Terms Used In Maryland Code > COURTS AND JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS > Title 10 - Evidence

• Account: means any deposit or credit account with a bank, including a demand, time, savings, passbook, share draft, or like account, other than an account evidenced by a certificate of deposit;
  
  (2) "Afternoon" means the period of a day between noon and midnight;
  
  (3) "Banking day" means the part of a day, excluding Saturday, Sunday, or a legal holiday, on which a bank is open to the public for carrying on substantially all of its banking functions;
  
  (4) "Clearing house" means an association of banks or other payors regularly clearing items;
  
  (5) "Customer" means a person having an account with a bank or for whom a bank has agreed to collect items, including a bank that maintains an account at another bank;
  
  (6) "Documentary draft" means a draft to be presented for acceptance or payment if specified documents, certificated securities (§ 8-102) or instructions for uncertificated securities (§ 8-102), or other certificates, statements, or the like are to be received by the drawee or other payor before acceptance or payment of the draft;
  
  (7) "Draft" means a draft as defined in § 3-104 or an item, other than an instrument, that is an order;
  
  (8) "Drawee" means a person ordered in a draft to make payment;
  
  (9) "Item" means an instrument or a promise or order to pay money handled by a bank for collection or payment. See
• Acquittal:
  1. Judgement that a criminal defendant has not been proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
  2. A verdict of "not guilty."
   
• Administrator: includes an executor and a personal representative. See
• Aggrieved person: means a person who was a party to any intercepted wire, oral, or electronic communication or a person against whom the interception was directed. See
• Allegation: something that someone says happened.
• Annuity: A periodic (usually annual) payment of a fixed sum of money for either the life of the recipient or for a fixed number of years. A series of payments under a contract from an insurance company, a trust company, or an individual. Annuity payments are made at regular intervals over a period of more than one full year.
• Appraisal: A determination of property value.
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• assault: means assault in any degree unless a specific degree of assault is specified. See
• Aural transfer: means a transfer containing the human voice at any point between and including the point of origin and the point of reception. See
• 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.
• Bequest: Property gifted by will.
• Case law: The law as laid down in cases that have been decided in the decisions of the courts.
• 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.
• Codicil: An addition, change, or supplement to a will executed with the same formalities required for the will itself.
• Common law: The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on judicial decisions rather than legislative action.
• Communications common carrier: means any person engaged as a common carrier for hire in the transmission of wire or electronic communications. See
• Contents: when used with respect to any wire, oral, or electronic communication, includes any information concerning the identity of the parties to the communication or the existence, substance, purport, or meaning of that communication. See
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• de novo: means judicial review based on an administrative record and any additional evidence that would be authorized by § 10-222(f) and (g) of the State Government Article. See
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to 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.
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Electronic communication: means any transfer of signs, signals, writing, images, sounds, data, or intelligence of any nature transmitted in whole or in part by a wire, radio, electromagnetic, photoelectronic, or photooptical system. See
• Electronic communication service: means any service that provides to users of the service the ability to send or receive wire or electronic communications. See
• Electronic storage: means :
  
  (i) Any temporary, intermediate storage of a wire or electronic communication incidental to the electronic transmission of the communication; and
  
  (ii) Any storage of a wire or electronic communication by an electronic communication service for purposes of backup protection of the communication. See
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• Extradition: The formal process of delivering an accused or convicted person from authorities in one state to authorities in another state.
• Finance charge: The total cost of credit a customer must pay on a consumer loan, including interest. The Truth in Lending Act requires disclosure of the finance charge. ^{Source: OCC}
• 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}
• 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.
• Hearsay: Statements by a witness who did not see or hear the incident in question but heard about it from someone else. Hearsay is usually not admissible as evidence in court.
• 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.
• Intercept: means the aural or other acquisition of the contents of any wire, electronic, or oral communication through the use of any electronic, mechanical, or other device. See
• Investigative or law enforcement officer: means any officer of this State or a political subdivision of this State, who is empowered by law to conduct investigations of or to make arrests for offenses enumerated in this subtitle, any sworn law enforcement officer of the federal government or of any other state or a political subdivision of another state, working with and under the direction of an investigative or law enforcement officer of this State or a political subdivision of this State, and any attorney authorized by law to prosecute or participate in the prosecution of such offenses. See
• Judge of competent jurisdiction: means a judge of any circuit court within the State having jurisdiction over the offense under investigation. See
• Legacy: A gift of property made by will.
• legal holiday: means :
  
  (1) January 1, for New Year's Day;
  
  (2) (i) January 15, for Dr. See
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Oral argument: An opportunity for lawyers to summarize their position before the court and also to answer the judges' questions.
• Oral communication: means any conversation or words spoken to or by any person in private conversation. See
• Original bill: A bill which is drafted by a committee. It is introduced by the committee or subcommittee chairman after the committee votes to report it.
• Person: means any employee or agent of this State or a political subdivision thereof, and any individual, partnership, association, joint stock company, trust, or corporation. See
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• 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.
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Readily accessible to the general public: means , with respect to a radio communication, that the communication is not:
  
  (i) Scrambled or encrypted;
  
  (ii) Transmitted using modulation techniques the essential parameters of which have been withheld from the public with the intention of preserving the privacy of the communication; or
  
  (iii) Except for tone-only paging device communications, transmitted over frequencies reserved for private use and licensed for private use under federal or State law. See
• Recourse: An arrangement in which a bank retains, in form or in substance, any credit risk directly or indirectly associated with an asset it has sold (in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles) that exceeds a pro rata share of the bank's claim on the asset. If a bank has no claim on an asset it has sold, then the retention of any credit risk is recourse. ^{Source: FDIC}
• Remand: When an appellate court sends a case back to a lower court for further proceedings.
• 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).
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Telephone solicitation theft: means conduct of a person that:
  
  (i) Constitutes the offense of theft or attempted theft; and
  
  (ii) Involves the use of a telephone to solicit the payment of money. See
• 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.
• 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.
• Uniform Commercial Code: A set of statutes enacted by the various states to provide consistency among the states' commercial laws. It includes negotiable instruments, sales, stock transfers, trust and warehouse receipts, and bills of lading. ^{Source: OCC}
• User: means any person or entity that:
  
  (i) Uses an electronic communication service; and
  
  (ii) Is duly authorized by the provider of the service to engage in that use. See
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.