Terms Used In Maine Revised Statutes > Title 24-A > Chapter 25 > Subchapter 1 - General Provisions

• 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.
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Developed losses: means losses, including loss adjustment expenses, adjusted, using standard actuarial techniques, to eliminate the effect of differences between current payment or reserve estimates and those needed to provide actual ultimate loss and loss adjustment expense payments. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 24-A Sec. 2302-A
• 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}
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Expense: means that portion of a rate attributable to acquisition, field supervision and collection expenses; general expenses; and taxes, licenses and fees. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 24-A Sec. 2302-A
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• in writing: include printing and other modes of making legible words. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 1 Sec. 72
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Prospective loss costs: means that portion of a rate that does not include provisions for expenses, other than loss adjustment expenses, or profit, and is based on historical aggregate losses and loss adjustment expenses adjusted through development to their ultimate value and projected through trending to a future point in time. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 24-A Sec. 2302-A
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• Rate: means the cost of insurance per exposure unit, whether expressed as a single number or as a prospective loss cost with an adjustment to account for the treatment of expenses, profit, and individual insurer variation in loss experience, prior to any application of individual risk variation based on loss or expense considerations, and not including minimum premium. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 24-A Sec. 2302-A
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Supplementary rating information: means any manual or plan of rates, classification rating schedule, minimum premium, policy fee, rating rule, underwriting rule, statistical plan and any other similar information needed to determine the applicable rate in effect or to be in effect. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 24-A Sec. 2302-A
• Supporting information: means :