afholdt

13:50 Oct 8, 2015 

"I'm thinking it's no wonder every third person in the US is a lawyer."

Shouldn't that have been "I'm thinking it's no wonder every third (3rd) person in (but not limited to) the US is a lawyer, including, but not limited to attorney, barrister, solicitor."?

You'd fail at law school ;-)

13:40 Oct 8, 2015 

You haven't 'afholdt' an expense until you have paid it.
By contrast, you have 'pådraget dig' an expense even if you haven't paid it.

Just checked a couple of dictionaries:
Den Danske Ordbog (http://ordnet.dk/ddo/ordbog?query=afholde):
Afholde = betale en udgift; eks. Amtskommunen afholder udgifterne ved undervisning af indvandrere

Gyldendals Juridisk:
Afholde udgifterne - pay the expenses;
afholde udgifterne til (el. forbundet med) - bear/cover/pay the costs of
de med ... forbundne omkostninger/udgifter - the (el. all) costs/expenses incidental to ..., the cost of ...
fx: de med nærværende kontrakts indgåelse og oprettelse forbundne omkostninger herunder udgifter til stempling og tinglysning betales af lejer [i lejekontrakt] - all costs incidental to the conclusion and execution of this Lease including stamp duties and registration fees shall be payable by the Lessee

Dansk-engelsk økonomisk ordbog:
afholde (om udgifter) - pay, bear; (formelt) defray
afholde udgifterne ved - pay for; pay/defray the expenses of
have udgifter - incur expenses

13:38 Oct 8, 2015 

As a former racing driver, nuclear physicist, beautician and lion tamer, I'm thinking it's no wonder every third person in the US is a lawyer.

13:35 Oct 8, 2015 

"Afholdt" does mean "betalt", as others have already mentioned: http://ordnet.dk/ddo/ordbog?query=afholde . I'm not aware that it can also include something that may be due but not yet paid, but maybe it can in legal matters. Now, to complicate it, my Gyldendals legal EN-DA dictionary translates "incur" to "pådrage sig, lide, afholde" and "pay" to "betale, erlægge, berigtige, udrede, svare", so that doesn't exactly help us. That's as close as I can get.

13:24 Oct 8, 2015 

"Incurred" in this instance means "inflicted on" or "borne". For example, the customer receives a copyright infringement claim from a third party. The customer has to immediately engage legal counsel to protect itself.

Now, that counsel might be in-house and on a regular salary, or it could be external, paid by the hour. If "afholdt" means "incurred" here, the customer could forward the external bills to the supplier for payment without first paying them. But if it means "paid", then the customer has to pay them first and seek reimbursement.

13:18 Oct 8, 2015 

Afholdt means that something has been paid for, i.e. you can produce an invoice and ask to have that reimbursed.
As I understand it, 'incurred' means 'pådrage sig', i.e. you are responsible for creating an expense. That does not mean that you have paid for it and can produce an invoice. Or does it? I.e. unless an invoice can be produced for the hours e.g. a secretary has worked on doing research on the case, no expenses have been 'afholdt' in that connection, i.e. this cannot be reimbursed. (I am not a legal buff, this is just my understanding of the difference between 'incurred' and 'paid'.)

13:00 Oct 8, 2015 

It makes a big difference. As a former attorney, insurance underwriter, broker and risk manager, I can attest to that. Whole shelves in legal libraries are devoted to cases involving such distinctions.

12:55 Oct 8, 2015 

Afholde means pay but I can't see a problem with saying incurred as it really doesn't make any difference. You'd document these expenses by sending them a copy of the lawyer's bill, not a copy of your bank statement saying you've paid it.