Terms Used In Hawaii Revised Statutes > Chapter 386 > Part III - Administration

• 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.
• 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.
• Appellate board: means the labor and industrial relations appeals board. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 386-1
• 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.
• Attending physician: means a physician who is primarily responsible for the treatment of a work injury. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 386-1
• Compensation: means all benefits accorded by this chapter to an employee or the employee's dependents on account of a work injury as defined in this section; it includes medical and rehabilitation benefits, income and indemnity benefits in cases of disability or death, and the allowance for funeral and burial expenses. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 386-1
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• 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.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Defendant: means a person (including a corporation, association, partnership, firm, or governmental entity) against whom litigation is brought or maintained, or sought to be brought or maintained. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 634J-1
• Department: means the department of labor and industrial relations. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 386-1
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• 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.
• Director: means the director of labor and industrial relations. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 386-1
• Disability: means loss or impairment of a physical or mental function. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 386-1
• Disciplinary action: means personnel action by an employer in the form of punishment against an employee for infraction of employer or contract rules, in the form of a reprimand, suspension, or discharge. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 386-1
• 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:
• Employee: means any individual in the employment of another person. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 386-1
• Employer: means any person having one or more persons in the person's employment. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 386-1
• Employment: means any service performed by an individual for another person under any contract of hire or apprenticeship, express or implied, oral or written, whether lawfully or unlawfully entered into. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 386-1
• 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}
• 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.
• 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.
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Good cause: means a substantial reason amounting in law to be a legal excuse for failing to perform an act required by law considered under the circumstances of the individual case. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 386-1
• Health care provider: means a person qualified by the director to render health care and service and who has a license for the practice of:

  (1) Medicine or osteopathy under chapter 453;

  (2) Dentistry under chapter 448;

  (3) Chiropractic under chapter 442;

  (4) Naturopathic medicine under chapter 455;

  (5) Optometry under chapter 459;

  (6) Podiatry under chapter 463E;

  (7) Psychology under chapter 465; and

  (8) Advanced practice registered nurse under chapter 457. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 386-1

• In propria persona: means on the person's own behalf acting as plaintiff. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 634J-1
• 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.
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Litigation: means any civil action or proceeding, commenced, maintained, or pending in any state or federal court of record. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 634J-1
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• 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.
• Physician: includes a doctor of medicine, a dentist, a chiropractor, an osteopath, a naturopathic physician, a psychologist, an optometrist, an advanced practice registered nurse, and a podiatrist. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 386-1
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Plaintiff: means the person who commences, institutes or maintains litigation or causes it to be commenced, instituted, or maintained, including an attorney at law acting on the attorney's own behalf. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 634J-1
• 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.
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Remand: When an appellate court sends a case back to a lower court for further proceedings.
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• Security: means an undertaking to assure payment, to the party for whose benefit the undertaking is required to be furnished, of the party's reasonable expenses, including attorney's fees, and not limited to taxable costs incurred in or in connection with a litigation instituted, caused to be instituted, or maintained or caused to be maintained by a vexatious litigant. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 634J-1
• 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.
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Total disability: means disability of such an extent that the disabled employee has no reasonable prospect of finding regular employment of any kind in the normal labor market. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 386-1
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Vexatious litigant: means a plaintiff who does any of the following:

  (1) In the immediately preceding seven-year period has commenced, prosecuted, or maintained in propria persona at least five civil actions other than in a small claims court that have been:

  (A) Finally determined adversely to the plaintiff; or

  (B) Unjustifiably permitted to remain pending at least two years without having been brought to trial or hearing;

  (2) After litigation has been finally resolved against the plaintiff, relitigates or attempts to relitigate in propria persona and in bad faith, either:

  (A) The validity of the determination against the same defendant or defendants as to whom the litigation was finally determined; or

  (B) The cause of action, claim, controversy, or any of the issues of fact or law, determined or concluded by the final determination against the same defendant or defendants as to whom the litigation was finally determined;

  (3) In any litigation while acting in propria persona, files, in bad faith, unmeritorious motions, pleadings, or other papers, conducts unnecessary discovery, or engages in other tactics that are frivolous or solely intended to cause unnecessary delay; or

  (4) Has previously been declared to be a vexatious litigant by any state or federal court of record in any action or proceeding based upon the same or substantially similar facts, transaction, or occurrence. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 634J-1

• Vocational rehabilitation services: means services provided in a rehabilitation program to assist an employee in obtaining and maintaining suitable gainful employment that may include but shall not be limited to on-the-job training, job modification, vocational evaluation, adjustment to disability, counseling, guidance, vocational and personal adjustment, referrals, transportation, training, supplies, equipment, appliances, aid, occupational licenses, and other goods and services needed to assist an employee in obtaining and maintaining suitable gainful employment. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 386-1
• Wages: means all remuneration for services constituting employment. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 386-1
• Work injury: means a personal injury suffered under the conditions specified in § 386-3. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 386-1
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.