Terms Used In Connecticut General Statutes > Chapter 10 - Codes of Ethics

• Accessory apartment: means a separate dwelling unit that (A) is located on the same lot as a principal dwelling unit of greater square footage, (B) has cooking facilities, and (C) complies with or is otherwise exempt from any applicable building code, fire code and health and safety regulations. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-1a
• Adjourn: A motion to adjourn a legislative chamber or a committee, if passed, ends that day's session.
• Advice and consent: Under the Constitution, presidential nominations for executive and judicial posts take effect only when confirmed by the Senate, and international treaties become effective only when the Senate approves them by a two-thirds vote.
• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• Affirmed: In the practice of the appellate courts, the decree or order is declared valid and will stand as rendered in the lower court.
• Affordable accessory apartment: means an accessory apartment that is subject to binding recorded deeds which contain covenants or restrictions that require such accessory apartment be sold or rented at, or below, prices that will preserve the unit as housing for which, for a period of not less than ten years, persons and families pay thirty per cent or less of income, where such income is less than or equal to eighty per cent of the median income. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-1a
• affordable housing: means housing for which persons and families pay thirty per cent or less of their annual income, where such income is less than or equal to the area median income for the municipality in which such housing is located, as determined by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-39a
• Allegation: something that someone says happened.
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Amortization: Paying off a loan by regular installments.
• Annuity: A periodic (usually annual) payment of a fixed sum of money for either the life of the recipient or for a fixed number of years. A series of payments under a contract from an insurance company, a trust company, or an individual. Annuity payments are made at regular intervals over a period of more than one full year.
• another: may extend and be applied to communities, companies, corporations, public or private, limited liability companies, societies and associations. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• 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.
• Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
• appointing authority: means the legislative body of a municipality or the board, committee or other governing body of such audited agency, except in any town where the authority to adopt a budget rests with a town meeting or a representative town meeting "appointing authority" means the board of finance or other board, committee or body charged with preparing the budget, or in a town that has no board of finance or other such board, committee or body, means the board of selectmen or the town council. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-391
• Appraisal: A determination of property value.
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• Area of operation: means the geographic area served by a municipal electric utility at the time it becomes a member of a municipal electric energy cooperative pursuant to this chapter and such other areas as the municipal electric energy cooperative may serve pursuant to contract entered into under the provisions of this chapter. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-233b
• Arraignment: A proceeding in which an individual who is accused of committing a crime is brought into court, told of the charges, and asked to plead guilty or not guilty.
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• As of right: means able to be approved in accordance with the terms of a zoning regulation or regulations and without requiring that a public hearing be held, a variance, special permit or special exception be granted or some other discretionary zoning action be taken, other than a determination that a site plan is in conformance with applicable zoning regulations. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-1a
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Attorney-at-law: A person who is legally qualified and licensed to practice law, and to represent and act for clients in legal proceedings.
• audit report: means the report of the independent auditor and the annual financial statements of the municipality or audited agency. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-391
• audited agency: includes each district, as defined in section 7-324, or other municipal utility, the Metropolitan District of Hartford County, each regional council of governments, any other political subdivision of similar character which is created and any other agency created or designated by a municipality to act for such municipality whose annual receipts from all sources exceed one million dollars. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-391
• Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
• banks: shall include all incorporated banks. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• Baseline: Projection of the receipts, outlays, and other budget amounts that would ensue in the future without any change in existing policy. Baseline projections are used to gauge the extent to which proposed legislation, if enacted into law, would alter current spending and revenue levels.
• Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. ^{Source: OCC}
• Bequest: Property gifted by will.
• Bonds: means bonds issued by a municipal electric energy cooperative pursuant to this chapter. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-233b
• Budget authority: Authority provided by law to enter into obligations that will result in outlays of Federal funds. Budget authority may be classified by the period of availability (one-year, multiyear, no-year), by the timing of congressional action (current or permanent), or by the manner of determining the amount available (definite or indefinite).
• Business: means any lawful activity, excepting a farm operation, conducted primarily (A) for the purchase, sale, lease and rental of personal and real property, and for the manufacture, processing or marketing of products, commodities or any other personal property. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-267
• Capital reserve fund: means any capital reserve fund established by a municipality in accordance with section 7-492. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-482
• Chambers: A judge's office.
• Charity: An agency, institution, or organization in existence and operating for the benefit of an indefinite number of persons and conducted for educational, religious, scientific, medical, or other beneficent purposes.
• cluster development: means a building pattern concentrating units on a particular portion of a parcel so that at least one-third of the parcel remains as open space to be used exclusively for recreational, conservation and agricultural purposes except that nothing herein shall prevent any municipality from requiring more than one-third open space in any particular cluster development. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-18
• Commission: means a planning commission. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-18
• commissioner: means the Commissioner of Economic and Community Development. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-187
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Concurrent resolution: A legislative measure, designated "S. Con. Res." and numbered consecutively upon introduction, generally employed to address the sentiments of both chambers, to deal with issues or matters affecting both houses, such as a concurrent budget resolution, or to create a temporary joint committee. Concurrent resolutions are not submitted to the President/Governor and thus do not have the force of law.
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Cost: means , in addition to the usual connotations thereof, the cost of all or any property, rights, easements, privileges, agreements and franchises deemed by the municipal electric energy cooperative to be necessary or useful and convenient to a project or projects or in connection therewith, including discount on bonds, cost of issuance of bonds, engineering and inspection costs and legal expenses, cost of financial, professional and other estimates advice, organization, administrative, operating and other expenses of the municipal electric energy cooperative prior to and during the acquisition or construction of a project or projects and all such other expenses as may be necessary or incident to the financing, acquisition, construction and completion of said project or projects or part thereof and the placing of the same in operation, and also such provision or reserves for working capital, operating, maintenance or replacement expenses or for reserves for the payment of the principal of or interest on bonds during or after such acquisition or construction as the municipal electric energy cooperative may determine, and reimbursements to the municipal electric energy cooperative or any member thereof or any other participant in such project or projects of any moneys theretofore expended for the purposes of the municipal electric energy cooperative. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-233b
• Counterclaim: A claim that a defendant makes against a plaintiff.
• Credit report: A detailed report of an individual's credit history prepared by a credit bureau and used by a lender in determining a loan applicant's creditworthiness. ^{Source: OCC}
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• development agency: means the agency designated by a municipality under section 8-188 through which the municipality may exercise the powers granted under this chapter. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-187
• development project: means a project conducted by a municipality for the assembly, improvement and disposition of land or buildings or both to be used principally for industrial or business purposes and includes vacated commercial plants. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-187
• Development property: means any real or personal property, interest therein, improvements thereon, appurtenances thereto and air or other rights in connection therewith, including land, buildings, plants, structures, systems, works, machinery and equipment acquired or to be acquired by purchase, gift or otherwise by a sponsor or by a municipality and dedicated by resolution to the purposes of this chapter. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-482
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• Displaced person: means (A) any person who, on or after July 6, 1971, moves from real property, or moves his or her personal property from real property, as a result of the acquisition of such real property, in whole or in part, or as the result of the written order of the acquiring agency to vacate real property, for a program or project undertaken by or supervised by a state agency or unit of local government and solely for the purposes of subsections (a) and (b) of section 8-268 and section 8-271 as a result of the acquisition of or as a result of the written order of the acquiring agency to vacate other real property, on which such person conducts a business or farm operation, for such program or project. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-267
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Electric utility: means any electric public service company, as defined in section 16-1. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-233b
• Embezzlement: In most states, embezzlement is defined as theft/larceny of assets (money or property) by a person in a position of trust or responsibility over those assets. Embezzlement typically occurs in the employment and corporate settings. ^{Source: OCC}
• Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• Facility charges: means tolls, rents, rates, fees or other charges in this chapter, in connection with, or for the use or services of, or otherwise relating to, any development property owned or controlled by the municipality in furtherance of the purposes of this chapter. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-482
• Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
• farm: includes farm buildings, and accessory buildings thereto, nurseries, orchards, ranges, greenhouses, hoophouses and other temporary structures or other structures used primarily for the raising and, as an incident to ordinary farming operations, the sale of agricultural or horticultural commodities. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• Farm operation: means any activity conducted solely or primarily for the production of one or more agricultural products or commodities, including timber, for sale or home use, and customarily producing such products or commodities in sufficient quantity to be capable of contributing materially to the operator's support. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-267
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Fixed Rate: Having a "fixed" rate means that the APR doesn't change based on fluctuations of some external rate (such as the "Prime Rate"). In other words, a fixed rate is a rate that is not a variable rate. A fixed APR can change over time, in several circumstances:
  • You are late making a payment or commit some other default, triggering an increase to a penalty rate
  • The bank changes the terms of your account and you do not reject the change.
  • The rate expires (if the rate was fixed for only a certain period of time).
• Forbearance: A means of handling a delinquent loan. A
• Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. ^{Source: OCC}
• Forgery: The fraudulent signing or alteration of another's name to an instrument such as a deed, mortgage, or check. The intent of the forgery is to deceive or defraud. ^{Source: OCC}
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Freedom of Information Act: A federal law that mandates that all the records created and kept by federal agencies in the executive branch of government must be open for public inspection and copying. The only exceptions are those records that fall into one of nine exempted categories listed in the statute. ^{Source: OCC}
• Garnishment: Generally, garnishment is a court proceeding in which a creditor asks a court to order a third party who owes money to the debtor or otherwise holds assets belonging to the debtor to turn over to the creditor any of the debtor
• Germane: On the subject of the pending bill or other business; a strict standard of relevance.
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Governing body: means the board of commissioners of a municipal electric utility or such other duly elected or appointed officials charged by law with managing the affairs of a municipal electric utility. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-233b
• Governing body: means , for towns having a town council, the council. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-202
• Governmental unit: means the United States of America or the state or any city, town, consolidated town and city or consolidated town and borough or any subdivision, department, agency, instrumentality, authority, board, commission, bureau, division or legal entity heretofore or hereafter created, designated or established by or for the United States of America or the state or any city or town. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-482
• Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
• 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.
• housing projects: means any projects developed or administered pursuant to chapter 128. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-122
• Housing solely for low or moderate-income persons or families: means housing, the construction or rehabilitation of which is aided or assisted in any way by any federal or state statute, which housing is subject to regulation or supervision of rents, charges or sale prices and methods of operation by a governmental agency under a regulatory agreement or other instrument which restricts occupancy of such housing to persons or families whose incomes do not exceed prescribed limits. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-202
• Human resource development agency: means a human resource development agency as defined in section 17b-852. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-202
• Indemnification: In general, a collateral contract or assurance under which one person agrees to secure another person against either anticipated financial losses or potential adverse legal consequences. ^{Source: FDIC}
• independent auditor: means a public accountant who is licensed to practice in the state of Connecticut and who meets the independence standards included in generally accepted government auditing standards. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-391
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• intellectual disability: means a significant limitation in intellectual functioning existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior that originated during the developmental period before eighteen years of age. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1g
• Interest rate: The amount paid by a borrower to a lender in exchange for the use of the lender's money for a certain period of time. Interest is paid on loans or on debt instruments, such as notes or bonds, either at regular intervals or as part of a lump sum payment when the issue matures. ^{Source: OCC}
• Interrogatories: Written questions asked by one party of an opposing party, who must answer them in writing under oath; a discovery device in a lawsuit.
• jail: means a correctional facility administered by the Commissioner of Correction. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• Joint committee: Committees including membership from both houses of teh legislature. Joint committees are usually established with narrow jurisdictions and normally lack authority to report legislation.
• Joint meeting: An occasion, often ceremonial, when the House and Senate each adopt a unanimous consent agreement
• Joint resolution: A legislative measure which requires the approval of both chambers.
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Juror: A person who is on the jury.
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Legal tender: coins, dollar bills, or other currency issued by a government as official money. ^{Source: U.S. Mint}
• Legislative body: means the council, commission, board, body or town meeting, by whatever name it may be known, having or exercising the general legislative powers and functions of a municipality. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-482
• legislative body: means (A) the board of selectmen in a town that does not have a charter, special act or home rule ordinance relating to its government or (B) the council, board of aldermen, representative town meeting, board of selectmen or other elected legislative body described in a charter, special act or home rule ordinance relating to government in a city, consolidated town and city, consolidated town and borough or a town having a charter, special act, consolidation ordinance or home rule ordinance relating to its government. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-187
• legislative body: means : (1) As applied to unconsolidated towns, the town meeting. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Majority leader: see Floor Leaders
• Member: means any municipal electric utility within the state which has been in continuous operation for at least five years and whose governing body authorizes membership in, and which becomes a member of, a municipal electric energy cooperative. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-233b
• Middle housing: means duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes, cottage clusters and townhouses. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-1a
• Minority leader: See Floor Leaders
• Mixed-use development: means a development containing both residential and nonresidential uses in any single building. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-1a
• month: means a calendar month, and the word "year" means a calendar year, unless otherwise expressed. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Mortgage: means such classes of liens as are commonly given to secure advances on, or the unpaid purchase price of, real property, under the laws of this state, together with the credit instruments, if any, secured thereby. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-267
• Mortgage loan: A loan made by a lender to a borrower for the financing of real property. ^{Source: OCC}
• Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
• Mortgagor: The person who pledges property to a creditor as collateral for a loan and who receives the money.
• municipal cooperative: means a separate legal entity hereafter created by concurrent resolutions of two or more municipal electric utilities to exercise any of the powers as provided in this chapter in connection with the acquisition, construction, reconstruction, operation, repair, extension or improvement of electric power generation or transmission facilities, or the acquisition of any interest therein or of any capacity thereof. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-233b
• Municipal electric utility: means an electric department, agency or other body of a municipality which provides for the production, supply and/or distribution of electric energy to the inhabitants or any portion thereof as well as others, which department, agency or other body has been established in accordance with applicable provisions of law. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-233b
• municipal utility: means every Connecticut municipality or department or agency thereof, or Connecticut district, manufacturing, selling or distributing gas or electricity to be used for light, heat or power or water. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-391
• municipality: means any town, city or borough, whether consolidated or unconsolidated, and any fire district. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-202
• Municipality: means any town, city or borough located within the state and any district as defined in section 7-324 or special services district established under chapter 105a which is authorized to produce, supply or distribute electric energy. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-233b
• municipality: means any town, city or borough, whether consolidated or unconsolidated, and any fire district, and "budget-making authority" as applied to towns, cities and boroughs, whether consolidated or unconsolidated, having boards of finance or other bodies charged with preparing the budget, means the board of finance or such other body. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-359
• Municipality: means any political subdivision of the state having the power to make appropriations or to levy taxes, including any town, city or borough, whether consolidated or unconsolidated, any village, school, sewer, fire or lighting district, beach or improvement association, and any other tax district or association, but not including The Metropolitan District of Hartford County. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-381
• municipality: includes each town, consolidated town and city, consolidated town and borough, city and borough. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-391
• Municipality: means any city, town, consolidated town and city or consolidated town and borough in the state which shall by resolution make the findings and determinations required by section 7-485 and which shall exercise all powers granted and make all findings and determinations required under this chapter by means of resolution. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-482
• Municipality: as used in this chapter shall include a district establishing a zoning commission under section 7-326. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-1a
• municipality: includes a city, town or borough or a district establishing a planning commission under section 7-326. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-18
• municipality: means a town, city, consolidated town and city or consolidated town and borough. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-187
• Municipality: means town, city or borough. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-202
• Nolo contendere: No contest-has the same effect as a plea of guilty, as far as the criminal sentence is concerned, but may not be considered as an admission of guilt for any other purpose.
• Nonprofit organization: means an association incorporated under chapter 598 or 602, or any predecessor statutes thereto. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-267
• Notes: means notes issued by a municipal electric energy cooperative pursuant to this chapter. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-233b
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• oath: shall include affirmations in cases where by law an affirmation may be used for an oath, and, in like cases, the word "swear" shall include the word "affirm". See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Operating expenses: means all costs and expenses of a municipality or its delegate incurred in connection with any action taken pursuant to this chapter, including but not limited to salaries and wages, expenses of administering staff functions, fees of professional consultants, legal fees, charges incurred for servicing of mortgage loans or loans to sponsors, money management, office rents, utility charges, costs of supplies, furnishings, equipment, machinery and apparatus, maintenance and repair of property and other expenses incurred in connection with the foregoing. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-482
• Ordinance: means an enactment under the provisions of section 7-157. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• other obligations: means any bonds, notes or other evidences of indebtedness, respectively, issued by a municipality pursuant to this chapter. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-482
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• parking authority: means a body corporate and politic created by the legislative body of any municipality as hereinafter provided. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-202
• parking division: means any existing municipal department, bureau, agency, commission or executive officer designated by any municipality as hereinafter provided. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-202
• parking facilities: means lots, garages, parking terminals or other structures and accommodations for the parking of motor vehicles off the street or highway and open to public use with or without charge. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-202
• Participant: means any member of a municipal electric energy cooperative, a nonmember municipal electric utility, an electric utility, or any other public or private electric power entity located within or without the state, any of which may contract for services with a municipal electric energy cooperative pursuant to the provisions of this chapter. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-233b
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Person: means any individual, partnership, corporation, limited liability company or association. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-267
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Planning agency: means the existing city or town plan commission or, if such agency does not exist or is not created, the legislative body or agency designated by it. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-125
• planning commission: means the planning and zoning commission designated pursuant to section 8-4a or the planning commission created pursuant to section 8-19. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-187
• Plea: In a criminal case, the defendant's statement pleading "guilty" or "not guilty" in answer to the charges, a declaration made in open court.
• Pleadings: Written statements of the parties in a civil case of their positions. In the federal courts, the principal pleadings are the complaint and the answer.
• 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.
• President pro tempore: A constitutionally recognized officer of the Senate who presides over the chamber in the absence of the Vice President. The President Pro Tempore (or, "president for a time") is elected by the Senate and is, by custom, the Senator of the majority party with the longest record of continuous service.
• Presiding officer: A majority-party Senator who presides over the Senate and is charged with maintaining order and decorum, recognizing Members to speak, and interpreting the Senate's rules, practices and precedents.
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Probate: Proving a will
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• Project: means any plant or plants, hydro plants, works, system, facilities, or real or personal property, together with all parts thereof and appurtenances thereto, used or useful in connection with the generation, production, transmission, purchase, sale, exchange or interchange of electric power or energy, or any interest therein or right to capacity thereof. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-233b
• project area: means the area within which the development project is located. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-187
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• public accountant: means an individual who meets standards included in generally accepted government auditing standards for personnel performing government audits and the licensing requirements of the State Board of Accountancy. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-391
• public buildings: shall include a statehouse, courthouse, townhouse, arsenal, magazine, prison, community correctional center, almshouse, market or other building belonging to the state, or to any town, city or borough in the state, and any church, chapel, meetinghouse or other building generally used for religious worship, and any college, academy, schoolhouse or other building generally used for literary instruction. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• Public defender: Represent defendants who can't afford an attorney in criminal matters.
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• Purposes of this chapter: means ameliorating the deterioration of municipalities by preserving and expanding employment opportunities and the tax base of municipalities by undertaking or assisting in the financing, development or construction of housing, industrial, commercial, parking, retail, office, hotel, warehouse, recreational or transportation facilities or any combination thereof and any service facilities related thereto or supportive thereof. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-482
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Real property: includes lands, structures, franchises, and interests in land, including lands under water and riparian rights, and any and all things and rights usually included within said term, and includes not only fees simple absolute but also any and all lesser interests, such as easements, rights-of-way, uses, leases, licenses and all other incorporeal hereditaments, and every estate, interest or right, legal or equitable, including terms of years and liens thereon by way of judgments, mortgages or otherwise, and also claims for damage to real estate. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-233b
• Real property: means land, subterranean or subsurface rights, structures, any and all easements, air rights and franchises and every estate, right or interest therein. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-125
• real property: means land, subterranean or subsurface rights, structures, any and all easements, air rights and franchises and every estate, right or interest therein. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-187
• receipts: means amounts accrued or received by a municipality, audited agency or reporting agency and reportable as revenues in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-391
• Recourse: An arrangement in which a bank retains, in form or in substance, any credit risk directly or indirectly associated with an asset it has sold (in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles) that exceeds a pro rata share of the bank's claim on the asset. If a bank has no claim on an asset it has sold, then the retention of any credit risk is recourse. ^{Source: FDIC}
• Redeveloper: means any individual, group of individuals or corporation or any municipality or other public agency including any housing authority established pursuant to chapter 128. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-125
• Redevelopment: means improvement by the rehabilitation or demolition of structures, by the construction of new structures, improvements or facilities, by the location or relocation of streets, parks and utilities, by replanning or by two or more of these methods. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-125
• Redevelopment area: means an area within the state that is deteriorated, deteriorating, substandard or detrimental to the safety, health, morals or welfare of the community. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-125
• redevelopment plan: means a plan that includes: (A) (i) A description of the redevelopment area and the condition, type and use of the structures therein, and (ii) specification of each parcel proposed to be acquired, including parcels to be acquired by eminent domain. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-125
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• Remand: When an appellate court sends a case back to a lower court for further proceedings.
• reporting agency: includes each district, as defined in section 7-324, or other municipal utility, each regional council of governments, any other political subdivision of similar character which is created and any other agency created or designated by a municipality to act for such municipality whose annual receipts from all sources do not exceed one million dollars. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-391
• Rescission: The cancellation of budget authority previously provided by Congress. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 specifies that the President may propose to Congress that funds be rescinded. If both Houses have not approved a rescission proposal (by passing legislation) within 45 days of continuous session, any funds being withheld must be made available for obligation.
• Resolution: means any resolution adopted by the legislative body of a municipality or by the governing body of any governmental unit or nonprofit corporation to which a municipality has delegated powers under the provisions of section 7-486, after (1) notice of the proposed resolution has been placed on record in the office of the municipal clerk for public inspection and (2) a summary of the proposed resolution has been published at least once in a newspaper of general circulation within the municipality, both setting forth the time and place of the public hearing provided for in subdivision (3) of this subsection and (3) a public hearing has been held thereon not less than five days nor more than fourteen days subsequent to the placing on record of such notice and the publication of such summary. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-482
• resubdivision: means a change in a map of an approved or recorded subdivision or resubdivision if such change (a) affects any street layout shown on such map, (b) affects any area reserved thereon for public use or (c) diminishes the size of any lot shown thereon and creates an additional building lot, if any of the lots shown thereon have been conveyed after the approval or recording of such map. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-18
• Revenues: means fees, rentals, tolls, charges and other receipts, income or moneys made, received or derived by or paid for the account of a municipality from, in connection with or arising out of any development property, and may include subsidies, grants and other payments or portions thereof from governmental units which, under their terms, may be pledged by a municipality in accordance with the provisions of this chapter. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-482
• savings banks: shall include savings banks, societies for savings and savings societies. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• Secretary: means the Secretary of the Office of Policy and Management. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-391
• selectmen: include district and officers of such district, respectively. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-18
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• Sponsor: means individuals, joint ventures, partnerships, limited partnerships, trusts, business corporations, nonprofit corporations, cooperatives, condominiums, associations, public bodies or any other legal entities or combination thereof, who have filed with the clerk of the municipality a list of the names and addresses of each of its members or stockholders, if any, except in the case of a corporation the stock of which is traded in the open market or over the counter or listed on any stock exchange, and who have been approved by a municipality as financially qualified to own, construct, acquire, rehabilitate, operate, manage or maintain development property in furtherance of the purposes of this chapter. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-482
• State: means the state of Connecticut. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-482
• State agency: means any department, agency or instrumentality of the state or of a political subdivision of the state, or local housing authorities, or any department, agency or instrumentality of two or more political subdivisions of the state, but shall not include community housing development corporations authorized under section 8-217. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-267
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• subdivision: means the division of a tract or parcel of land into three or more parts or lots made subsequent to the adoption of subdivision regulations by the commission, for the purpose, whether immediate or future, of sale or building development expressly excluding development for municipal, conservation or agricultural purposes, and includes resubdivision. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-18
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• succeeding: when used by way of reference to any section or sections, mean the section or sections next preceding, next following or next succeeding, unless some other section is expressly designated in such reference. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Tort: A civil wrong or breach of a duty to another person, as outlined by law. A very common tort is negligent operation of a motor vehicle that results in property damage and personal injury in an automobile accident.
• Transcript: A written, word-for-word record of what was said, either in a proceeding such as a trial or during some other conversation, as in a transcript of a hearing or oral deposition.
• transit system: include motorbus, minibus, tramline, monorail, rapid transit or other land transportation systems for the mass movement of persons and goods between locations within and between municipalities, including real property and interests therein, and equipment and facilities incident to the provision, operation, administration and maintenance of such transit system. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-273b
• Transportation center: includes a station or terminal for passengers and goods in local, intrastate or interstate transit by any rail, bus or other land transportation system, land, buildings, structures, parking facilities, roads and other improvements, equipment and facilities, and includes a station or center containing commercial, office, retail or other facilities which are necessary or incidental to transportation purposes or uses or which the district, by its board of directors, determines are not presently needed for such transportation purposes but should be included in such center for use in the future as the need arises. See Connecticut General Statutes 7-273b
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Trust account: A general term that covers all types of accounts in a trust department, such as estates, guardianships, and agencies. ^{Source: OCC}
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Uniform Commercial Code: A set of statutes enacted by the various states to provide consistency among the states' commercial laws. It includes negotiable instruments, sales, stock transfers, trust and warehouse receipts, and bills of lading. ^{Source: OCC}
• User fees: Fees charged to users of goods or services provided by the government. In levying or authorizing these fees, the legislature determines whether the revenue should go into the treasury or should be available to the agency providing the goods or services.
• vacated commercial plants: means buildings formerly used principally for business or industrial purposes of which more than fifty per cent of the usable floor space is, or which it is anticipated, within eighteen months, shall be, unused or substantially underutilized. See Connecticut General Statutes 8-187
• Variable Rate: Having a "variable" rate means that the APR changes from time to time based on fluctuations in an external rate, normally the Prime Rate. This external rate is known as the "index." If the index changes, the variable rate normally changes. Also see Fixed Rate.
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Veto: The procedure established under the Constitution by which the President/Governor refuses to approve a bill or joint resolution and thus prevents its enactment into law. A regular veto occurs when the President/Governor returns the legislation to the house in which it originated. The President/Governor usually returns a vetoed bill with a message indicating his reasons for rejecting the measure. In Congress, the veto can be overridden only by a two-thirds vote in both the Senate and the House.
• Victim advocate: work with prosecutors and assist the victims of a crime.
• Voters: means those persons qualified to vote under the provisions of section 7-6. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.