Mexican legal documents: which person?

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It can be confusing in some Mexican legal documents (divorce papers in my case) when the third person is used in Spanish when the first person would be used in English. Time and time again, I see phrases like "la suscrita manifestó", referring to a narration by the wife in a divorce trial, only to see the same person referring to herself in the first person with something like: "yo le pedí ayuda económica a mi hermano porque el hoy demandado se negó a proporcionarnos alimentos".

It is tempting to treat this text like a fossil and preserve it as is for English speaking readers to puzzle over. However, it is not feasible in this case. The other day, I chanced upon this KudoZ answer by Henry Hinds which essentially says that this type of phrase msut be rendered entirely in the first person. You can read it in full here. I've never heard of the term "a chaleco", by the way.