Terms Used In Hawaii Revised Statutes > Chapter 398 > Part II - Enforcement

• 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.
• 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.
• Center: means any center organized as an independent nonprofit educational corporation duly established under the laws of this State, whose principal purpose is to facilitate the resolution of international business, trade, commercial, and other disputes between persons by means of arbitration, mediation, conciliation, and other means as an alternative to the resort to litigation. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 658D-5
• 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.
• 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.
• Department: means the department of labor and industrial relations. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 398-1
• Director: means the director of labor and industrial relations. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 398-1
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Employee: means a person who performs services for hire for not fewer than six consecutive months for the employer from whom benefits are sought under this chapter. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 398-1
• Employer: means any individual or organization, including the State, any of its political subdivisions, any instrumentality of the State or its political subdivisions, any partnership, association, trust, estate, joint stock company, insurance company, or corporation, whether domestic or foreign, or receiver or trustee in bankruptcy, or the legal representative of a deceased person, who employs one hundred or more employees for each working day during each of twenty or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 398-1
• Employment benefits: means all benefits (other than salary or wages) provided or made available to employees by an employer, and includes group life insurance, accident and health or sickness insurance, sick leave, annual leave, educational benefits, and pensions, regardless of whether the benefits are provided by a policy or practice of an employer or by an employee benefit plan as defined in section 3(3) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (29 U. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 398-1
• 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.
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• 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.
• 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.
• Person: means not only individuals, but corporations, firms, associations, societies, communities, assemblies, inhabitants of a district, or neighborhood, or persons known or unknown, and the public generally and shall include a government or any agency, instrumentality, or subdivision thereof where it appears, from the subject matter, the sense and connection in which such words are used, that such construction is intended. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 658D-5
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• 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.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Written undertaking to arbitrate: shall mean a writing in which a person undertakes to submit a dispute to arbitration, without regard to whether that undertaking is sufficient to sustain a valid and enforceable contract or is subject to defenses. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 658D-5