Terms Used In Arizona Laws > Title 12 > Chapter 6 - Special Actions and Proceedings by Individual Persons

• Actual malice: means that state of mind arising from personal spite, hatred, or ill will toward the plaintiff, but such a state of mind occasioned by a good faith belief on the part of the defendant in the truth of the libelous publication or broadcast at the time it is published or broadcast shall not constitute actual malice. See Arizona Laws 12-653.01
• 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.
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Associate director: means the associate director of the division. See Arizona Laws 3-1201
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• 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.
• Beef: includes veal. See Arizona Laws 3-1231
• Beef products: includes veal products. See Arizona Laws 3-1231
• 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 police pension board. See Arizona Laws 9-911
• Buyer: means a person who buys or hires a motor vehicle under a retail installment contract. See Arizona Laws 12-631
• Common law: The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on judicial decisions rather than legislative action.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Council: means the Arizona beef council. See Arizona Laws 3-1231
• Counterclaim: A claim that a defendant makes against a plaintiff.
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Defense attorney: Represent defendants in criminal matters.
• Department: means the Arizona department of agriculture. See Arizona Laws 3-101
• Department: means the police department. See Arizona Laws 9-911
• Deposition: An oral statement made before an officer authorized by law to administer oaths. Such statements are often taken to examine potential witnesses, to obtain discovery, or to be used later in trial.
• Direct loan agreement: means an agreement between a lender and a purchaser by which the lender has advanced monies pursuant to a loan secured by a motor vehicle which the purchaser has purchased. See Arizona Laws 12-631
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Division: means the animal services division of the Arizona department of agriculture. See Arizona Laws 3-1201
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• Exemplary damages: means damages which may, in the discretion of the court or jury, be recovered in addition to general and special damages for the sake of example and by way of punishing a defendant who has made the publication or broadcast with actual malice. See Arizona Laws 12-653.01
• Fire and life safety inspection: means an inspection of a regulated person or facility conducted to ensure fire safety compliance. See Arizona Laws 9-831
• Food and swimming pool inspection: means an inspection of a regulated person or facility conducted to ensure the safety of food services, swimming pools and other bathing places. See Arizona Laws 9-831
• Food product: means any product that is grown, prepared, provided, served or sold and that is primarily intended for human consumption and nourishment. See Arizona Laws 12-681
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Fund: means the police pension fund. See Arizona Laws 9-911
• 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
• Governing body: means the city commission, city or town council or other governing body of the municipality. See Arizona Laws 9-911
• Grand jury: agreement providing that a lender will delay exercising its rights (in the case of a mortgage,
• Impeachment: (1) The process of calling something into question, as in "impeaching the testimony of a witness." (2) The constitutional process whereby the House of Representatives may "impeach" (accuse of misconduct) high officers of the federal government for trial in the Senate.
• 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.
• Jurisprudence: The study of law and the structure of the legal system.
• 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 contract: means a contract for or in contemplation of the lease for the use of a motor vehicle, and the purchase of services incidental to the lease, by a natural person for a term exceeding four months primarily for personal, family, household, business or commercial purposes, whether or not it is agreed that the lessee bears the risk of the motor vehicle's depreciation. See Arizona Laws 12-631
• Lessee: includes a bailee and means a natural person who leases, offers to lease or is offered the lease of a motor vehicle under a lease contract. See Arizona Laws 12-631
• Lessor: includes a bailor and means a person who is engaged in the business of leasing, offering to lease or arranging the lease of a motor vehicle under a lease contract. See Arizona Laws 12-631
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• License: includes the whole or part of any municipal permit, certificate, approval, registration, charter or similar form of permission required by law. See Arizona Laws 9-831
• Licensing: includes the municipal process respecting the grant, denial, renewal, revocation, suspension, annulment, withdrawal or amendment of a license. See Arizona Laws 9-831
• Livestock: means cattle, equine, sheep, goats and swine, except feral pigs. See Arizona Laws 3-1201
• Manufacturer: means a person or entity that designs, assembles, fabricates, produces, constructs or otherwise prepares a product or component part of a product before its sale to a user or consumer, including a seller owned in whole or significant part by the manufacturer or a seller owning the manufacturer in whole or significant part. See Arizona Laws 12-681
• Motor vehicle: means a motor vehicle which is required to be registered under Title 28, Chapter 7. See Arizona Laws 12-631
• municipality: means an incorporated city or town. See Arizona Laws 9-831
• newspaper: means any publication which may be mailed at the second-class rates established by the United States post office. See Arizona Laws 12-653.01
• Peace officers: include regularly salaried deputy sheriffs, policemen and police officers of duly organized police departments. See Arizona Laws 9-901
• Peace officers: means sheriffs of counties, constables, marshals, policemen of cities and towns, commissioned personnel of the department of public safety, personnel who are employed by the state department of corrections and the department of juvenile corrections and who have received a certificate from the Arizona peace officer standards and training board, peace officers who are appointed by a multicounty water conservation district and who have received a certificate from the Arizona peace officer standards and training board, police officers who are appointed by community college district governing boards and who have received a certificate from the Arizona peace officer standards and training board, police officers who are appointed by the Arizona board of regents and who have received a certificate from the Arizona peace officer standards and training board, police officers who are appointed by the governing body of a public airport pursuant to section 28-8426 and who have received a certificate from the Arizona peace officer standards and training board, peace officers who are appointed by a private postsecondary institution pursuant to section 15-1897 and who have received a certificate from the Arizona peace officer standards and training board and special agents from the office of the attorney general, or of a county attorney, and who have received a certificate from the Arizona peace officer standards and training board. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Person: means an individual, corporation, partnership, trust, association, cooperative association and any other business unit or organization. See Arizona Laws 3-1231
• Person: means an individual, partnership, corporation, association, governmental subdivision or unit of a governmental subdivision or a public or private organization of any character. See Arizona Laws 9-831
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• 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.
• 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}
• Producer: means a person who owns or acquires ownership of cattle. See Arizona Laws 3-1231
• Product: means the individual product or any component part of the product that is the subject of a product liability action. See Arizona Laws 12-681
• Product liability action: means any action brought against a manufacturer or seller of a product for damages for bodily injury, death or property damage caused by or resulting from the manufacture, construction, design, formula, installation, preparation, assembly, testing, packaging, labeling, sale, use or consumption of any product, the failure to warn or protect against a danger or hazard in the use or misuse of the product or the failure to provide proper instructions for the use or consumption of any product. See Arizona Laws 12-681
• Product safety analysis or review: means any investigation, inquiry, review, evaluation or other means by which a person or entity seeks to determine, calculate, predict, estimate, evaluate or report the safety or health effects of the use of any of its products, systems, services or processes. See Arizona Laws 12-681
• Range: means every character of lands, enclosed or unenclosed, outside of cities and towns, upon which livestock is permitted by custom, license or permit to roam and feed. See Arizona Laws 3-1201
• Range livestock: means livestock customarily permitted to roam upon the ranges of the state, whether public domain or in private control, and not in the immediate actual possession or control of the owner although occasionally placed in enclosures for temporary purposes. See Arizona Laws 3-1201
• Reasonable remedial measures: means actions taken as a result of a product safety analysis or review and intended to improve the safety of products, systems, services or processes or to lessen the likelihood of a safety-related accident. See Arizona Laws 12-681
• Request for corrections: means a request for technical or clarifying corrections from an applicant who has submitted an administratively complete application for a license. See Arizona Laws 9-831
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• Seller: means a person engaged in the business of selling or leasing motor vehicles under a retail installment contract. See Arizona Laws 12-631
• Seller: means a person or entity, including a wholesaler, distributor, retailer or lessor, that is engaged in the business of leasing any product or selling any product for resale, use or consumption. See Arizona Laws 12-681
• Special damages: means all damages which the plaintiff alleges and proves he has suffered in respect only to his property, business, trade, profession or occupation. See Arizona Laws 12-653.01
• State of the art: means the technical, mechanical and scientific knowledge of manufacturing, designing, testing or labeling the same or similar products that was in existence and reasonably feasible for use at the time of manufacture. See Arizona Laws 12-681
• Substantive policy statement: means a written expression that is only advisory and that informs the general public of a municipality's current approach to, or opinion of, the requirements of the ordinances or codes, including, if appropriate, the municipality's current practice, procedure or method of action based on that approach or opinion. See Arizona Laws 9-831
• 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.
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.
• Working day: means a twenty-four hour period excluding weekends and legal holidays. See Arizona Laws 9-831
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.
• Writ: means an order or precept in writing issued in the name of the state or by a court or judicial officer. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Writ of certiorari: An order issued by the Supreme Court directing the lower court to transmit records for a case for which it will hear on appeal.