Terms Used In Louisiana Codes > Civil Code > BOOK II > Title IV - Predial Servitudes

• Abortion: means that procedure as defined in Louisiana Children's Code 603
• Abuse: means any one of the following acts that seriously endanger the physical, mental, or emotional health, welfare, and safety of the child:

              (a) The infliction, attempted infliction, or, as a result of inadequate supervision, the allowance of the infliction or attempted infliction of physical or mental injury upon the child by a parent or any other person. See Louisiana Children's Code 603

• Acquittal:
  1. Judgement that a criminal defendant has not been proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
  2. A verdict of "not guilty."
   
• Administrative review body: means a panel of appropriate persons, at least one of whom is not responsible for the case management of or delivery of services to either the child or the parents who are the subject of the review, including the citizen review boards, state hearing examiners, special department reviewers, or department personnel. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Caretaker: means any person providing a residence for the child or any person legally obligated to provide or secure adequate care for the child, including a parent, tutor, guardian, or legal custodian. See Louisiana Children's Code 728
• Caretaker: means any person legally obligated to provide or secure adequate care for a child, including a parent, tutor, guardian, legal custodian, foster home parent, an employee or an operator of an early learning center as defined in Louisiana Children's Code 603
• Caucus: From the Algonquian Indian language, a caucus meant "to meet together." An informal organization of members of the legislature that exists to discuss issues of mutual concern and possibly to perform legislative research and policy planning for its members. There are regional, political or ideological, ethnic, and economic-based caucuses.
• Child: means a person under eighteen years of age who, prior to proceedings under this Title, has not been judicially emancipated or emancipated by marriage. See Louisiana Children's Code 728
• Child: means a person under eighteen years of age who, prior to juvenile proceedings, has not been judicially emancipated under Civil Code Article 366 or emancipated by marriage under Civil Code Article 367. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
• Child abuse and neglect case: means a child protection proceeding conducted by a court exercising juvenile jurisdiction involving the abuse or neglect of children as provided specifically in Titles VI, X, XI, and XII of the Louisiana Children's Code. See Louisiana Children's Code 552
• Child pornography: means visual depiction of a child engaged in actual or simulated sexual intercourse, deviate sexual intercourse, sexual bestiality, masturbation, sadomasochistic abuse, or lewd exhibition of the genitals. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
• 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.
• Codicil: An addition, change, or supplement to a will executed with the same formalities required for the will itself.
• Commercial sexual exploitation: means involvement of the child activity prohibited by the following statutes: Louisiana Children's Code 603
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Concurrent planning: means departmental efforts to preserve and reunify a family, or to place a child for adoption or with a legal guardian which are made simultaneously. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
• 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.
• Court reporter: A person who makes a word-for-word record of what is said in court and produces a transcript of the proceedings upon request.
• Crime against the child: shall include the commission of or the attempted commission of any of the following crimes against the child as provided by federal or state statutes:

              (a) Homicide. See Louisiana Children's Code 603

• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Department: means the Department of Children and Family Services. See Louisiana Children's Code 725.1
• Department: means the Department of Children and Family Services. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• 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:
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Donee: The recipient of a gift.
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• Extradition: The formal process of delivering an accused or convicted person from authorities in one state to authorities in another state.
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Foster care: means placement in a foster family home, a relative's home, a residential child caring facility, or other living arrangement approved and supervised by the state for provision of substitute care for a child in the department's custody. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
• Foster parent: means an individual who provides residential foster care with the approval and under the supervision of the department for a child in its custody. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
• 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.
• Hearsay: Statements by a witness who did not see or hear the incident in question but heard about it from someone else. Hearsay is usually not admissible as evidence in court.
• 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.
• 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.
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Institutional abuse or neglect: means any case of child abuse or neglect that occurs in any public or private facility that provides residential child care, treatment, or education. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
• Inter vivos: Transfer of property from one living person to another living person.
• Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
• Law clerk: Assist judges with research and drafting of opinions.
• 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}
• Legacy: A gift of property made by will.
• Mandatory reporter: is a ny of the following individuals:

              (a) "Health practitioner" is any individual who provides healthcare services, including a physician, surgeon, physical therapist, dentist, resident, intern, hospital staff member, an outpatient abortion facility staff member, podiatrist, chiropractor, licensed nurse, nursing aide, dental hygienist, any emergency medical technician, a paramedic, optometrist, medical examiner, or coroner, who diagnoses, examines, or treats a child or his family. See Louisiana Children's Code 603

• Member of the clergy: is a ny priest, rabbi, duly ordained clerical deacon or minister, Christian Science practitioner, or other similarly situated functionary of a religious organization, except that he is not required to report a confidential communication, as defined in Code of Evidence Article 511, from a person to a member of the clergy who, in the course of the discipline or practice of that church, denomination, or organization, is authorized or accustomed to hearing confidential communications, and under the discipline or tenets of the church, denomination, or organization has a duty to keep such communications confidential. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
• Neglect: means the refusal or unreasonable failure of a parent or caretaker to supply the child with necessary food, clothing, shelter, care, treatment, or counseling for any injury, illness, or condition of the child, as a result of which the child's physical, mental, or emotional health, welfare, and safety is substantially threatened or impaired. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
• Newborn: means a child who is not more than thirty days old, as determined within a reasonable degree of medical certainty by an examining physician. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
• nonmetropolitan area: means a parish whose largest city has a population of fifty thousand or less and where the population of the entire parish is less than one hundred thousand. See Louisiana Children's Code 301
• Other suitable individual: means a person with whom the child enjoys a close, established, significant relationship, yet not a blood relative, including a neighbor, godparent, teacher, or close friend of the parent. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• 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.
• Permanent placement: means :

              (a) Return of the legal custody of a child to his parent or parents. See Louisiana Children's Code 603

• Person: means any individual, partnership, association, agency, or corporation, and specifically shall include city, parish, or state law enforcement agencies, and a parish or city school board or a person employed by a parish or city school board. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• 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.
• Preliminary hearing: A hearing where the judge decides whether there is enough evidence to make the defendant have a trial.
• Prenatal neglect: means exposure to chronic or severe use of alcohol or the unlawful use of any controlled dangerous substance, as defined by Louisiana Children's Code 603
• 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.
• Probation officers: Screen applicants for pretrial release and monitor convicted offenders released under court supervision.
• Program: means a program approved by the Louisiana Supreme Court to provide qualified legal representation of children in child abuse and neglect cases. See Louisiana Children's Code 552
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Protective capacity: means the cognitive, behavioral, and emotional knowledge, abilities, and practices that prevent or control threats of danger to children. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
• Public defender: Represent defendants who can't afford an attorney in criminal matters.
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Reasonable efforts: means the exercise of ordinary diligence and care by the department throughout the pendency of a case pursuant to the obligations imposed on the state by federal and state law to provide services and supports designed and intended to prevent or eliminate the need for removing a child from the child's home, to reunite families after separation, and to achieve safe permanency for children. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
• 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}
• Relative: means an individual with whom the child has established a significant relationship by blood, adoption, or affinity. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
• Removal: means placing a child in the custody of the state or with someone other than the parent or caretaker during or after the course of an investigation of abuse and neglect to secure the child's health, welfare, and safety. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• restrictive care facility: means a public or private licensed or unlicensed child care facility, group home, emergency shelter facility, maternity home, psychiatric hospital, or a psychiatric unit located in a state-owned or state-contracted general hospital. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
• Runaway: means the continued absence of the child from the home of his caretaker without the caretaker's consent. See Louisiana Children's Code 728
• Safe house: means a residential facility or a shelter care facility operated by an authorized agency, including a nonprofit agency, with experience in providing services to sexually exploited children and approved by the department to provide shelter for sexually exploited children. See Louisiana Children's Code 725.1
• Safety plan: means a plan for the purpose of assuring a child's health, welfare, and safety by imposing conditions for the child to safely remain in the home, or, after a child has been removed from the home, for the continued placement of the child with a custodian and terms for contact between the child and the child's parents or other persons. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
• Sexually exploited child: means any person under the age of eighteen who has been subject to sexual exploitation because the person either:

              (a) Is a victim of trafficking of children for sexual purposes under Louisiana Children's Code 725.1

• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Subpoena duces tecum: A command to a witness to produce documents.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Teaching or child care provider: is a ny person who provides or assists in the teaching, training, and supervision of a child, including any public or private teacher, teacher's aide, instructional aide, school principal, school staff member, school resource officer, bus driver, coach, professor, technical or vocational instructor, technical or vocational school staff member, college or university administrator, college or university staff member, social worker, probation officer, foster home parent, group home or other child care institutional staff member, personnel of residential home facilities, a licensed or unlicensed day care provider, or any individual who provides these services to a child in a voluntary or professional capacity. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
• Testate: To die leaving a will.
• Testator: A male person who leaves a will at death.
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• 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.
• Truant: means the repeated or habitual unauthorized absence or tardiness of a child from school pursuant to the provisions of Louisiana Children's Code 728
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Ungovernable: means the child's habitual disregard of the lawful and reasonable demands of his caretakers and that the child is beyond their control. See Louisiana Children's Code 728
• Vulnerable: means the inability to protect oneself from identified threats of danger. See Louisiana Children's Code 603