Terms Used In Oregon Statutes > Chapter 146 > Investigation of Deaths

• Adjusted average weekly check amount: means the average weekly check amount in a calendar year plus one-half of the increase in the maximum weekly benefit amount plus one-half of the increase in the minimum weekly benefit amount from the week including July 4 immediately preceding such calendar year to the week including July 4 immediately following such calendar year. See Oregon Statutes 657.458
• 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.
• Affirmed: In the practice of the appellate courts, the decree or order is declared valid and will stand as rendered in the lower court.
• agricultural product: includes straw. See Oregon Statutes 174.102
• Amortization: Paying off a loan by regular installments.
• 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.
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• Any other state: includes any state and the District of Columbia. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
• 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.
• Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Average monthly employment: means the total number of persons employed in each month for 12 consecutive months, as reported by employers subject to the tax under this chapter, divided by 12. See Oregon Statutes 657.458
• Average weekly check amount: means the gross amount of benefit payments, excluding extended benefits, made during a 12 consecutive month period, divided by the number of such weekly payments made to all individuals receiving benefits under this chapter during that period. See Oregon Statutes 657.458
• 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.
• 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.
• Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. ^{Source: OCC}
• Benefit year: means a period of 52 consecutive weeks commencing with the first week with respect to which an individual files an initial valid claim for benefits, and thereafter the 52 consecutive weeks period beginning with the first week with respect to which the individual next files an initial valid claim after the termination of the individual's last preceding benefit year except that the benefit year shall be 53 weeks if the filing of an initial valid claim would result in overlapping any quarter of the base year of a previously filed initial valid claim. See Oregon Statutes 657.010
• Benefits: means the money allowances payable to unemployed persons under this chapter. See Oregon Statutes 657.010
• Calendar quarter: means the period of three consecutive calendar months ending on March 31, June 30, September 30 or December 31, or the approximate equivalent thereof, as the Director of the Employment Department may, by rule, prescribe. See Oregon Statutes 657.010
• 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.
• contributions: means the taxes that are the money payments required by this chapter, or voluntary payments permitted, to be made to the Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund. See Oregon Statutes 657.010
• Counterclaim: A claim that a defendant makes against a plaintiff.
• County court: includes board of county commissioners. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• district: means any one of the following:

  (1) A people's utility district organized under ORS Chapter 261. See Oregon Statutes 198.010

• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• employee: means any person, including aliens and minors, employed for remuneration or under any contract of hire, written or oral, express or implied, by an employer subject to this chapter in an employment subject to this chapter. See Oregon Statutes 657.015
• employer: means any employing unit which employs one or more individuals in an employment subject to this chapter in each of 18 separate weeks during any calendar year, or in which the employing unit's total payroll during any calendar quarter amounts to $1,000 or more. See Oregon Statutes 657.025
• employment: includes service that is:

  (a) Subject to the tax imposed by the Federal Unemployment Tax Act; or

  (b) Required to be covered under this chapter as a condition for employers to receive a full tax credit against the tax imposed by the Federal Unemployment Tax Act. See Oregon Statutes 657.030

• Employment office: means a free public employment office or branch thereof, operated by this state or maintained as a part of a state-controlled system of public employment offices. See Oregon Statutes 657.010
• En banc: In the bench or "full bench." Refers to court sessions with the entire membership of a court participating rather than the usual quorum. U.S. courts of appeals usually sit in panels of three judges, but may expand to a larger number in certain cases. They are then said to be sitting en banc.
• 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}
• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• 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.
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• Fair Credit Reporting Act: A federal law, established in 1971 and revised in 1997, that gives consumers the right to see their credit records and correct any mistakes. ^{Source: OCC}
• Federal Reserve System: The central bank of the United States. The Fed, as it is commonly called, regulates the U.S. monetary and financial system. The Federal Reserve System is composed of a central governmental agency in Washington, D.C. (the Board of Governors) and twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks in major cities throughout the United States. ^{Source: OCC}
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• 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).
• Forbearance: A means of handling a delinquent loan. A
• 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}
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Garnishment: Generally, garnishment is a court proceeding in which a creditor asks a court to order a third party who owes money to the debtor or otherwise holds assets belonging to the debtor to turn over to the creditor any of the debtor
• Grand jury: agreement providing that a lender will delay exercising its rights (in the case of a mortgage,
• High benefit cost period: means the 12 consecutive month period in the last 20 completed calendar years in which the benefit cost rate was the highest. See Oregon Statutes 657.458
• Indictment: The formal charge issued by a grand jury stating that there is enough evidence that the defendant committed the crime to justify having a trial; it is used primarily for felonies.
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Institution of higher education: means an educational institution that:

  (a) Admits as regular students only individuals having a certificate of graduation from a high school, or the recognized equivalent of such a certificate;

  (b) Is legally authorized in this state to provide a program of education beyond high school;

  (c) Provides an educational program for which it awards a bachelor's or higher degree, or provides a program that is acceptable for full credit toward such a degree, a program of post-graduate or post-doctoral studies, or a program of training to prepare students for gainful employment in a recognized occupation; and

  (d) Is a public or other nonprofit institution. See Oregon Statutes 657.010

• Internal Revenue Code: means the federal Internal Revenue Code, as amended and in effect on December 31, 2022. See Oregon Statutes 657.010
• Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
• Joint committee: Committees including membership from both houses of teh legislature. Joint committees are usually established with narrow jurisdictions and normally lack authority to report legislation.
• Juror: A person who is on the jury.
• Legal tender: coins, dollar bills, or other currency issued by a government as official money. ^{Source: U.S. Mint}
• 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.
• local government: means all cities, counties and local service districts located in this state, and all administrative subdivisions of those cities, counties and local service districts. See Oregon Statutes 174.116
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
• Nonprofit employing unit: means an organization, or group of organizations, described in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code that is exempt from income tax under section 501(a) of the Internal Revenue Code. See Oregon Statutes 657.010
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• occupational disease: means any disease or infection arising out of and in the course of employment caused by substances or activities to which an employee is not ordinarily subjected or exposed other than during a period of regular actual employment therein, and which requires medical services or results in disability or death, including:

  (A) Any disease or infection caused by ingestion of, absorption of, inhalation of or contact with dust, fumes, vapors, gases, radiation or other substances. See Oregon Statutes 656.802

• Oral argument: An opportunity for lawyers to summarize their position before the court and also to answer the judges' questions.
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• payroll: means all wages paid to employees in any employment subject to this chapter. See Oregon Statutes 657.095
• Person: means an individual, organization, corporation, government, governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, partnership or association, two or more persons having a joint or common interest or any other legal or commercial entity. See Oregon Statutes 205.010
• Person: includes individuals, corporations, associations, firms, partnerships, limited liability companies and joint stock companies. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
• political subdivision: means any county, city, district organized for public purposes, or any other political subdivision or public corporation, including any entity organized pursuant to ORS § 190. See Oregon Statutes 657.097
• Power of attorney: A written instrument which authorizes one person to act as another's agent or attorney. The power of attorney may be for a definite, specific act, or it may be general in nature. The terms of the written power of attorney may specify when it will expire. If not, the power of attorney usually expires when the person granting it dies. ^{Source: OCC}
• Presiding officer: A majority-party Senator who presides over the Senate and is charged with maintaining order and decorum, recognizing Members to speak, and interpreting the Senate's rules, practices and precedents.
• 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.
• public body: means state government bodies, local government bodies and special government bodies. See Oregon Statutes 174.109
• public notice: means any legal publication which requires an affidavit of publication as required in ORS § 193. See Oregon Statutes 174.104
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Recess: A temporary interruption of the legislative business.
• 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.
• Remand: When an appellate court sends a case back to a lower court for further proceedings.
• Rescission: The cancellation of budget authority previously provided by Congress. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 specifies that the President may propose to Congress that funds be rescinded. If both Houses have not approved a rescission proposal (by passing legislation) within 45 days of continuous session, any funds being withheld must be made available for obligation.
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• state government: means the executive department, the judicial department and the legislative department. See Oregon Statutes 174.111
• State Treasury: includes those financial assets the lawful custody of which are vested in the State Treasurer and the office of the State Treasurer relating to the custody of those financial assets. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
• 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.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Taxes: means the money payments to the Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund required, or voluntary payments permitted, by this chapter. See Oregon Statutes 657.010
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Text: includes the words contained in the body of an instrument to be recorded and the names of the transactions contained in the instrument. See Oregon Statutes 205.010
• 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.
• Trust account: A general term that covers all types of accounts in a trust department, such as estates, guardianships, and agencies. ^{Source: OCC}
• United States: includes territories, outlying possessions and the District of Columbia. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
• Uphold: The decision of an appellate court not to reverse a lower court decision.
• Valid claim: means any claim for benefits made in accordance with ORS § 657. See Oregon Statutes 657.010
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.
• Violate: includes failure to comply. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
• wages: means all remuneration for employment, including the cash value, as determined by the Director of the Employment Department under the regulations of the director, of all remuneration paid in any medium other than cash. See Oregon Statutes 657.105
• Week: means any period of seven consecutive calendar days ending at midnight, as the director may prescribe by rule. See Oregon Statutes 657.010
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.