Product Description
This new dictionary provides a ready reference to essential terms and phrases used in all areas of law and business, including accounting, banking, civil law, civil procedure, contracts, corporate law, criminal law, criminal procedure, economics, intellectual property, labor law, real property, secured transactions, securities law, and torts. Written by an American attorney who is also an accredited translator, it provides complete coverage of terminology used in all Spanish-speaking countries, not just those countries where the other bilingual dictionaries on the market were written (i.e., Spain and Argentina). Accordingly, it is the only source for translations of terms that are unique to countries such as Colombia, Peru and Venezuela. The dictionary was thoroughly researched using original documents and monolingual dictionaries from the Spanish-speaking various countries and is thus authoritative and up-to-date. No lawyer or translator who works with Spanish legal and business documents can afford to be without it. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

The Batman of the Spanish to English translation world
Thomas L. West must be related to Adam West because his book always saves the day for me. Seriously.

A dictionary like none other
I have used many Spanish-English legal dictionaries, but never have I found a book as useful as this one. Unlike the others, this dictionary includes explanations of many of the terms. If you're trying to figure what the difference is between an "embargo" and "secuestro," this book will explain it to you. If you're translating a "sentencia," you can look up that word in this dictionary, and it tells you about the four parts of a "sentencia" in a Spanish-speaking country. The other thing that is completely different about this book is that it contains terms from Guatemala, Peru, El Salvador, Bolivia, Chile, etc.--in other words, terms from all the countries that a dictionary from Argentina is not going to include (because they don't turn up in Argentine documents). In short, if I could only have ONE Spanish-English legal dictionary, this would be it!

An Excellent Resource for Translating Spanish Legal Document
Tom West brings his expertise as a translator and attorney together to produce this excellent resource. Focussing on difficult legal and commercial terminology, his translations are accurate and correspond to actual usage among the U.S. legal community. I have found this dictionary particularly useful for translating jurisprudence and court decisions from Spanish to English. Mr. West identifies several country-specific terms. In addition, he often includes information on the type of context in which a term is used and/or gives an explanation of the legal concept behind the term. For example, the dictionary explains the difference between "good offices" and "mediation." So if you're trying to understand what a "decreto exento" means in Chile or what the term "decretar pruebas" means in Colombia, or if you're looking for a way to say "casación" in English and make sense to an American lawyer, this is the book that has the answers. Mr. West's dictionary is designed as a supplementary reference work for high-level, experienced legal translators in the Spanish to English combination. If you fit that category, his book is a real treasure.

A waste of your money
This book is most useful if you are only looking to translate Spanish to English (about 225 pages). But do not get this book if you need English to Spanish translations (about 70 pages). This section is very limited. And I mean VERY limited. Most of the legal terms, even the most basic ones, weren't there, and I did find them in my regular English/Spanish dictionary.

I wish I had read the review from St. George before purchasing it. But I got this book a while ago, and after repeated, frustraing times looking up words I decided to go ahead and write a review.

A very limited Spanish / English Dictionary
As you will note from the reviews that follow, this is a good Spanish - English Dictionary IF YOU ARE TRANSLATING FROM SPANISH INTO ENGLISH; it is not so good if you are translating from English to Spanish.Being a lawyerwho speaks Spanish, I occasionaly have Spanish clients, and I need to comeup with a Spanish word for a legal term I am aware of in English.I readthe other reviews before purchasing this Spanish-English dictionary.I,finally, put forth the $75 to purchase it.When I received it, I decidedto look up the Spanish word for "Judge" - to see if I was usingthe right term (is it "Juez" or "Juzgado").I turnedto the page for "J" and, low and behold, THERE WAS NO WORD FOR"JUDGE"!IT WASN'T EVEN LISTED! I turned to the Spanishsection and found "Juez" - which was listed as "Judge";also, I found "Juzgador" - which was listed as "Judge."(I discovered that "Jugado" is "Court" - rather than"Judge" as I had presumed.)I realized that this book wasn'tgoing to work for me - having to translate FROM English INTO Spanish.Onthe other hand, I recently had to translate a Spanish Adoption record intoEnglish.There were Spanish legal phrases which, after several hours ofusing my regular (Non-legal) Spanish/English dictionary, I was able todeduce the equivilant legal phrases in English.Well, this dictionaryprobably would have been useful.As the author notes in his preface:"Because my research focused on Spanish-language materials, myoriginal intent had been not to include an English-to-Spanish section atall."He, then, notes that he decided to include a (VERY LIMITED andrelatively small) English-to-Spanish section.So, if you are translatingFROM Spanish INTO English, this dictionary will probably be useful;however, if you are trying to translate FROM English INTO Spanish, Isuggest you try another Spanish/English Dictionary. (I'll probably returnthis one and get my $75 back.) ... Read more