Barrister
Walk through a trial in Spanish — the roles, the evidence, the sentence — clearly, out loud.
Courtroom Spanish starts with the cast: el juez (judge), el fiscal (prosecutor — though in Mexico everyday penal talk it's el ministerio público), el abogado defensor, el jurado, and el acusado. The process runs from la demanda through la audiencia to la sentencia — keep those stages straight, because mixing la instrucción, la audiencia and la sentencia is the classic slip. Evidence has precise names too: la prueba pericial, la prueba documental, el testimonio, and the merely circumstantial el indicio. Verdicts split into la condena and la absolución, softened or sharpened by el atenuante and el agravante.
Below: the vocabulary lesson by lesson, how litigants really talk in the hallway, the pitfalls — and a way to argue a case out loud, no flashcards, no drills.
Say this
Regional Spanish
Textbooks teach one word. Locals use several — pick your region's and stay consistent.
| English | Mexico / Latin America | Spain |
|---|---|---|
| defense attorney | el abogado | el letrado |
| lawsuit | la demanda | el pleito |
| circumstantial evidence | el indicio | la prueba indiciaria |
| custodial sentence | cárcel efectiva | la pena privativa de libertad |
Watch out
The part no drill site can do
Olivia
Your vocabulary teacher for this pack
The Barrister pack teaches court vocabulary the way lawyers actually use it — out loud, with Olivia. She runs a mock-trial prep with you, and you explain the roles of the fiscal, the abogado defensor and the juez while walking through the procedure. Then she gives you a sentencing decision to summarize — agravantes and atenuantes included — and a client consultation where you advise on litigation strategy, from la demanda to the possible recurso de apelación. You talk it through; she pushes back like a real courtroom would.
Blank mid-sentence and nothing bad happens — she waits. That's the practice, without unnecessary judgement.
Finish the 6 lessons and Barrister is yours — earned, not given.
First 10 lessons free · 10-minute spoken lessons · your AI coaching team remembers you
Quick answers
El fiscal. In Mexican penal speech, though, you'll hear el ministerio público (the MP) far more often. The defense side is el abogado defensor, and Spain tends to say el letrado where Latin America says el abogado a secas.
La condena is a conviction; la absolución is an acquittal. Popularly, a conviction is le cayeron 20 años (they got 20 years), and walking free is salió absuelto.
Formally interponer una demanda; in Mexican everyday speech, meter una demanda. Spain often says pleito where Latin America uses demanda or juicio interchangeably.
El amparo is a constitutional protection or writ. In Mexico meter un amparo is an everyday national expression, not just legalese. Colombia's equivalent is la tutela.
By type: la prueba pericial (expert evidence), la prueba documental (documentary), el testimonio (testimony), and el indicio for circumstantial evidence. Whether it counts turns on la admisibilidad — its admissibility.
