Terms Used In Louisiana Revised Statutes > Title 3 > Chapter 8 > Part I - In General

• Adult: means any person eighteen years of age or older, or any person under the age of eighteen who has been emancipated by marriage or otherwise. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 46:2132
• Agency: means any governing body employing persons in the public school system. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 11:1002
• Agency: means any state office, department, board, commission, institution, division, officer or other person, or functional group, heretofore existing or hereafter created, that is authorized to exercise, or that does exercise, any functions of the government of the state in the executive branch, but not any governing body or officer of any local government or subdivision of the state, or any parochial officer who exercises functions coterminous with the municipality in which he performs those functions. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 39:2
• Allegation: something that someone says happened.
• 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.
• Asset forfeiture: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• 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.
• Board of Trustees: means the board provided to administer the retirement system. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 11:1002
• bonds: means any bonds, notes, warrants, certificates of indebtedness, certificates of participation or other written contracts, agreements, or instruments evidencing the obligation of a governmental entity to repay borrowed money, regardless of the designation thereof. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 39:503
• 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.
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• Court: shall mean any court of competent jurisdiction in the state of Louisiana. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 46:2132
• Credit enhancement: means any letter of credit, insurance policy, surety bond, standby bond purchase agreement, reserve fund surety bond, or similar facility as used for the purpose of enhancing the security or credit quality of bonds. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 39:503
• Creditable service: means "prior service" plus "in service" plus "membership service" for which credit is allowable as provided in Part III of this Chapter. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 11:1002
• Dating partner: means any person protected from violence under Louisiana Revised Statutes 46:2132
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the Department of Children and Family Services or the Louisiana Department of Health. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 46:1
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Domestic abuse: includes but is not limited to physical or sexual abuse and any offense against the person, physical or non-physical, as defined in the Criminal Code of Louisiana, except negligent injury and defamation, committed by one family member, household member, or dating partner against another. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 46:2132
• Employee: means any person legally occupying a position as a school bus driver who actually renders a service by driving a school bus during the full time of his employment, a school janitor, a school custodian, a school maintenance employee, school bus aide, monitor or attendant, or other regular school employee who actually works on a school bus helping with the transportation of school children, and who is a legal employee of a parish or city school board of the state of Louisiana, and shall include the employees of this system. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 11:1002
• Executive session: A portion of the Senate's daily session in which it considers executive business.
• Family members: means spouses, former spouses, parents and children, stepparents, stepchildren, foster parents, foster children, other ascendants, and other descendants. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 46:2132
• Family or household members: means spouses, former spouses, parents, children, stepparents, stepchildren, foster parents, and foster children. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 46:2121.1
• Family violence: means any assault, battery, or other physical abuse which occurs between family or household members, who reside together or who formerly resided together. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 46:2121.1
• Financial products agreement: means an interest rate swap, cap, collar, floor, other hedging agreement, arrangement, or security, however denominated, entered into by a governmental entity not for investment purposes but with respect to a series of bonds for the purpose of reducing or otherwise managing the risk of interest rate changes, or effectively converting a governmental entity's interest rate exposure, in whole or in part, from a fixed rate exposure to a variable rate exposure, or from a variable rate exposure to a fixed rate exposure. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 39:503
• Fixed Rate: Having a "fixed" rate means that the APR doesn't change based on fluctuations of some external rate (such as the "Prime Rate"). In other words, a fixed rate is a rate that is not a variable rate. A fixed APR can change over time, in several circumstances:
  • You are late making a payment or commit some other default, triggering an increase to a penalty rate
  • The bank changes the terms of your account and you do not reject the change.
  • The rate expires (if the rate was fixed for only a certain period of time).
• Goal: means a general purpose toward which the efforts of an agency are directed. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 39:2
• Governing authority: means the elected or appointed body that exercises the legislative functions of a parish, municipality, school board, school district, or other political subdivision, including:

              (a) A sheriff in the case of a law enforcement district. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 39:503

• Governmental entity: means any parish, municipality, school board, school district, or other political subdivision of the state, other than the city of New Orleans and its agencies, boards, authorities, and commissions, and other than the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 39:503
• Household members: means any person presently or formerly living in the same residence with the defendant and who is involved or has been involved in a sexual or intimate relationship with the defendant, or any child presently or formerly living in the same residence with the defendant, or any child of the defendant regardless of where the child resides. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 46:2132
• 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.
• Indigent: means any person who meets the state definition of indigent who would have qualified for indigent care in any general hospital owned and operated by the state of Louisiana prior to arrest and who is housed in any parish or municipal jail or detention facility or state prison, shall be treated in the nearest general hospital owned and operated by the state of Louisiana. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 46:17
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Member: means any school employee, as defined in Paragraph (13) of this Section, as provided in Part II of this Chapter. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 11:1002
• Membership service: means service as an employee rendered while a member of the retirement system. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 11:1002
• Obligation: means an amount which a government may be required legally to meet out of its resources. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 39:2
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Prior service: means service rendered prior to July 1, 1947, for which credit is allowable under Part III of this Chapter. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 11:1002
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Recipient: means the person who has received assistance under this Title. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 46:1
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• Retirement: means withdrawal from active service with a retirement allowance granted under the provisions of this Chapter. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 11:1002
• Retirement allowance: means the sum of annuity and the pensions or any optional benefit payable in lieu thereof. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 11:1002
• Retirement system: means the Louisiana School Employees Retirement System established and described in Louisiana Revised Statutes 11:1002
• Secretary: means the secretary of the Department of Children and Family Services or the Louisiana Department of Health. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 46:1
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• State: means the state of Louisiana. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 39:503
• 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.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Total assessed value: means the assessed valuation of all property, including both homestead-exempt property, which shall be included on the assessment roll for the purposes of total assessed value, and nonexempt property as shown on the most recent assessment of the parish in which the governmental entity is located. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 39:503
• Variable Rate: Having a "variable" rate means that the APR changes from time to time based on fluctuations in an external rate, normally the Prime Rate. This external rate is known as the "index." If the index changes, the variable rate normally changes. Also see Fixed Rate.
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.
• Youth: means a person seventeen years of age or younger. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 46:1941.3