Terms Used In Virginia Code > Title 54.1 > Subtitle III > Chapter 28 - Funeral Services

• Adult: means a person 18 years of age or more. See Virginia Code 1-203
• 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.
• Agency: means any department, institution, authority, instrumentality, board or other administrative agency of the government of the Commonwealth of Virginia and any transportation district created pursuant to the Transportation District Act of 1964 (§ Virginia Code 8.01-195.2
• 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.
• 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
• At-need: means at the time of death or while death is imminent. See Virginia Code 54.1-2800
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• 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}
• Board: means the Board of Historic Resources. See Virginia Code 10.1-2200
• Board: means the Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers. See Virginia Code 54.1-2800
• Business firm: means any corporation, partnership, electing small business (Subchapter S) corporation, limited liability company, or sole proprietorship authorized to do business in the Commonwealth and subject to tax imposed under Articles 2 (§ Virginia Code 36-158
• City: means an independent incorporated community which became a city as provided by law before noon on July 1, 1971, or which has within defined boundaries a population of 5,000 or more and which has become a city as provided by law. See Virginia Code 1-208
• 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.
• Cremate: means to reduce a dead human body to ashes and bone fragments by the action of fire. See Virginia Code 54.1-2800
• Cremator: means a person or establishment that owns or operates a crematory or crematorium or cremates dead human bodies. See Virginia Code 54.1-2800
• crematorium: means a facility containing a furnace for cremation of dead human bodies. See Virginia Code 54.1-2800
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Declinable preneed funeral guarantee fee: means an optional and declinable fee agreed to by a preneed funeral contract purchaser, if offered by a seller, for which the cost of the supplies and services as described in the preneed funeral contract shall be guaranteed. See Virginia Code 54.1-2800
• 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.
• Department: means the Department of Housing and Community Development. See Virginia Code 36-158
• Department: means the Department of Historic Resources. See Virginia Code 10.1-2200
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Director: means the Director of the Department of Historic Resources. See Virginia Code 10.1-2200
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Embalmer: means any person engaged in the practice of embalming. See Virginia Code 54.1-2800
• Embalming: means the process of chemically treating the dead human body by arterial injection and cavity treatment or, when necessary, hypodermic tissue injection to reduce the presence and growth of microorganisms to temporarily retard organic decomposition. See Virginia Code 54.1-2800
• 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}
• Employee: means any officer, employee or agent of any agency, or any person acting on behalf of an agency in an official capacity, temporarily or permanently in the service of the Commonwealth, or any transportation district, whether with or without compensation. See Virginia Code 8.01-195.2
• 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.
• 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.
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• 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.
• 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}
• Fund: means the Housing Revitalization Zone Fund. See Virginia Code 36-158
• Funeral directing: means the for-profit profession of directing or supervising funerals, preparing human dead for burial by means other than embalming, or making arrangements for funeral services or the financing of funeral services. See Virginia Code 54.1-2800
• Funeral director: means any person engaged in the practice of funeral directing. See Virginia Code 54.1-2800
• Funeral service establishment: means any main establishment, branch, or chapel that is permanently affixed to the real estate and for which a certificate of occupancy has been issued by the local building official where any part of the profession of funeral directing, the practice of funeral services, or the act of embalming is performed. See Virginia Code 54.1-2800
• Funeral service intern: means a person who is preparing to be licensed for the practice of funeral services under the direct supervision of a practitioner licensed by the Board. See Virginia Code 54.1-2800
• Funeral service licensee: means a person who is licensed in the practice of funeral services. See Virginia Code 54.1-2800
• 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
• 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 revitalization zone: means an area declared by the Governor to be eligible for the benefits of this chapter. See Virginia Code 36-158
• Housing unit: means any building, structure, or portion thereof, which is occupied as, or intended for occupancy as, a residence by one or more families. See Virginia Code 36-158
• in writing: include any representation of words, letters, symbols, numbers, or figures, whether (i) printed or inscribed on a tangible medium or (ii) stored in an electronic or other medium and retrievable in a perceivable form and whether an electronic signature authorized by Virginia Code 1-257
• In-person communication: means face-to-face communication and telephonic communication. See Virginia Code 54.1-2800
• incarcerated: means confinement in a local or regional correctional facility, juvenile correctional center, state correctional facility, residential detention center, or facility operated pursuant to the Corrections Private Management Act (§ Virginia Code 8.01-195.10
• Includes: means includes, but not limited to. See Virginia Code 1-218
• 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}
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• 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.
• Irrevocable trust: A trust arrangement that cannot be revoked, rescinded, or repealed by the grantor.
• 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.
• Local zone administrator: means the chief executive of the county, city, or town in which a housing revitalization zone is located, or his designee. See Virginia Code 36-158
• Locality: means a county, city, or town as the context may require. See Virginia Code 1-221
• Next of kin: means any of the following persons, regardless of the relationship to the decedent: any person designated to make arrangements for the disposition of the decedent's remains upon his death pursuant to § Virginia Code 54.1-2800
• 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: shall include individuals, a trust, an estate, a partnership, an association, an order, a corporation, or any other legal or commercial entity;

  6. See Virginia Code 8.01-2

• Person: includes any individual, corporation, partnership, association, cooperative, limited liability company, trust, joint venture, government, political subdivision, or any other legal or commercial entity and any successor, representative, agent, agency, or instrumentality thereof. See Virginia Code 1-230
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Practice of funeral services: means engaging in the care and disposition of the human dead, the preparation of the human dead for the funeral service, burial or cremation, the making of arrangements for the funeral service or for the financing of the funeral service and the selling or making of financial arrangements for the sale of funeral supplies to the public. See Virginia Code 54.1-2800
• Preneed: means at any time other than at-need. See Virginia Code 54.1-2800
• Preneed funeral contract: means any agreement where payment is made by the consumer prior to the receipt of services or supplies contracted for, which evidences arrangements prior to death for (i) the providing of funeral services or (ii) the sale of funeral supplies. See Virginia Code 54.1-2800
• Preneed funeral planning: means the making of arrangements prior to death for (i) the providing of funeral services or (ii) the sale of funeral supplies. See Virginia Code 54.1-2800
• 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.
• Process: includes subpoenas, the summons and complaint in a civil action, and process in statutory actions. See Virginia Code 1-237
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Qualified business firm: means a business firm designated as a qualified business firm by the Department pursuant to § 36-165. See Virginia Code 36-158
• Qualified owner occupant: means the owner of a housing unit who also uses the housing unit as the owner's residence, and who is designated as a qualified owner occupant pursuant to § 36-165. See Virginia Code 36-158
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• real estate: includes lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all rights and appurtenances thereto and interests therein, other than a chattel interest. See Virginia Code 1-219
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• 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.
• Sheriff: shall include deputy sheriffs and such other persons designated in § Virginia Code 8.01-2
• Solicitation: means initiating contact with consumers with the intent of influencing their selection of a funeral plan or funeral service provider. See Virginia Code 54.1-2800
• State: when applied to a part of the United States, includes any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-245
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Supreme Court: means the Supreme Court of Virginia. See Virginia Code 1-249
• 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.
• Town: means any existing town or an incorporated community within one or more counties which became a town before noon, July 1, 1971, as provided by law or which has within defined boundaries a population of 1,000 or more and which has become a town as provided by law. See Virginia Code 1-254
• 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.
• United States: includes the 50 states, the District of Columbia the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-255
• 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.
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.
• wrongfully incarcerated: means incarceration for a felony conviction for which the conviction has been vacated pursuant to Virginia Code 8.01-195.10