Terms Used In Maine Revised Statutes > Title 19-A > Part 3 > Chapter 55 - Rights and Responsibilities

• Adult: means a person who is 18 years of age or older. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 19-A Sec. 101
• Allocated parental rights and responsibilities: means that responsibilities for the various aspects of a child's welfare are divided between the parents, with the parent allocated a particular responsibility having the right to control that aspect of the child's welfare. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 19-A Sec. 1501
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Child or children: means a person who has not attained the age of 18 years. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 1 Sec. 72
• Child support: means money paid directly to a parent, to another person or agency awarded parental rights and responsibilities with respect to a child or to the department on behalf of a child receiving public assistance and medical or dental insurance coverage provided on behalf of a child pursuant to court order. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 19-A Sec. 1501
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the Department of Health and Human Services and its agents and authorized representatives. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 19-A Sec. 101
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• Domestic abuse: means abuse as defined in section 4002. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 19-A Sec. 1501
• Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
• lands: includes lands and all tenements and hereditaments connected therewith, and all rights thereto and interests therein. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 1 Sec. 72
• minor child: means a person who has not attained the age of 18 years. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 19-A Sec. 101
• Parent: means the legal parent or the legal guardian when no legal parent exists. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 19-A Sec. 101
• Person: means an individual, trust, estate, partnership, association, company, corporation, political subdivision of the State, instrumentality of the State or other entity. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 19-A Sec. 101
• Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
• Private health insurance: means fee-for-service, health maintenance organization, preferred provider organization and other types of coverage available to either parent under which medical services could be provided to a child. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 19-A Sec. 1501
• Probate: Proving a will
• Reasonable cost: means the cost of private health insurance to the parent responsible for providing medical support that does not exceed amounts adopted by the Department of Health and Human Services in a rule implementing a cost-reasonableness standard. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 19-A Sec. 1501
• Shared parental rights and responsibilities: means that most or all aspects of a child's welfare remain the joint responsibility and right of both parents, so that both parents retain equal parental rights and responsibilities, and both parents confer and make joint decisions regarding the child's welfare. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 19-A Sec. 1501
• Sole parental rights and responsibilities: means that one parent is granted exclusive parental rights and responsibilities with respect to all aspects of a child's welfare, with the possible exception of the right and responsibility for support. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 19-A Sec. 1501
• state: means any state, territory or possession of the United States, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 19-A Sec. 101
• Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.