Terms Used In Delaware Code > Title 10 > Chapter 19 - General Provisions Applicable to Courts and Judges

• Adjourn: A motion to adjourn a legislative chamber or a committee, if passed, ends that day's session.
• 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.
• Alcohol: means ethyl alcohol produced by the distillation of any fermented liquid, whether rectified or diluted with water or not, whatever may be the origin thereof, and includes synthetic ethyl alcohol, but it does not mean ethyl alcohol, diluted or not, that has been denatured or otherwise rendered unfit for beverage purposes. See Delaware Code Title 4 Sec. 101
• 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.
• Ancillary administration: Probate administration of property (usually real property) owned in a State other than the one in which the decedent had his (her) principal residence at the time of death.
• Appeals Commission: means 3 persons, 1 from each county, appointed by the Governor with the advice and consent of the majority of the Senate. See Delaware Code Title 4 Sec. 1302
• 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
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• 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 Manager: means the Abandoned Property Audit Manager of the Delaware Department of Finance. See Delaware Code Title 12 Sec. 1130
• Bail: Security given for the release of a criminal defendant or witness from legal custody (usually in the form of money) to secure his/her appearance on the day and time appointed.
• 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: shall mean the Violent Crimes Compensation Board, as established by this title. See Delaware Code Title 11 Sec. 9102
• Cemetery: means land or structure used or intended to be used for the interment/entombment of human remains, including facilities used for the final disposition of cremated remains. See Delaware Code Title 9 Sec. 1002
• Chambers: A judge's office.
• Chief judge: The judge who has primary responsibility for the administration of a court but also decides cases; chief judges are determined by seniority.
• 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.
• Commission: means the Delaware Harness Racing Commission. See Delaware Code Title 3 Sec. 10001
• Commissioner: means the person appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate who serves as the Marijuana Commissioner for the State. See Delaware Code Title 4 Sec. 1302
• Commissioner: means a judicial officer of a particular court authorized to perform the judicial powers and duties of the court in issuing warrants in criminal cases and the fixing and approving of bail. See Delaware Code Title 10 Sec. 1990
• Compassion center: means an entity registered as a compassion center under § 4914A of Title 16. See Delaware Code Title 4 Sec. 1302
• Consumer: means an individual 21 years of age or older who purchases marijuana, marijuana products, or marijuana accessories for personal use by the individual or other individuals 21 years of age or older, but not for resale to others. See Delaware Code Title 4 Sec. 1302
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Court: means the Court of Chancery. See Delaware Code Title 12 Sec. 39A-101
• courts: means such court or courts as established by the General Assembly in accordance with article IV, § 1 (Judiciary) of the Constitution of this State. See Delaware Code Title 10 Sec. 1990
• cultivation facility: means an entity licensed to cultivate, prepare, and package marijuana and sell marijuana to retail marijuana stores, to marijuana product manufacturing facilities, and to other marijuana cultivation facilities, but not to consumers. See Delaware Code Title 4 Sec. 1302
• 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 Safety and Homeland Security. See Delaware Code Title 4 Sec. 1302
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• 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 Alcohol and Tobacco Enforcement. See Delaware Code Title 4 Sec. 1302
• Electronic: means relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic, or similar capabilities. See Delaware Code Title 12 Sec. 1130
• employee: as used in this chapter , clerks, secretaries, nurses, administrators, bookkeepers, technicians and other assistants who are not usually and ordinarily considered by law, custom and practice to be rendering professional services to the public for which a license, or other legal authorization, is required in connection with the profession to be practiced, nor does the term "employee" include any other person who performs all of such person's employment under the direct supervision and control of an officer, employee or agent who renders professional service to the public on behalf of the professional corporation; provided that, no person shall, under the guise of employment, practice a profession unless duly licensed to practice that profession under the laws of this State. See Delaware Code Title 8 Sec. 607
• 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.
• 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}
• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• Establishment: means any place located physically in this State where alcoholic liquor of 1 or more varieties is stored, sold or used by authority of any law of this State, including a hotel, restaurant, tavern, beer garden, or club as defined in this section, or where alcoholic liquor of 1 or more varieties is manufactured by virtue of any law of this State. See Delaware Code Title 4 Sec. 101
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• Family: means as defined in § 901 of this title. See Delaware Code Title 10 Sec. 1921
• 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.
• For-profit cemetery: means any person, partnership, corporation, or business entity operating a cemetery for purposes of generating a profit, specifically excluding churches, religious organizations, any nonprofit entities, and veteran organizations. See Delaware Code Title 9 Sec. 1002
• 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
• General Fund: means the General Fund described in § 6102 of Title 29. See Delaware Code Title 12 Sec. 1130
• Governing body: means the town council, city council, commissioners or other legislative body charged with governing the municipality, or Levy Court Commissioners, or other legislative body charged with governing the county. See Delaware Code Title 10 Sec. 1990
• Government agency: includes all agencies, authorities, boards, commissioner, departments, institutions, offices, and any other bodies of the State created by the constitution or statute, whether in the executive, judicial, or legislative branch; all units and corporate outgrowths created by executive order of the Governor or any constitutional officer, by the Supreme Court, or by resolution of the General Assembly; and agencies, authorities, boards, commissions, departments, institutions, offices, and any other bodies politic and corporate of a unit of local government, or school district. See Delaware Code Title 10 Sec. 1921
• Holder: means any person having possession, custody, or control of the property of another person and includes a post office, a depository, a bailee, a trustee, a receiver or other liquidating officer, a fiduciary, a governmental department, institution or agency, a municipal corporation and the fiscal officers thereof, a public utility, service corporation, and every other legal entity incorporated or created under the laws of this State or doing business in this State. See Delaware Code Title 12 Sec. 1130
• Home address: includes a judicial officer's permanent residence and any secondary residence affirmatively identified by the judicial officer, but does not include a judicial officer's work address. See Delaware Code Title 10 Sec. 1921
• 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}
• 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.
• Judicial officer: includes any active, formerly active, or retired:

  a. See Delaware Code Title 10 Sec. 1921

• Labor peace agreement: means an agreement between a licensee and any bona fide labor organization that prohibits labor organizations and members from engaging in picketing, work stoppages, boycotts, and any other economic interference with the licensee's business. See Delaware Code Title 4 Sec. 1302
• Law-enforcement agency: means a government agency or any subunit thereof which performs the administration of criminal justice pursuant to state or federal law or executive order, and which allocates a substantial part of its annual budget to the administration of criminal justice. See Delaware Code Title 11 Sec. 8901B
• License: means any license or permit to cultivate, possess, manufacture, sell, transport, or test marijuana or marijuana products and accessories authorized or issued by the Commissioner under this chapter. See Delaware Code Title 4 Sec. 1302
• Manufacture: means distill, rectify, ferment, brew, make, mix, concoct or process any substance or substances capable of producing a beverage containing more than 1/2 of 1% of alcohol by volume and includes blending, bottling or other preparation for sale. See Delaware Code Title 4 Sec. 101
• Manufacturer: means any person engaged in the manufacture of any alcoholic liquor and among others includes a distiller, a rectifier, a wine maker, a brewer, and includes a bottler or one who prepares alcoholic liquor for sale. See Delaware Code Title 4 Sec. 101
• Marijuana: means as defined in § 4701 of Title 16. See Delaware Code Title 4 Sec. 1302
• Marijuana accessories: means any equipment, products, or materials of any kind which are used, intended for use, or designed for use in planting, propagating, cultivating, growing, harvesting, composting, manufacturing, compounding, converting, producing, processing, preparing, testing, analyzing, packaging, repackaging, storing, vaporizing, or containing marijuana; or for ingesting, inhaling, or otherwise introducing marijuana into the human body. See Delaware Code Title 4 Sec. 1302
• Marijuana establishment: means an entity licensed as a marijuana cultivation facility, a marijuana testing facility, a marijuana product manufacturing facility, or a retail marijuana store. See Delaware Code Title 4 Sec. 1302
• Marijuana product manufacturing facility: means an entity licensed to: purchase marijuana; manufacture, prepare, and package marijuana products; and sell marijuana and marijuana products to other marijuana product manufacturing facilities and retail marijuana stores, but not to consumers. See Delaware Code Title 4 Sec. 1302
• Marijuana products: means products that are comprised of marijuana, including concentrated marijuana, and other ingredients and are intended for use or consumption, such as edible products, ointments, and tinctures. See Delaware Code Title 4 Sec. 1302
• Marijuana testing facility: means an entity licensed to test marijuana for potency and contaminants. See Delaware Code Title 4 Sec. 1302
• Mineral: means gas, oil, coal, oil shale, other gaseous liquid or solid hydrocarbon, cement material, sand and gravel, road material, building stone, chemical raw material, gemstone, fissionable and nonfissionable ores, colloidal and other clay, steam and other geothermal resources, and any other substance defined as a mineral by law of this State other than this chapter. See Delaware Code Title 12 Sec. 1130
• Mineral proceeds: means an amount payable for extraction, production, or sale of minerals, or, on the abandonment of the amount, the amount that becomes payable after abandonment. See Delaware Code Title 12 Sec. 1130
• 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.
• Nonfreely transferable security: means a security that cannot be delivered to the State Escheator by the Depository Trust Clearing Corporation or a similar custodian of securities providing post-trade clearing and settlement services to financial markets or cannot be delivered because there is no agent to effect transfer. See Delaware Code Title 12 Sec. 1130
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• Oath: includes affirmation in all cases where an affirmation may be substituted for an oath, and "sworn" includes affirmed; and the forms shall be varied accordingly. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
• Open license: means a license issued pursuant to part B of subchapter III of this chapter that is not a social equity license or microbusiness license which includes all of the following:

  a. See Delaware Code Title 4 Sec. 1302

• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Owner: means a person, or the person's legal representative when acting on behalf of the person, that has a legal, beneficial, or equitable interest in property subject to this chapter. See Delaware Code Title 12 Sec. 1130
• Party: means the respondent, petitioner, guardian, conservator, or any other person allowed by the Court to participate in a guardianship or protective proceeding. See Delaware Code Title 12 Sec. 39A-101
• Person: means as defined in § 302 of Title 1. See Delaware Code Title 4 Sec. 1302
• Person: means an individual; estate; business association; public corporation; government or governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality; or other legal entity. See Delaware Code Title 12 Sec. 1130
• Person: means as defined in § 302 of Title 1. See Delaware Code Title 10 Sec. 1921
• Person convicted of a crime: shall mean any person convicted of a crime in this State either by entry of a plea of guilty, a plea of nolo contendere, a "Robinson plea" or by conviction after trial as well as a person found not guilty as a result of the defense of mental disease or defect pursuant to this title. See Delaware Code Title 11 Sec. 9102
• Personal information: means a home address, home telephone number, mobile telephone number, direct telephone number to a judicial officer's private chambers, personal e-mail address, social security number, federal tax identification number, checking and savings account numbers, credit or debit card numbers, birth or marital records, property tax records, and identity of children under the age of 18. See Delaware Code Title 10 Sec. 1921
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Personal use quantity: means as defined in § 4701 of Title 16. See Delaware Code Title 4 Sec. 1302
• 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}
• 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.
• 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.
• professional corporation: means a corporation which is organized and incorporated, under this chapter, for the sole and specific purpose of rendering a single professional service or qualified related professional services, and which has as its shareholders only individuals who themselves are duly licensed or otherwise legally authorized within this State to render the same professional service, or those component qualified related professional services, as the corporation. See Delaware Code Title 8 Sec. 603
• professional service: shall mean any type of personal service to the public which requires as a condition precedent to the rendering of the service the obtaining of a license or other legal authorization, and which, by reason of law, prior to June 7, 1969, could not be performed by a corporation. See Delaware Code Title 8 Sec. 603
• Property: means tangible property described in § 1134 of this title or a fixed and certain interest in intangible property held, issued, or owed in the course of a holder's business or by a government, governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality. See Delaware Code Title 12 Sec. 1130
• Provider: is a s defined in § 10002 of Title 16. See Delaware Code Title 11 Sec. 8901B
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• Public safety answering point: is a s defined in § 10002 of Title 16. See Delaware Code Title 11 Sec. 8901B
• Publicly available content: means any written, printed, or electronic document or record that provides information or that serves as a document or record maintained, controlled, or in the possession of a government agency that may be obtained by any person, from the Internet, from the government agency upon request either free of charge or for a fee, or in response to a request under the Freedom of Information Act [Chapter 100 of Title 29]. See Delaware Code Title 10 Sec. 1921
• publicly display: means to communicate to another or otherwise make available to the general public. See Delaware Code Title 10 Sec. 1921
• qualified related professional services: means , and is limited to, any combination of the practice of medicine by doctors of medicine or doctors of osteopathy or both, and the practice of podiatry by doctors of podiatric medicine. See Delaware Code Title 8 Sec. 603
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• 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 Delaware Code Title 12 Sec. 1130
• 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}
• 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.
• 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.
• Retail marijuana: means "marijuana" as defined in § 4701 of Title 16, that is cultivated, manufactured, distributed, or sold by a licensed marijuana establishment. See Delaware Code Title 4 Sec. 1302
• Retail marijuana store: means an entity licensed to purchase marijuana from marijuana cultivation facilities; to purchase marijuana and marijuana products from marijuana product manufacturing facilities; and to sell marijuana and marijuana products to consumers. See Delaware Code Title 4 Sec. 1302
• Sale: means every act of selling as defined in this section. See Delaware Code Title 4 Sec. 101
• Security: means any of the following:

  a. See Delaware Code Title 12 Sec. 1130

• Sell: means : solicit or receive an order for; keep or expose for sale; deliver for value or in any other way than purely gratuitously; keep with intent to sell; keep or transport in contravention of this title; traffic in; or for any valuable consideration, promised or obtained, directly or indirectly, or under any pretext or by any means whatsoever, procure or allow to be procured for any other person, to carry alcoholic liquors on one's person or to transport with one and with intent to sell the same, but not in any establishment where the sale thereof is allowed. See Delaware Code Title 4 Sec. 101
• State: means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, a federally recognized Indian tribe, or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. See Delaware Code Title 12 Sec. 39A-101
• State: means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. See Delaware Code Title 12 Sec. 1130
• State Escheator: means the person responsible for the administration and enforcement of this chapter, as established by § 1102 of this title and § 363 of Title 30. See Delaware Code Title 12 Sec. 1130
• Statute of limitations: A law that sets the time within which parties must take action to enforce their rights.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• 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.
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Unreasonably impracticable: means that the measures necessary to comply with the regulations require such a high investment of risk, money, time, or any other resource or asset that the operation of a marijuana establishment is not worthy of being carried out in practice by a reasonably-prudent businessperson. See Delaware Code Title 4 Sec. 1302
• Victim: shall mean a person who suffers personal, physical, mental or emotional injury, or pecuniary loss, as a direct result of the commission of a crime enumerated in Chapter 5 of this title. See Delaware Code Title 11 Sec. 9102
• Virtual currency: means a digital representation of value, including cryptocurrency, used as a medium of exchange, a unit of account, or a store of value that does not have legal tender status recognized by the United States. See Delaware Code Title 12 Sec. 1130
• Wireless provider: is a s defined in § 10002 of Title 16. See Delaware Code Title 11 Sec. 8901B
• Wireless service: is a s defined in § 10002 of Title 16. See Delaware Code Title 11 Sec. 8901B
• Work: means as defined in § 3302 of Title 19. See Delaware Code Title 4 Sec. 1302
• Written request: means written notice signed by a judicial officer or a representative of the judicial officer's employer requesting a government agency or person to refrain from posting or displaying publicly available content that includes the personal information of the judicial officer or of their family. See Delaware Code Title 10 Sec. 1921