This study analyses forms of address that may play a mitigating role in formal contexts. More specifically, it focuses on nominal forms of address (such as senoria) and conventionalised formulas (such as mira). To that end, the research is based on corpora for two genres of formal oral language: parliamentary debate and oral trials. An analysis of the data taking into consideration the function (preventive or reparative) of the mitigating device, its position, the illocutionary force of the speech act as well as the roles of the speakers showed that these mechanisms can adopt mitigation-related strategic values even in formal contexts. The paper also highlights the benefits of intergeneric studies, noting that they contribute to a more precise understanding of how mitigation plays out in different contexts and that a comparative approach to the study of pragmatic phenomena might help add new details for the characterization of the genres.