Terms Used In Louisiana Revised Statutes > Title 23 > Chapter 3 > Part I - Minors

• 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.
• 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.
• Amortization: Paying off a loan by regular installments.
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• 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.
• Appraisal: A determination of property value.
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• 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.
• 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.
• Baseline: Projection of the receipts, outlays, and other budget amounts that would ensue in the future without any change in existing policy. Baseline projections are used to gauge the extent to which proposed legislation, if enacted into law, would alter current spending and revenue levels.
• Bequest: Property gifted by will.
• 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.
• Commission: means the Louisiana Workforce Commission. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 23:1
• Commissioner: means the Commissioner of Conservation of the State of Louisiana. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:3
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• 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.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• 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.
• 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.
• Document: means any written or otherwise tangible material intended to be or actually used as a part of or any evidence of the work history of any school employee including but not limited to any and all reports, comments, reprimands, correspondence, memoranda, evaluations, observations, and grievances relative to a particular school employee. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 17:1233
• 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}
• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• 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.
• Gas: means all natural gas, including casinghead gas, and all other hydrocarbons not defined as oil in Paragraph (7) of this Section. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:3
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• 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.
• Illegal gas: means gas which has been produced within the state from any well in excess of the amount allowed by any rule, regulation, or order of the commissioner, as distinguished from gas produced within the state not in excess of the amount so allowed by any rule, regulation, or order, which is "legal gas. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:3
• Illegal oil: means oil which has been produced within the state from any well in excess of the amount allowed by any rule, regulation, or order of the commissioner, as distinguished from oil produced within the state not in excess of the amount so allowed by any rule, regulation, or order, which is "legal oil. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:3
• Illegal product: means any product of oil or gas, any part of which was processed or derived, in whole or in part, from illegal oil or illegal gas or from any product thereof, as distinguished from "legal product" which is a product processed or derived to no extent from illegal oil or illegal gas. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:3
• Improvements: means the repairs, maintenance, and construction of facilities and on property, whether movable or immovable, owned, operated, leased, or administered by the port commission. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 34:1963
• 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}
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Interest rate: The amount paid by a borrower to a lender in exchange for the use of the lender's money for a certain period of time. Interest is paid on loans or on debt instruments, such as notes or bonds, either at regular intervals or as part of a lump sum payment when the issue matures. ^{Source: OCC}
• Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• 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.
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• 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.
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Oil: means crude petroleum oil, and other hydrocarbons, regardless of gravity, which are produced at the well head in liquid form by ordinary production methods. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:3
• Operating companies: means a person, company, or entity performing or furnishing services for the port commission related to the operations of facilities owned, leased, operated, or administered by the port commission. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 34:1963
• Oral argument: An opportunity for lawyers to summarize their position before the court and also to answer the judges' questions.
• Owner: means the person, including operators and producers acting on behalf of the person, who has or had the right to drill into and to produce from a pool and to appropriate the production either for himself or for others. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:3
• 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.
• Person: means any natural person, corporation, association, partnership, receiver, tutor, curator, executor, administrator, fiduciary, or representative of any kind. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:3
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Personnel file: means the file or files which contain the cumulative collection of any and all documents maintained by the school system with respect to each individual school employee. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 17:1233
• Personnel file custodian: means those persons employed by the school system charged with the duty of maintaining and preserving the personnel files. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 17:1233
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Political subdivision: means a parish, municipality, and any other unit of local government, including a school board and a special district, authorized by law to perform governmental functions. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 18:581
• Pool: means an underground reservoir containing a common accumulation of crude petroleum oil or natural gas or both. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:3
• 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.
• Preliminary hearing: A hearing where the judge decides whether there is enough evidence to make the defendant have a trial.
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• Producer: means the owner of a well capable of producing oil or gas or both. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:3
• Product: means any commodity made from oil or gas. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:3
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• 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.
• Remand: When an appellate court sends a case back to a lower court for further proceedings.
• Repairs: means those activities necessary to maintain any and all facilities and real property owned, operated, leased, or administered by the port commission in a workable, functional, or operational condition. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 34:1963
• School system: means a parish or city school system. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 17:1233
• Secretary: means the secretary of the commission. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 23:1
• 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.
• Solution mined cavern: means a cavity created within the salt stock by dissolution with water. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:3
• Solution mining injection well: means a well into which fluids, other than fluids associated with active drilling operations, are injected for extraction of minerals or energy. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:3
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Stevedoring company: means a person, company, or entity performing or furnishing the necessary equipment and manpower to load, unload, transport, or ship goods, products, or commodities. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 34:1963
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• 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.
• Testate: To die leaving a will.
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Tort: A civil wrong or breach of a duty to another person, as outlined by law. A very common tort is negligent operation of a motor vehicle that results in property damage and personal injury in an automobile accident.
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Trust account: A general term that covers all types of accounts in a trust department, such as estates, guardianships, and agencies. ^{Source: OCC}
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Waste product: means any liquid, sludge, effluent, semi-liquid or other substance resulting from any process, whether manufacturing or otherwise. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 30:3
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.