Terms Used In Nebraska Statutes > Nebraska Hospital-Medical Liability Act

• Acquire: when used in connection with a grant of power or property right to any person shall include the purchase, grant, gift, devise, bequest, and obtaining by eminent domain. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801
• Action: shall include any proceeding in any court of this state. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801
• Action shall: include any proceeding in any court of this state. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801
• 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.
• 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.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Attorney: shall mean attorney at law. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801
• Authority: shall mean the Residual Malpractice Insurance Authority established pursuant to section Nebraska Statutes 44-2815
• 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.
• Company: shall include any corporation, partnership, limited liability company, joint-stock company, joint venture, or association. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801
• Company shall: include any corporation, partnership, limited liability company, joint-stock company, joint venture, or association. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• 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.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: shall mean the Department of Insurance. See Nebraska Statutes 44-103
• 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.
• Director: shall mean the Director of Insurance. See Nebraska Statutes 44-2807
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Domestic: when applied to corporations shall mean all those created by authority of this state. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801
• 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.
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• 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}
• 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.
• Health care: shall mean any act or treatment performed or furnished, or which should have been performed or furnished, by any health care provider for, to, or on behalf of a patient during the patient's care, treatment, or confinement. See Nebraska Statutes 44-2811
• Hospital: shall mean a public or private institution licensed pursuant to the Health Care Facility Licensure Act. See Nebraska Statutes 44-2806
• Informed consent: shall mean consent to a procedure based on information which would ordinarily be provided to the patient under like circumstances by health care providers engaged in a similar practice in the locality or in similar localities. See Nebraska Statutes 44-2816
• Insurer: shall mean the authority or an insurance company engaged in writing malpractice liability insurance in this state. See Nebraska Statutes 44-2814
• 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.
• 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.
• Malpractice or professional negligence: shall mean that, in rendering professional services, a health care provider has failed to use the ordinary and reasonable care, skill, and knowledge ordinarily possessed and used under like circumstances by members of his profession engaged in a similar practice in his or in similar localities. See Nebraska Statutes 44-2810
• Month: shall mean calendar month. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801
• 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.
• Occurrence: shall mean the event, incident, or happening, and the acts or omissions incident thereto, which proximately cause injuries or damages for which reimbursement is or may be claimed by the patient or his representative. See Nebraska Statutes 44-2813
• 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: shall mean a natural person who receives or should have received health care from a licensed health care provider under a contract, express or implied. See Nebraska Statutes 44-2805
• Person: shall include bodies politic and corporate, societies, communities, the public generally, individuals, partnerships, limited liability companies, joint-stock companies, and associations. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801
• Person shall: include bodies politic and corporate, societies, communities, the public generally, individuals, partnerships, limited liability companies, joint-stock companies, and associations. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Physician: shall mean a person with an unlimited license to practice medicine in this state pursuant to the Medicine and Surgery Practice Act or a person with a license to practice osteopathic medicine or osteopathic medicine and surgery in this state pursuant to sections Nebraska Statutes 44-2804
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Process: shall mean a summons, subpoena, or notice to appear issued out of a court in the course of judicial proceedings. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Reinsurance: shall mean a contract by which an insurer procures a third party to insure it against loss or liability by reason of such original insurance. See Nebraska Statutes 44-103
• 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.
• Representative: shall mean the spouse, parent, guardian, adult child, executor, administrator, trustee, attorney, or other legal agent of the patient. See Nebraska Statutes 44-2808
• Risk manager: shall mean an insurance company admitted to write insurance in Nebraska, which company shall be appointed by the director to manage the Residual Malpractice Insurance Authority. See Nebraska Statutes 44-2812
• 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.
• State: when applied to different states of the United States shall be construed to extend to and include the District of Columbia and the several territories organized by Congress. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801
• Statute of limitations: A law that sets the time within which parties must take action to enforce their rights.
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• 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.
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• United States: shall include territories, outlying possessions, and the District of Columbia. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801
• Year: shall mean calendar year. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801