Terms Used In Florida Statutes > Chapter 680 > Part V - Default

• 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.
• Aggregate: means the amounts reported for owners of unclaimed property of less than $10 or where there is no name for the individual or entity listed on the holder's records, regardless of the amount to be reported. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• 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.
• 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.
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• Apparent owner: means the person whose name appears on the records of the holder as the person entitled to property held, issued, or owing by the holder. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• 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.
• Architect: means a person or firm that is authorized to practice architecture pursuant to chapter 481 or a general contractor who provides architectural services under a design-build contract authorized by…. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• 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.
• Audit: means an action or proceeding to examine and verify a person's records, books, accounts, and other documents to ascertain and determine compliance with this chapter. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Audit agent: means a person with whom the department enters into a ¹contract to conduct an audit or examination. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• 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.
• 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}
• Business association: means any for-profit or nonprofit corporation other than a public corporation; joint stock company; investment company; unincorporated association or association of two or more individuals for business purposes, whether or not for profit; partnership; joint venture; limited liability company; sole proprietorship; business trust; trust company; land bank; safe-deposit company; safekeeping depository; financial organization; insurance company; federally chartered entity; utility company; or other business entity, whether or not for profit. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Case law: The law as laid down in cases that have been decided in the decisions of the courts.
• Chief judge: The judge who has primary responsibility for the administration of a court but also decides cases; chief judges are determined by seniority.
• Claim of lien: means the claim recorded as provided in…. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• Claimant: means the person on whose behalf a claim is filed. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Clerk of court: An officer appointed by the court to work with the chief judge in overseeing the court's administration, especially to assist in managing the flow of cases through the court and to maintain court records.
• Commencement of the improvement: means the time of filing for record of the notice of commencement provided in…. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• Commercial unit: means such a unit of goods as by commercial usage is a single whole for purposes of lease and division of which materially impairs its character or value on the market or in use. See Florida Statutes 680.1031
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Construction: means construction, maintenance, operation, or repair in connection with any oil or gas pipeline or in connection with, or necessary for, the production of oil or gas, either in the development thereof or in working thereon in the subtractive process. See Florida Statutes 713.801
• Consumer lease: means a lease that a lessor regularly engaged in the business of leasing or selling makes to a lessee who is an individual and who takes under the lease primarily for a personal, family, or household purpose if the total payments to be made under the lease contract, excluding payments for options to renew or buy, do not exceed $25,000. See Florida Statutes 680.1031
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Contract: means an agreement for improving real property, written or unwritten, express or implied, and includes extras or change orders. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• Contract price: means the amount agreed upon by the contracting parties for performing all labor and services and furnishing all materials covered by their contract and must be increased or diminished by the price of extras or change orders, or by any amounts attributable to changes in the scope of the work or defects in workmanship or materials or any other breaches of the contract; but no penalty or liquidated damages between the owner and a contractor diminishes the contract price as to any other lienor. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• contractor: includes an architect, landscape architect, or engineer who improves real property pursuant to a design-build contract authorized by…. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• 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.
• Counterclaim: A claim that a defendant makes against a plaintiff.
• Covenant or restriction: means any agreement or limitation contained in a document recorded in the public records of the county in which a parcel is located which subjects the parcel to any use or other restriction or obligation. See Florida Statutes 712.01
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the Department of Financial Services. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Direct contract: means a contract between the owner and any other person. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• 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:
• Division: means the Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. See Florida Statutes 723.003
• Domicile: means the state of incorporation for a corporation; the state of filing for a business association, other than a corporation, whose formation or organization requires a filing with a state; the state of organization for a business association, other than a corporation, whose formation or organization does not require a filing with a state; ²or the state of home office for a federally charted entity. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Drilling: means drilling, digging, torpedoing, acidizing, perforating, fracturing, testing, logging, cementing, completing, or repairing upon any land or leasehold for oil or gas purposes or for any oil or gas pipeline. See Florida Statutes 713.801
• Due diligence: means the use of reasonable and prudent methods under particular circumstances to locate apparent owners of inactive accounts using the taxpayer identification number or social security number, if known, which may include, but are not limited to, using a nationwide database, cross-indexing with other records of the holder, mailing to the last known address unless the last known address is known to be inaccurate, providing written notice as described in this chapter by electronic mail if an apparent owner has elected such delivery, or engaging a licensed agency or company capable of conducting such search and providing updated addresses. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Electronic: means relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic, or similar capabilities. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Electronic funds transfer: The transfer of money between accounts by consumer electronic systems-such as automated teller machines (ATMs) and electronic payment of bills-rather than by check or cash. (Wire transfers, checks, drafts, and paper instruments do not fall into this category.) ^{Source: OCC}
• Electronic transmission: means a form of communication, not directly involving the physical transmission or transfer of paper, that creates a record that may be retained, retrieved, and reviewed by a recipient and that may be directly reproduced in a comprehensible and legible paper form by the recipient through an automated process, such as a printer or copy machine. See Florida Statutes 723.003
• Engineer: means a person or firm that is authorized to practice engineering pursuant to chapter 471 or a general contractor who provides engineering services under a design-build contract authorized by…. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• 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}
• Escheat: Reversion of real or personal property to the state when 1) a person dies without leaving a will and has no heirs, or 2) when the property (such as a bank account) has been inactive for a certain period of time. ^{Source: OCC}
• 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.
• Extras or change orders: means labor, services, or materials for improving real property authorized by the owner and added to or deleted from labor, services, or materials covered by a previous contract between the same parties. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Final furnishing: means the last date that the lienor furnishes labor, services, or materials. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• Finance lease: means a lease with respect to which:
  1. See Florida Statutes 680.1031
• Financial organization: means a savings association, savings and loan association, savings bank, industrial bank, bank, banking organization, trust company, international bank agency, cooperative bank, building and loan association, or credit union. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• 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.
• 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}
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• furnish: when used in connection with the words "labor" or "services" or "materials" means performance or furnishing by the lienor or by another for him or her. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• Furnish materials: means supply materials which are incorporated in the improvement including normal wastage in construction operations; or specially fabricated materials for incorporation in the improvement, not including any design work, submittals, or the like preliminary to actual fabrication of the materials; or supply materials used for the construction and not remaining in the improvement, subject to diminution by the salvage value of such materials; and includes supplying rental equipment, but does not include supplying handtools. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• 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
• Goods: means all things that are movable at the time of identification to the lease contract, or are fixtures (s. See Florida Statutes 680.1031
• 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.
• Health care provider: means any state-licensed entity that provides and receives payment for health care services. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Holder: means :
  (a) A person who is in possession or control or has custody of property or the rights to property belonging to another; is indebted to another on an obligation; or is obligated to hold for the account of, or to deliver or pay to, the owner, property subject to this chapter; or
  (b) A trustee in case of a trust. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• homeowner: means a person who owns a mobile home and rents or leases a lot within a mobile home park for residential use. See Florida Statutes 723.003
• Improve: means build, erect, place, make, alter, remove, repair, or demolish any improvement over, upon, connected with, or beneath the surface of real property, or excavate any land, or furnish materials for any of these purposes, or perform any labor or services upon the improvements, including the furnishing of carpet or rugs or appliances that are permanently affixed to the real property and final construction cleanup to prepare a structure for occupancy; or perform any labor or services or furnish any materials in grading, seeding, sodding, or planting for landscaping purposes, including the furnishing of trees, shrubs, bushes, or plants that are planted on the real property, or in equipping any improvement with fixtures or permanent apparatus or provide any solid-waste collection or disposal on the site of the improvement. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• Improvement: means any building, structure, construction, demolition, excavation, solid-waste removal, landscaping, or any part thereof existing, built, erected, placed, made, or done on land or other real property for its permanent benefit. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• Indictment: The formal charge issued by a grand jury stating that there is enough evidence that the defendant committed the crime to justify having a trial; it is used primarily for felonies.
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Installment lease contract: means a lease contract that authorizes or requires the delivery of goods in separate lots to be separately accepted, even though the lease contract contains a clause "each delivery is a separate lease" or its equivalent. See Florida Statutes 680.1031
• Insurance company: means an association, corporation, or fraternal or mutual benefit organization, whether for profit or not for profit, which is engaged in providing insurance coverage. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Intangible property: Property that has no intrinsic value, but is merely the evidence of value such as stock certificates, bonds, and promissory notes.
• Intangible property: includes , by way of illustration and not limitation:
  (a) Moneys, checks, virtual currency, drafts, deposits, interest, dividends, and income. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Interest holder: means a person, or his or her agent, holding, for oil or gas purposes or for any oil or gas pipeline, any interest in the legal or equitable title to any land or any leasehold interest, and shall include purchasers under executory contract, receivers, and trustees. See Florida Statutes 713.801
• 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.
• Laborer: means any person other than an architect, landscape architect, engineer, surveyor and mapper, and the like who, under properly authorized contract, personally performs on the site of the improvement labor or services for improving real property and does not furnish materials or labor service of others. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• last known address: includes any partial description of the location of the apparent owner sufficient to establish the apparent owner was a resident of this state at the time of last contact with the apparent owner or at the time the property became due and payable. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Lawsuit: A legal action started by a plaintiff against a defendant based on a complaint that the defendant failed to perform a legal duty, resulting in harm to the plaintiff.
• 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}
• Lease: means a transfer of the right to possession and use of goods for a term in return for consideration, but a sale, including a sale on approval or a sale or return, or retention or creation of a security interest is not a lease. See Florida Statutes 680.1031
• Lease agreement: means the bargain, with respect to the lease, of the lessor and the lessee in fact as found in their language or by implication from other circumstances including course of dealing or usage of trade or course of performance as provided in this chapter. See Florida Statutes 680.1031
• Lease contract: means the total legal obligation that results from the lease agreement as affected by this chapter and any other applicable rules of law. See Florida Statutes 680.1031
• Legal tender: coins, dollar bills, or other currency issued by a government as official money. ^{Source: U.S. Mint}
• Legatee: A beneficiary of a decedent
• Lender: means any person who loans money to an owner for construction of an improvement to real property, who secures that loan by recording a mortgage on the real property, and who periodically disburses portions of the proceeds of that loan for the payment of the improvement. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• Lessee: means a person who acquires the right to possession and use of goods under a lease. See Florida Statutes 680.1031
• Lessor: means a person who transfers the right to possession and use of goods under a lease. See Florida Statutes 680.1031
• 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.
• Lienor: means a person who is:
  (a) A contractor;
  (b) A subcontractor;
  (c) A sub-subcontractor;
  (d) A laborer;
  (e) A materialman who contracts with the owner, a contractor, a subcontractor, or a sub-subcontractor; or
  (f) A professional lienor under…. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• Lienor giving notice: means any lienor, except a contractor, who has duly and timely served a notice to the owner and, if required, to the contractor and subcontractor, as provided in…. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Lot: means a parcel or a single article that is the subject matter of a separate lease or delivery, whether or not it is sufficient to perform the lease contract. See Florida Statutes 680.1031
• Lot rental amount: means all financial obligations, except user fees, which are required as a condition of the tenancy. See Florida Statutes 723.003
• Managed care payor: means a health care plan that has a defined system of selecting and limiting health care providers as evidenced by a managed care contract with the health care providers. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Material: means any machinery, equipment, appliances, buildings, structures, tools, bits, or supplies used in connection with any construction, drilling, or operating upon any land or leasehold for oil or gas purposes or for any oil or gas pipeline. See Florida Statutes 713.801
• Materialman: means any person who furnishes materials under contract to the owner, contractor, subcontractor, or sub-subcontractor on the site of the improvement or for direct delivery to the site of the improvement or, for specially fabricated materials, off the site of the improvement for the particular improvement, and who performs no labor in the installation thereof. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• materials: means performance or furnishing by the lienor or by another for him or her. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• Mediation: means a process whereby a mediator appointed by the Division of Florida Condominiums, Timeshares, and Mobile Homes, or mutually selected by the parties, acts to encourage and facilitate the resolution of a dispute. See Florida Statutes 723.003
• Merchant lessee: means a lessee who is a merchant with respect to goods of the kind subject to the lease. See Florida Statutes 680.1031
• minor: includes any person who has not attained the age of 18 years. See Florida Statutes 1.01
• Mobile home: means a residential structure, transportable in one or more sections, which is 8 body feet or more in width, over 35 body feet in length with the hitch, built on an integral chassis, designed to be used as a dwelling when connected to the required utilities, and not originally sold as a recreational vehicle, and includes the plumbing, heating, air-conditioning, and electrical systems contained therein. See Florida Statutes 723.003
• Mobile home lot: means a lot described by a park owner pursuant to the requirements of…. See Florida Statutes 723.003
• Mobile home subdivision: means a subdivision of mobile homes where individual lots are owned by owners and where a portion of the subdivision or the amenities exclusively serving the subdivision are retained by the subdivision developer. See Florida Statutes 723.003
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• 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.
• Notice of commencement: means the notice recorded as provided in…. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• oath: includes affirmations. See Florida Statutes 1.01
• 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.
• Oil or gas pipeline: means any pipeline laid and designed as a means of transporting natural gas, oil, or gasoline, or their components or derivatives, and the right-of-way therefor. See Florida Statutes 713.801
• Operating: means conducting any operation in connection with, or necessary to, the production of oil or gas, either in the development thereof or in working thereon in the subtractive process. See Florida Statutes 713.801
• Operator: means the person in charge of operations on lands or leaseholds for oil or gas purposes or for any oil or gas pipeline. See Florida Statutes 713.801
• Operator of a mobile home park: means either a person who establishes a mobile home park on land that is leased from another person or a person who has been delegated the authority to act as the park owner in matters relating to the administration and management of the mobile home park, including, but not limited to, authority to make decisions relating to the mobile home park. See Florida Statutes 723.003
• Original contractor: means any person for whose benefit a lien is prescribed by the provisions of…. See Florida Statutes 713.801
• Owner: means a person, or the person's legal representative, entitled to receive or having a legal or equitable interest in or claim against property subject to this chapter; a depositor in the case of a deposit; a beneficiary in the case of a trust or a deposit in trust; or a payee in the case of a negotiable instrument or other intangible property. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Owner: means a person who is the owner of any legal or equitable interest in real property, which interest can be sold by legal process, and who enters into a contract for the improvement of the real property. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• Parcel: means any real property that is subject to any covenant or restriction of a property owners' association. See Florida Statutes 712.01
• park: means a use of land in which lots or spaces are offered for rent or lease for the placement of mobile homes and in which the primary use of the park is residential. See Florida Statutes 723.003
• park owner: means an owner or operator of a mobile home park. See Florida Statutes 723.003
• parties: means a park owner as defined in subsection (13) and a homeowners' committee selected pursuant to…. See Florida Statutes 723.003
• 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 the singular or plural, natural or corporate, private or governmental, including the state and any political subdivision or agency thereof as the context for the use thereof requires or denotes and including any property owners' association. See Florida Statutes 712.01
• Person: means an individual; estate; business association; corporation; firm; association; joint adventure; partnership; government or governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality; or any other legal or commercial entity. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• 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
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• 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
• posting: means placing the document referred to on the site of the improvement in a conspicuous place at the front of the site and in a manner that protects the document from the weather. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• Power of attorney: A written instrument which authorizes one person to act as another's agent or attorney. The power of attorney may be for a definite, specific act, or it may be general in nature. The terms of the written power of attorney may specify when it will expire. If not, the power of attorney usually expires when the person granting it dies. ^{Source: OCC}
• 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.
• Present value: means the amount as of a date certain of one or more sums payable in the future, discounted to the date certain. See Florida Statutes 680.1031
• 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.
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Public corporation: means a corporation created by the state, founded and owned in the public interest, supported by public funds, and governed by those deriving their power from the state. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Purchase: includes taking by sale, lease, mortgage, security interest, pledge, gift, or any other voluntary transaction creating an interest in goods. See Florida Statutes 680.1031
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Real property: means the land that is improved and the improvements thereon, including fixtures, except any such property owned by the state or any county, municipality, school board, or governmental agency, commission, or political subdivision. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• 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.
• rental agreement: means any mutual understanding or lease, whether oral or written, between a mobile home owner and a mobile home park owner in which the mobile home owner is entitled to place his or her mobile home on a mobile home lot for either direct or indirect remuneration of the mobile home park owner. See Florida Statutes 723.003
• 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.
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• Right of survivorship: The ownership rights that result in the acquisition of title to property by reason of having survived other co-owners.
• Root of title: means any title transaction purporting to create or transfer the estate claimed by any person which is the last title transaction to have been recorded at least 30 years before the time when marketability is being determined. See Florida Statutes 712.01
• 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.
• Site of the improvement: means the real property which is being improved and on which labor or services are performed or materials furnished in furtherance of the operations of improving such real property. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• State: when applied to a part of the United States, includes any state, district, commonwealth, territory, insular possession, and any other area subject to the legislative authority of the United States. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Sub-subcontractor: means a person other than a materialman or laborer who enters into a contract with a subcontractor for the performance of any part of such subcontractor's contract, including the removal of solid waste from the real property. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• Subcontractor: means a person other than a materialman or laborer who enters into a contract with a contractor for the performance of any part of such contractor's contract, including the removal of solid waste from the real property. See Florida Statutes 713.01
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Supplier: means a person from whom a lessor buys or leases goods to be leased under a finance lease. See Florida Statutes 680.1031
• Testate: To die leaving a will.
• Testator: A male person who leaves a will at death.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Trust instrument: means a trust instrument as defined in…. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Unclaimed Property Purchase Agreement: means the form adopted by the department pursuant to…. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Unclaimed Property Recovery Agreement: means the form adopted by the department pursuant to…. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• 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}
• United States: means any state, district, commonwealth, territory, insular possession, and any other area subject to the legislative authority of the United States of America. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• Unreasonable: means arbitrary, capricious, or inconsistent with this chapter. See Florida Statutes 723.003
• 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.
• User fees: means those amounts charged in addition to the lot rental amount for nonessential optional services provided by or through the park owner to the mobile home owner under a separate written agreement between the mobile home owner and the person furnishing the optional service or services. See Florida Statutes 723.003
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Virtual currency: means digital units of exchange that:
  1. See Florida Statutes 717.101
• wrecker operator: means any person or firm regularly engaged for hire in the business of towing or removing motor vehicles. See Florida Statutes 1.01
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.
• 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