Terms Used In New York Laws > Penal > Part 4 > Title Y-1 - Nb

• 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.
• 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.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Attest: means providing the following public accountancy services which all require the independence of licensees:
  
  a. See N.Y. Education Law 7401-A
• Attorney-at-law: A person who is legally qualified and licensed to practice law, and to represent and act for clients in legal proceedings.
• Biological agent: means any micro-organism, virus, infectious substance, or biological product that may be engineered as a result of biotechnology, or any naturally occurring or bioengineered component of any such micro-organism, virus, infectious substance, or biological product, capable of causing:
  
  (a) death, disease, or other biological malfunction in a human, an animal, a plant, or another living organism;
  
  (b) deterioration of food, water, equipment, supplies, or material of any kind; or
  
  (c) deleterious alteration of the environment. See N.Y. Penal Law 490.05
• Biological weapon: means any biological agent, toxin, vector, or delivery system or combination thereof. See N.Y. Penal Law 490.05
• Capital offense: A crime punishable by death.
• Chemical weapon: means the following, together or separately:
  
  (a) a toxic chemical or its precursors;
  
  (b) a munition or device specifically designed to cause death or other harm through the toxic properties of a toxic chemical or its precursors, which would be released as a result of the employment of such munition or device;
  
  (c) any equipment specifically designed for use directly in connection with the employment of munitions or devices; or
  
  (d) any device that is designed to release radiation or radioactivity at a level dangerous to human life. See N.Y. Penal Law 490.05
• Compilation: means providing a service that presents, in the form of financial statements, information that is the representation of the management or owners of the client without undertaking to express any assurance of the accuracy of the information in the statements, to be performed in accordance with standards, developed by a federal governmental agency, commission or board or a recognized international or national professional accountancy organization, that are acceptable to the department in accordance with the commissioner's regulations. See N.Y. Education Law 7401-A
• 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.
• CPA: means any person who has received a license from the department or any other state as a certified public accountant for the practice of public accountancy. See N.Y. Education Law 7401-A
• 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.
• Delivery system: means :
  
  (a) any apparatus, equipment, device, or means of delivery specifically designed to deliver or disseminate a biological agent, toxin, or vector; or
  
  (b) any vector. See N.Y. Penal Law 490.05
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• 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.
• Firm: means a domestic or foreign entity organized as a sole proprietorship, a professional service corporation, a partnership, a professional service limited liability company, a foreign professional service limited liability company, a registered limited liability partnership, a foreign registered limited liability partnership, or any other form of organization that is established for the business purpose of lawfully engaging in the practice of public accountancy. See N.Y. Education Law 7401-A
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Grand jury: agreement providing that a lender will delay exercising its rights (in the case of a mortgage,
• 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.
• Key component of a binary or multicomponent chemical system: means the precursor which plays the most important role in determining the toxic properties of the final product and reacts rapidly with other chemicals in the binary or multicomponent system. See N.Y. Penal Law 490.05
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Material support or resources: means currency or other financial securities, financial services, lodging, training, safehouses, false documentation or identification, communications equipment, facilities, weapons, lethal substances, explosives, personnel, transportation, and other physical assets, except medicine or religious materials. See N.Y. Penal Law 490.05
• 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.
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• 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.
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Precursor: means any chemical reactant that takes part at any stage in the production by whatever method of a toxic chemical, including any key component of a binary or multicomponent chemical system, and includes precursors which have been identified for application of verification measures under article VI of the convention in schedules contained in the annex on chemicals of the chemical weapons convention. See N.Y. Penal Law 490.05
• Principal place of business: means the office location designated by the licensee from which the person directs, controls, and coordinates his or her professional services. See N.Y. Education Law 7401-A
• 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.
• 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).
• Select chemical agent: shall mean a chemical weapon which has been identified in regulations promulgated pursuant to subdivision twenty of § 206 of the public health law. See N.Y. Penal Law 490.05
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• 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: means any state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U. See N.Y. Education Law 7401-A
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Statute of limitations: A law that sets the time within which parties must take action to enforce their rights.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Toxic chemical: means any chemical which through its chemical action on life processes can cause death, serious physical injury or permanent harm to humans or animals, including all such chemicals, regardless of their origin or of their method of production, and regardless of whether they are produced in facilities, in munitions or elsewhere, and includes toxic chemicals which have been identified by the commissioner of health and included on the list of toxic chemicals pursuant to subdivision twenty of § 206 of the public health law. See N.Y. Penal Law 490.05
• Toxin: means the toxic material of plants, animals, micro-organisms, viruses, fungi, or infectious substances, or a recombinant molecule, whatever its origin or method of production, including:
  
  (a) any poisonous substance or biological product that may be engineered as a result of biotechnology produced by a living organism; or
  
  (b) any poisonous isomer or biological product, homolog, or derivative of such a substance. See N.Y. Penal Law 490.05
• 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.
• Vector: means a living organism, or molecule, including a recombinant molecule, or biological product that may be engineered as a result of biotechnology, capable of carrying a biological agent or toxin to a host. See N.Y. Penal Law 490.05