Carina Mendes (asker) Apr 18, 2019:

Olá Marina. Obrigada pela sua resposta. Eu gostava de colocar o testo completo, mas a verdade é que não sei como...

Mariana Chevrand Apr 17, 2019:

Olá. Tudo bem? Bom, além de tradutora, eu sou também advogada formada à 11 anos. Vocês tem razão quanto à definição do termo e também em relação ao fato de que, como colocado na sentença, realmente não faz sentido. Há a possibilidade de você publicar a sentença completa aqui, para que possamos entender melhor o contexto? Porque à meu ver, dependendo do contexto, você terá que fazer uma interpretação usando analogia. Isso acontece bastante se tratando de Direito.

Oliver Simões Apr 16, 2019:

I agree with Mario. The term ("acoimado") is totally out of place It makes no sense in this context. As far as how to translate it, that's a horse of a different color. I thought of "protected" or "favored". The intended word should have a positive meaning.

Carina Mendes (asker) Apr 16, 2019:

Hi all. Thank you very much for all your help! In fact, this is the very first time this happens to me! I didn't even know what to tell the client, because my translation made sense (to me) and I couldn't find anything else regarding this term anywhere.

Mario Freitas Apr 16, 2019:

@ Mark We must always be careful with the legal jargon in Portugese. Jurists in Brasil waste more time looking for ancient synonyms of the terms they want to use and make the text look ornamented than actually trying to make sense and have people understand what they write. The term "acoimado" in this context, very unwisely and unduly used to look "nice", has the meaning of covered or protected, not punished.
One day, the Brazilian writers will understand language is an instrument to make oneself understood, not to show their intellectuality. What they usually do most of the time is to show their stupidity instead.

Mark Robertson Apr 16, 2019:

Douglas' answer makes sense in terms of the context, but I cannot see how acoimado could possibly mean covered. According to the Legal Glossary of the Brazilian STJ acoimar means, infligir coima, punir, castigar, other sources suggest it can also mean qualificar negativamente. In this case, the effect on the ato praticado pelo acusado is positive, unless perhaps a presumption that act amounts to a crime is rebutted (negatived) by a finding of self-defence.

Carina Mendes (asker) Apr 16, 2019:

Obrigada pela resposta. Isto parece-me ser uma certidão de um resultado de julgamento...

A frase completa é: CERTIFICO, que em decisão da lavra do Exmº Sr. Dr. XXX, MM Juiz de Direito da 1ª Vara Criminal, datada de XXX, foi determinado o arquivamento do referido inquérito policial, por entender, em harmonia com o representante do Ministério Público, que o ato praticado pelo acusado encontra-se acoimado pelo instituto de legítima defesa, cuja decisão transitou em julgado, estando ditos autos, arquivados com as cautelas legais.

Paulinho Fonseca Apr 16, 2019:

@Carina, você dispõe de mais contexto. O termo é usado novamente em outros segmentos?

Mark Robertson Apr 16, 2019:

Strange The source text is strange as it appears to be nonsensical. "The act of the accused is punishable in accordance with the principle of self-defence". It seems nonsensical because "self-defence" is a defence to a charge of assault or aggravated assault and no offence is punishable via the raising of that defence. In PT-PT, acoimado is normally a noun and means a person on whom an administrative law fine (coima) has been imposed.