajo.
- Clasificación errónea is misclassification, when an employer labels a worker as an independent contractor to avoid paying overtime, benefits, and payroll taxes.
- Horas trabajadas is hours worked, the compensable time that counts toward overtime.
- Represaliar is to retaliate. Federal law prohibits employers from punishing workers for reporting wage theft or unsafe conditions.
The Notario Público Warning
One term causes more financial damage in Spanish-speaking communities than any other. In most Latin American countries, a notario público is the equivalent of a licensed attorney with authority to represent clients before the government. In the United States, a notary public is authorized only to witness signatures. That is the entire job. A U.S. notary cannot give legal advice, prepare immigration applications, or represent you in any legal proceeding.
People with a U.S. notary license sometimes advertise as “notario público” to immigrant clients who reasonably assume the title means a qualified legal professional. The result is often botched filings, missed deadlines, and thousands of dollars paid to someone with no authority to help. Some victims only discover the damage when they’re placed in removal proceedings because of an incorrectly filed application. Only a licensed attorney or a DOJ-accredited representative can legally provide immigration legal services. If someone calling themselves a notario offers to handle your immigration case, treat it as a warning sign.
Your Right to an Interpreter
You should not have to serve as your own translator in court. Federal law requires courts to provide certified interpreters in proceedings brought by the United States when a party or witness speaks primarily a language other than English and that barrier would prevent them from understanding the proceedings or communicating with counsel.13Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1827 – Interpreters in Courts of the United States The right applies in federal criminal cases and certain civil proceedings.
The right to understand carries into the moment of arrest. The constitutional protections established in Miranda v. Arizona require that a detained suspect understand their rights before questioning. Courts have held that a Miranda warning delivered in broken or inaccurate Spanish does not satisfy that requirement. If you’re arrested and don’t fully understand English, you’re entitled to hear your warnings in a language you comprehend before you answer any questions. In any legal proceeding, if you can’t follow what’s happening, ask for an interpreter right away, not after the ruling.