Terms Used In Louisiana Codes > Civil Code > BOOK III > Title XXI - Of Privileges

• 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.
• Allegation: something that someone says happened.
• 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.
• Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
• Applicable payee: means the spouse, the tutor or custodian of the child, the court-approved fiduciary of the spouse or child, or the department in a FITAP case or in a non-FITAP case in which the department is rendering services as designated by the court to be the payee. See Louisiana Children's Code 1351
• Arraignment: A proceeding in which an individual who is accused of committing a crime is brought into court, told of the charges, and asked to plead guilty or not guilty.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• 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, or other person providing a residence for the child. See Louisiana Children's Code 1404
• Charity: An agency, institution, or organization in existence and operating for the benefit of an indefinite number of persons and conducted for educational, religious, scientific, medical, or other beneficent purposes.
• Child: means a person under eighteen years of age and not emancipated by marriage. See Louisiana Children's Code 1169
• Child: means a person under the age of eighteen or an eighteen year old who is a full-time student in a secondary school and who is dependent on either parent. See Louisiana Children's Code 1351
• 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.
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Convention adoption: means the adoption of a child habitually residing in any country outside the United States that is a party to the Hague Adoption Convention. See Louisiana Children's Code 1281.3
• 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.
• Criminal neglect of family: means the desertion or intentional nonsupport by a spouse of his or her spouse who is in destitute or necessitous circumstances or by either parent of his minor child who is in destitute or necessitous circumstances. See Louisiana Children's Code 1351
• Department: means the Louisiana Department of Health. See Louisiana Children's Code 1404
• Department: means the Department of Children and Family Services. See Louisiana Children's Code 1351
• Department: means the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services. See Louisiana Children's Code 1281.3
• Department: means the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services. See Louisiana Children's Code 1169
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Diagnosis: means the art and science of determining the presence of disease in an individual and distinguishing one disease from another. See Louisiana Children's Code 1404
• Discharge: means the full or conditional release from a treatment facility of any minor admitted or otherwise detained under this Title. See Louisiana Children's Code 1404
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• 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}
• Family psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner: means an individual who maintains the credentials as such and meets the requirements of a "psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner" as provided in Louisiana Children's Code 1404
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• FITAP: means the Family Independence Temporary Assistance Program. See Louisiana Children's Code 1351
• Foreign orphan: means a child living in a Non-Hague Convention country (a) who is under the age of sixteen at the time a Form I-600, Petition to Classify Orphan as an Immediate Relative, is filed on his behalf and who is found by the Department of State or United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to meet the definition of "orphan" under Section 101(b)(1)(F) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 USC 1101(b)(1)(F)); or (b) who is under the age of eighteen and is a biological sibling of a child previously adopted by the same applicant(s) who is petitioning on his behalf. See Louisiana Children's Code 1281.3
• Formal voluntary admission: means the admission of a minor suffering from mental illness or substance abuse desiring admission to a treatment facility for diagnosis or treatment of such condition, or both, who may be formally admitted upon his written request. See Louisiana Children's Code 1404
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• 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
• Grand jury: agreement providing that a lender will delay exercising its rights (in the case of a mortgage,
• 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.
• Habeas corpus: A writ that is usually used to bring a prisoner before the court to determine the legality of his imprisonment. It may also be used to bring a person in custody before the court to give testimony, or to be prosecuted.
• Hague Convention adoptee: means a child living in a Hague Convention country who is under the age of sixteen at the time a Form I-800, Petition to Classify Convention Adoptee as an Immediate Relative, is filed on his behalf and who is found by the Department of State and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to meet the definition of "Convention Adoptee" under Section 101(b)(1)(G) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 USC 1101(b)(1)(G)). See Louisiana Children's Code 1281.3
• 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.
• 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}
• Legal custody: means a legal status created by court order that vests in a custodian the right to have physical custody of the child and the right and duty to protect, train, and discipline and to provide food, shelter, education, and ordinary medical care, all subject to any residual parental rights and responsibilities. See Louisiana Children's Code 1511
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Mental Health Advocacy Service: means a service established by the state of Louisiana for the purpose of providing legal counsel and representation for persons with mental disabilities and for children and to ensure that their legal rights are protected. See Louisiana Children's Code 1404
• MHAS: means Mental Health Advocacy Service, as established by Louisiana Children's Code 1404
• Mortgagor: The person who pledges property to a creditor as collateral for a loan and who receives the money.
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• 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.
• Patient: means any person detained and taken care of as a person with mental illness or person suffering from substance abuse. See Louisiana Children's Code 1404
• Person with mental illness: means any person with a psychiatric disorder which has substantial adverse effects on his ability to function and who requires care and treatment. See Louisiana Children's Code 1404
• Physical custody: means the duty and authority to provide care for a child in the home of the custodian. See Louisiana Children's Code 1511
• 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.
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• 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.
• Reporter: Makes a record of court proceedings and prepares a transcript, and also publishes the court's opinions or decisions (in the courts of appeals).
• 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.
• Respondent: means a person alleged to be mentally ill or suffering from substance abuse and for whom an application for commitment to a treatment facility has been filed. See Louisiana Children's Code 1404
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• Restraint: means the partial or total immobilization of any or all of the extremities or the torso by mechanical means for psychiatric indications. See Louisiana Children's Code 1404
• Seclusion: means the involuntary confinement of a patient alone in a room, which the patient is physically prevented from leaving, for any period of time, except that seclusion does not include the placement of a patient alone in a room or other area for no more than thirty minutes at a time and no more than three hours in any twenty-four hour time period pursuant to behavior-shaping techniques such as "time-out". See Louisiana Children's Code 1404
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• Spouse: shall mean a husband or wife. See Louisiana Children's Code 1351
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• 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.
• Substance abuse: means the condition of a person who uses narcotic, stimulant, depressant, soporific, tranquilizing, or hallucinogenic drugs or alcohol to the extent that it renders the person dangerous to himself or others or renders the person gravely disabled. See Louisiana Children's Code 1404
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• superintendent: means a person in charge of a treatment facility or his deputy. See Louisiana Children's Code 1404
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• 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.
• Treatment: means an active effort to accomplish an improvement in the mental condition or behavior of a patient or to prevent deterioration in his condition or behavior. See Louisiana Children's Code 1404
• Treatment facility: means any public or private hospital, retreat, institution, mental health center, or facility licensed by the state of Louisiana in which any mentally ill minor or minor suffering from substance abuse is received or detained as a patient except a facility under the control or supervision of the Department of Public Safety and Corrections unless otherwise provided in Title VIII of this Code. See Louisiana Children's Code 1404
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.
• Voluntary transfer of custody: is a parent's knowing and voluntary relinquishment of legal custody to an agency, institution, or individual, subject to residual parental rights retained by the parent and under such terms and conditions that enable the child to receive adequate care and treatment. See Louisiana Children's Code 1511