Terms Used In Louisiana Codes > Code of Civil Procedure > BOOK I > Title I - Courts

• Affirmed: In the practice of the appellate courts, the decree or order is declared valid and will stand as rendered in the lower court.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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
• Approved placement: means the public child placing agency in the receiving state has determined that the placement is both safe and suitable for the child. See Louisiana Children's Code 1624
• 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.
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Assessment: is a pplicable only to a placement by a public child placing agency. See Louisiana Children's Code 1624
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Attending physician: means the physician who has primary responsibility for the treatment and care of the child patient. See Louisiana Children's Code 1552
• 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.
• Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. ^{Source: OCC}
• 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
• Chambers: A judge's office.
• 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
• Child: means a person under eighteen years of age who has not been judicially emancipated under Civil Code Article 385 or emancipated by marriage under Civil Code Articles 379 through 384. See Louisiana Children's Code 1552
• Child: means an individual who has not attained the age of eighteen. See Louisiana Children's Code 1624
• Continual profound comatose state: means that there is no reasonable medical possibility of ever achieving a cognitive state of conscious perception. See Louisiana Children's Code 1552
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• 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.
• 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
• Dangerous to others: means the condition of a person whose behavior or significant threats support a reasonable expectation that there is a substantial risk that he will inflict physical harm upon another person in the near future. See Louisiana Children's Code 1404
• Dangerous to self: means the condition of a person whose behavior, significant threats, or inaction supports a reasonable expectation that there is a substantial risk that he will inflict physical or severe emotional harm upon his own person. See Louisiana Children's Code 1404
• Death: means that in the announced opinion of a physician, based on ordinary standards of approved medical practice, the child has experienced an irreversible cessation of spontaneous respiratory and circulatory functions. See Louisiana Children's Code 1552
• Declaration: means a written and witnessed document voluntarily made by the declarant, authorizing the withholding or withdrawal of life-sustaining procedures for a child, in accordance with the requirements of this Chapter. See Louisiana Children's Code 1552
• Default: means the failure of a member state to perform the obligations or responsibilities imposed upon it by the compact, the bylaws, or rules of the Interstate Commission. See Louisiana Children's Code 1624
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services. See Louisiana Children's Code 1281.3
• 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
• 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
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• Domestic abuse: includes but is not limited to physical or sexual abuse and any offense against the person as defined in Chapter 1 of Title 14 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes of 1950, except negligent injury and defamation, committed by one family or household member against another. See Louisiana Children's Code 1565
• En banc: In the bench or "full bench." Refers to court sessions with the entire membership of a court participating rather than the usual quorum. U.S. courts of appeals usually sit in panels of three judges, but may expand to a larger number in certain cases. They are then said to be sitting en banc.
• 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}
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• Family or household member: means spouses, former spouses, parents and children, stepparents, stepchildren, foster parents, foster children, and any person living in the same residence with the defendant as a spouse whether married or not if a child or children also live in the residence, who are seeking protection under this Chapter. See Louisiana Children's Code 1565
• 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
• 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
• 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.
• Home study: means an evaluation of a home environment conducted in accordance with the applicable requirements of the state in which the home is located, and documenting the preparation and the suitability of the placement resource for placement of a child in accordance with the laws and requirements of the state in which the home is located. See Louisiana Children's Code 1624
• In forma pauperis: In the manner of a pauper. Permission given to a person to sue without payment of court fees on claim of indigence or poverty.
• 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}
• Indian tribe: means any Indian tribe, band, nation, or other organized group or community of Indians recognized as eligible for services provided to Indians by the Secretary of the Interior because of their status as Indians, including any Alaskan native village as defined in Section 3(C) of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act at Louisiana Children's Code 1624
• 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.
• Inter vivos: Transfer of property from one living person to another living person.
• Jurisdiction: means the power and authority of a court to hear and decide matters. See Louisiana Children's Code 1624
• Jurisprudence: The study of law and the structure of the legal system.
• Juror: A person who is on the jury.
• 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
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Member state: means a state that has enacted the compact. See Louisiana Children's Code 1624
• 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.
• Noncustodial parent: means a person who, at the time of the commencement of court proceedings in the sending state, does not have sole legal custody of the child or has joint legal custody of a child, and who is not the subject of allegations or findings of child abuse or neglect. See Louisiana Children's Code 1624
• Notice of residential placement: means information regarding a placement into a residential facility provided to the receiving state including, but not limited to the name, date and place of birth of the child, the identity and address of the parent or legal guardian, evidence of authority to make the placement, and the name and address of the facility in which the child will be placed. See Louisiana Children's Code 1624
• officiant: is a person authorized by law to perform marriage ceremonies. See Louisiana Children's Code 1544
• Oral argument: An opportunity for lawyers to summarize their position before the court and also to answer the judges' questions.
• 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
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• 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
• Placement: means the act by a public or private child placing agency intended to arrange for the care or custody of a child in another state. See Louisiana Children's Code 1624
• 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.
• 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.
• Private child placing agency: means any private corporation, agency, foundation, institution, or charitable organization, or any private person or attorney that facilitates, causes, or is involved in the placement of a child from one state to another and that is not an instrumentality of the state or acting under state law. See Louisiana Children's Code 1624
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Provisional placement: means a determination made by the public child placing agency in the receiving state that the proposed placement is safe and suitable, and, to the extent allowable, the receiving state has temporarily waived its standards or requirements otherwise applicable to prospective foster or adoptive parents so as to not delay the placement. See Louisiana Children's Code 1624
• Psychologist: means an individual licensed to practice psychology in Louisiana in accordance with Louisiana Children's Code 1404
• Public child placing agency: means any government child welfare agency or child protection agency or a private entity under contract with such an agency, regardless of whether they act on behalf of a state, county, municipality or other governmental unit and which facilitates, causes, or is involved in the placement of a child from one state to another. See Louisiana Children's Code 1624
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Receiving state: means the state to which a child is sent, brought, or caused to be sent or brought. See Louisiana Children's Code 1624
• Relative: means someone who is related to the child as a parent, stepparent, sibling by half or whole blood or by adoption, grandparent, aunt, uncle, or first cousin or a nonrelative with such significant ties to the child that they may be regarded as relatives as determined by the court in the sending state. See Louisiana Children's Code 1624
• 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).
• Residential facility: means a facility providing a level of care that is sufficient to substitute for parental responsibility or foster care, and is beyond what is needed for assessment or treatment of an acute condition. See Louisiana Children's Code 1624
• 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
• 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
• Rule: means a written directive, mandate, standard, or principle issued by the Interstate Commission promulgated pursuant to this Chapter that is of general applicability and that implements, interprets, or prescribes a policy or provision of the compact. See Louisiana Children's Code 1624
• 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
• Sending state: means the state from which the placement of a child is initiated. See Louisiana Children's Code 1624
• 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.
• Spouse: shall mean a husband or wife. See Louisiana Children's Code 1351
• State: means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Marianas Islands, and any other territory of the United States. See Louisiana Children's Code 1624
• State court: means a judicial body of a state that is vested by law with responsibility for adjudicating cases involving abuse, neglect, deprivation, delinquency or status offenses of individuals who have not attained the age of eighteen. See Louisiana Children's Code 1624
• 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
• Supervision: means monitoring provided by the receiving state once a child has been placed in a receiving state pursuant to the compact. See Louisiana Children's Code 1624
• Temporary restraining order: Prohibits a person from an action that is likely to cause irreparable harm. This differs from an injunction in that it may be granted immediately, without notice to the opposing party, and without a hearing. It is intended to last only until a hearing can be held.
• Terminal and irreversible condition: means a condition, injury, disease, or illness which, within reasonable medical judgment, would produce death and for which the application of a life-support system would serve only to postpone the moment of death. See Louisiana Children's Code 1552
• 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.
• 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