One of the English legal words that Dutch professionals tend to overuse and misuse is “fiscal”. Fiscaal is not the same as “fiscal”. “Fiscal” is a “false friend” The Dutch word fiscaal often refers to “tax”. The English equivalent “fiscal” tends to be incorrectly used as the English equivalent. However, English speakers do not use the word “fiscal” in the… Read more
An English-speaking lawyer working with Dutch legal professionals soon notices that certain English words tend to be overused and used in ways that do not seem conventional. One of those words is “legalise” or “legalisation”. (Some would spell this as “legalize” and “legalization”, especially in the US.) Legalise = to make lawful In everyday English, “legalise” means to make something… Read more
What’s wrong with this sentence? In the legal procedure we are going to use the statement of the former advisor and we will request him to testify. Actually, there are a few issues in this sentence. The one that leaps out at the reader is the use of “legal procedure” instead of “legal proceedings” or just “proceedings”. The word is… Read more
One of the most common mistakes made by Dutch lawyers is to forget that the noun “advice” is uncountable. This means that “advices” and “an advice” are always wrong. Reframe it as uncountable. Refer to “our advice” or “the advice”. You could also express adviezen as “letters of advice” or “advice letters”. Rather than using “an advice”, use “a letter of… Read more
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