Terms Used In Florida Statutes > Chapter 366 - Public Utilities

• 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.
• 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.
• 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
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Attaching entity: means a person that is a local exchange carrier, a public utility, a communications services provider, a broadband service provider, or a cable television operator that owns or controls pole attachments. See Florida Statutes 366.02
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Audiologist: means a person licensed under this part to practice audiology. See Florida Statutes 468.1125
• 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.
• Board: means the Board of Nursing Home Administrators. See Florida Statutes 468.1655
• Board: means the Board of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology. See Florida Statutes 468.1125
• Certificate: means a certification granted and issued by the department under this part. See Florida Statutes 468.301
• Certificateholder: means any person who holds a certificate under this part that authorizes that person to use radiation on human beings. See Florida Statutes 468.301
• Commission: means the Florida Public Service Commission. See Florida Statutes 366.02
• Communications services provider: means an entity providing communications services as defined in…. See Florida Statutes 366.02
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• 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.
• Council: means the Advisory Council on Radiation Protection. See Florida Statutes 468.301
• Counterclaim: A claim that a defendant makes against a plaintiff.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Department: means the Department of Health. See Florida Statutes 468.301
• Department: means the Department of Health. See Florida Statutes 468.1655
• Department: means the Department of Health. See Florida Statutes 468.1125
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Direct supervision: means supervision and control by a licensed practitioner who assumes legal liability for the services rendered by the basic X-ray machine operator or basic X-ray machine operator-podiatric medicine, which supervision requires the physical presence of the licensed practitioner for consultation and direction of the actions of the basic X-ray machine operator or basic X-ray machine operator-podiatric medicine. See Florida Statutes 468.301
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Educational program: means training or education, including either a didactic or a clinical practicum, or both, which has a specified objective, planned activities for students, and suitable methods for measuring student attainment, which program is offered, sponsored, or approved by an organization or institution that is able to meet or enforce these criteria and which program is subject to approval by the department. See Florida Statutes 468.301
• Electric utility: means any municipal electric utility, investor-owned electric utility, or rural electric cooperative which owns, maintains, or operates an electric generation, transmission, or distribution system within the state. See Florida Statutes 366.02
• Entitlement: A Federal program or provision of law that requires payments to any person or unit of government that meets the eligibility criteria established by law. Entitlements constitute a binding obligation on the part of the Federal Government, and eligible recipients have legal recourse if the obligation is not fulfilled. Social Security and veterans' compensation and pensions are examples of entitlement programs.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• General radiographer: means a person who is employed and certificated in radiography, other than a basic X-ray machine operator or basic X-ray machine operator-podiatric medicine. See Florida Statutes 468.301
• General supervision: means supervision whereby a practitioner authorizes the services to be performed by the radiologic technologist, which supervision, except in cases of emergency, requires the easy availability or physical presence of the licensed practitioner for consultation and direction of the actions of the radiologic technologist. See Florida Statutes 468.301
• Guarantor: A party who agrees to be responsible for the payment of another party's debts should that party default. ^{Source: OCC}
• 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}
• 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}
• 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.
• 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}
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Licensed practitioner: means a person who is licensed or otherwise authorized by law to practice medicine, podiatric medicine, chiropody, osteopathic medicine, naturopathy, or chiropractic medicine in this state. See Florida Statutes 468.301
• 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.
• minor: includes any person who has not attained the age of 18 years. See Florida Statutes 1.01
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• National organization: means a professional association or registry, approved by the department, that examines, registers, certifies, or approves individuals and educational programs relating to operators of sources of radiation. See Florida Statutes 468.301
• 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.
• Nursing home: means an institution or facility licensed as such under part II of chapter 400. See Florida Statutes 468.1655
• Nursing home administrator: means a person who is licensed to engage in the practice of nursing home administration in this state under the authority of this part. See Florida Statutes 468.1655
• 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.
• 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: includes individuals, children, firms, associations, joint adventures, partnerships, estates, trusts, business trusts, syndicates, fiduciaries, corporations, and all other groups or combinations. See Florida Statutes 1.01
• Person: means any individual, corporation, partnership, firm, association, trust, estate, public or private institution, group, agency, political subdivision of this state or any other state, or political subdivision of any agency thereof and any legal successor, representative, agent, or agency of the foregoing. See Florida Statutes 468.301
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• 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.
• Pole: means a pole used for electric distribution service, streetlights, communications services, local exchange services, or cable television services which is owned in whole or in part by a pole owner. See Florida Statutes 366.02
• Pole attachment: means any attachment by a public utility, local exchange carrier communications services provider, broadband provider, or cable television operator to a pole, duct, conduit, or right-of-way owned or controlled by a pole owner. See Florida Statutes 366.02
• Pole owner: means a local exchange carrier, a public utility, a communications services provider, or a cable television operator that owns a pole. See Florida Statutes 366.02
• political subdivision: include counties, cities, towns, villages, special tax school districts, special road and bridge districts, bridge districts, and all other districts in this state. See Florida Statutes 1.01
• Practice of audiology: means the application of principles, methods, and procedures for the prevention, identification, evaluation, consultation, habilitation, rehabilitation, instruction, treatment, and research, relative to hearing and the disorders of hearing, and to related language and speech disorders. See Florida Statutes 468.1125
• Practice of nursing home administration: means any service requiring nursing home administration education, training, or experience and the application of such to the planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling of the total management of a nursing home. See Florida Statutes 468.1655
• 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.
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Public debt: Cumulative amounts borrowed by the Treasury Department or the Federal Financing Bank from the public or from another fund or account. The public debt does not include agency debt (amounts borrowed by other agencies of the Federal Government). The total public debt is subject to a statutory limit.
• Public utility: means every person, corporation, partnership, association, or other legal entity and their lessees, trustees, or receivers supplying electricity or gas (natural, manufactured, or similar gaseous substance) to or for the public within this state; but the term "public utility" does not include either a cooperative now or hereafter organized and existing under the Rural Electric Cooperative Law of the state; a municipality or any agency thereof; any dependent or independent special natural gas district; any natural gas transmission pipeline company making only sales or transportation delivery of natural gas at wholesale and to direct industrial consumers; any entity selling or arranging for sales of natural gas which neither owns nor operates natural gas transmission or distribution facilities within the state; or a person supplying liquefied petroleum gas, in either liquid or gaseous form, irrespective of the method of distribution or delivery, or owning or operating facilities beyond the outlet of a meter through which natural gas is supplied for compression and delivery into motor vehicle fuel tanks or other transportation containers, unless such person also supplies electricity or manufactured or natural gas. See Florida Statutes 366.02
• Radiation: means X rays and gamma rays, alpha and beta particles, high-speed electrons, neutrons, and other nuclear particles. See Florida Statutes 468.301
• Radiologic technologist: means a person, other than a licensed practitioner, who is qualified by education, training, or experience, as more specifically defined in…. See Florida Statutes 468.301
• Radiologist: means a physician specializing in radiology certified by or eligible for certification by the American Board of Radiology or the American Osteopathic Board of Radiology, the British Royal College of Radiology, or the Canadian College of Physicians and Surgeons. See Florida Statutes 468.301
• Radiologist assistant: means a person, other than a licensed practitioner, who is qualified by education and certification, as set forth in…. See Florida Statutes 468.301
• 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}
• Redundant pole: means a pole owned or controlled by a pole owner which is:
  (a) Near or adjacent to a new pole that is intended to replace the old pole from which some or all of the pole attachments have not been removed and transferred to the new pole;
  (b) Left standing after the pole owner has relocated its facilities to underground but on which pole attachments of other attaching entities remain; or
  (c) Left standing after a pole owner's attachments have been removed from that route or location to accommodate a new route or design for the delivery of service. See Florida Statutes 366.02
• 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.
• 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.
• Specialty technologist: means a person, other than a licensed practitioner, who is qualified by education and certification, as set forth in…. See Florida Statutes 468.301
• Speech-language pathologist: means a person licensed under this part to practice speech pathology. See Florida Statutes 468.1125
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• 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}
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• veteran: means a person who served in the active military, naval, or air service and who was discharged or released under honorable conditions only or who later received an upgraded discharge under honorable conditions, notwithstanding any action by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs on individuals discharged or released with other than honorable discharges. See Florida Statutes 1.01
• writing: includes handwriting, printing, typewriting, and all other methods and means of forming letters and characters upon paper, stone, wood, or other materials. See Florida Statutes 1.01