Terms Used In South Carolina Code > Title 38 > Chapter 77 - Automobile Insurance

• Act: means the South Carolina Jobs - Economic Development Fund Act. See South Carolina Code 41-43-20
• Action: means affirmative acts and the failure to take action. See South Carolina Code 38-77-1120
• Administrative funds: means all monies, received by the authority from the general fund of the State or from the exercise of the power of taxation by the State or any of its political subdivisions which are designated specifically to be used for the payment of administrative expenses, and the earnings on the funds. See South Carolina Code 41-43-20
• Advice and consent: Under the Constitution, presidential nominations for executive and judicial posts take effect only when confirmed by the Senate, and international treaties become effective only when the Senate approves them by a two-thirds vote.
• 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.
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• 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.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Authority: means the South Carolina Jobs - Economic Development Authority, which is a state-owned enterprise. See South Carolina Code 41-43-20
• Authorized agency: means :
  
  (1) the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division, the Department of Public Safety, the sheriff's department of any county of this State, and any duly constituted criminal investigative department or agency of another state of the United States;
  
  (2) the Attorney General of this State, any circuit solicitor of this State, any prosecuting attorney for a county, circuit, or district of another state or of the United States;
  
  (3) the South Carolina Department of Insurance and the South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs of the Attorney General's Office; and
  
  (4) the United States Department of Justice and its Federal Bureau of Investigation. See South Carolina Code 38-77-1120
• Automobile insurance: means automobile bodily injury and property damage liability insurance, including medical payments and uninsured motorist coverage, and automobile physical damage insurance such as automobile comprehensive physical damage, collision, fire, theft, combined additional coverage, and similar automobile physical damage insurance and economic loss benefits as provided by this chapter written or offered by automobile insurers. See South Carolina Code 38-77-30
• Automobile insurer: means an insurer licensed to do business in South Carolina and authorized to issue automobile insurance policies. See South Carolina Code 38-77-30
• Banks: means financial organizations organized, chartered, or holding an authorization certificate and subject to supervision by an agency or official of South Carolina or of the United States and authorized to make loans and receive deposits. See South Carolina Code 41-43-20
• Bodily injury: includes death resulting therefrom. See South Carolina Code 38-77-30
• Bonds: means any evidence of indebtedness of the authority in any form including, but not limited to, notes, warrants, bonds, or any similar obligation evidenced in written, printed, or electronic means. See South Carolina Code 41-43-20
• 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.
• Commission: means the part of the premium paid to the producer as compensation for his services. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• 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.
• Damages: includes both actual and punitive damages. See South Carolina Code 38-77-30
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the Department of Insurance of South Carolina. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• 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: means the person who is appointed by the Governor upon the advice and consent of the Senate and who is responsible for the operation and management of the department. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• 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.
• Facility physical damage rate: means the final rate or premium charge for physical damage coverage which must be established by adding the physical damage loss component developed under § 38-77-596 to the expense component developed under § 38-77-596. See South Carolina Code 38-77-30
• 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.
• 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.
• Freedom of Information Act: A federal law that mandates that all the records created and kept by federal agencies in the executive branch of government must be open for public inspection and copying. The only exceptions are those records that fall into one of nine exempted categories listed in the statute. ^{Source: OCC}
• Immune: means that neither a civil action nor a criminal prosecution may arise from any action taken pursuant to this article unless actual malice on the part of the insurance company or authorized agency against the insured or gross negligence or reckless disregard for his rights is present. See South Carolina Code 38-77-1120
• Individual private passenger automobile: means the following types of motor vehicles owned by or leased under a long-term contract by an individual or individuals:
  
  (i) motor vehicles of the private passenger type or station wagon type;
  
  (ii) panel trucks, delivery sedans, vehicles with a pickup body, vans, or similar motor vehicles designed for use on streets and highways and so licensed;
  
  (iii) motor homes, so long as the motor vehicles described in (ii) and (iii) are not used in the occupation, profession, or business of the insured other than farming and ranching; and
  
  (iv) motorcycles. See South Carolina Code 38-77-30
• Institutional source: means any person or governmental entity that provides information about an individual to an agent, insurer, or insurance-support organization other than:
  
  (a) an agent;
  
  (b) the individual who is the subject of the information; or
  
  (c) a natural person acting in a personal capacity rather than in a business or professional capacity. See South Carolina Code 38-77-30
• insurance: includes annuities. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• Insurance company: means an "insurer". See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• Insurance-support organization: means any person who regularly engages, in whole or in part, in the practice of assembling or collecting information about natural persons for the primary purpose of providing the information to an insurer or agent for insurance transactions, including (i) the furnishing of consumer reports or investigative consumer reports to an insurer or agent for use in connection with an insurance transaction or (ii) the collection of personal information from insurers, agents, or other insurance-support organizations for the purpose of detecting or preventing fraud, material misrepresentation, or material nondisclosure in connection with insurance underwriting or insurance claim activity. See South Carolina Code 38-77-30
• Insured: means the named insured and, while resident of the same household, the spouse of any named insured and relatives of either, while in a motor vehicle or otherwise, and any person who uses with the consent, expressed or implied, of the named insured the motor vehicle to which the policy applies and a guest in the motor vehicle to which the policy applies or the personal representative of any of the above. See South Carolina Code 38-77-30
• Insurer: includes a corporation, fraternal organization, burial association, other association, partnership, society, order, individual, or aggregation of individuals engaging or proposing or attempting to engage as principals in any kind of insurance or surety business, including the exchanging of reciprocal or interinsurance contracts between individuals, partnerships, and corporations. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• Interest rate: The amount paid by a borrower to a lender in exchange for the use of the lender's money for a certain period of time. Interest is paid on loans or on debt instruments, such as notes or bonds, either at regular intervals or as part of a lump sum payment when the issue matures. ^{Source: OCC}
• Joint session: When both chambers of a legislature adopt a concurrent resolution to meet together.
• 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.
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• License: means a document issued by the state's director or his designee authorizing a person to act as an insurance producer for the lines of authority specified in the document. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Motor vehicle: means every self-propelled vehicle which is designed for use upon a highway, including trailers and semitrailers designed for use with these vehicles but excepting traction engines, road rollers, farm trailers, tractor cranes, power shovels and well-drillers, and every vehicle which is propelled by electric power obtained from overhead wires but not operated upon rails. See South Carolina Code 38-77-30
• Negotiate: means the act of conferring directly with or offering advice directly to a purchaser or prospective purchaser of a particular contract of insurance concerning substantive benefits, terms, or conditions of the contract, provided that the person engaged in that act either sells insurance or obtains insurance from insurers for purchasers. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• 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.
• Person: means a corporation, agency, partnership, association, voluntary organization, individual, or another entity, organization, or aggregation of individuals. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• 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.
• policy: means a policy or contract for bodily injury or property damage liability insurance issued or delivered in this State covering liability arising from the ownership, maintenance, or use of any motor vehicle, insuring as the named insured one individual or husband and wife who are residents of the same household, and under which the insured vehicle designated in the policy is either:
  
  (a) a motor vehicle of a private passenger, station wagon, or motorcycle type that is not used commercially, rented to others, or used as a public or livery conveyance where the terms "public or livery conveyance" do not include car pools, or
  
  (b) any other four-wheel motor vehicle which is not used in the occupation, profession, or business, other than farming, of the insured, or as a public or livery conveyance, or rented to others. See South Carolina Code 38-77-30
• Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
• Premium: means payment given in consideration of a contract of insurance. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• producer: means a person who represents an insurance company and is required to be licensed pursuant to § 38-43-10. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• Program funds: means any monies, including, but not limited to, the proceeds from bond sales, the sale or disposition of any assets, or any other source available to the authority, other than administrative funds and the earnings on the funds. See South Carolina Code 41-43-20
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Reduction in coverage: means a change made by the insurer which results in a removal of coverage, diminution in scope or less coverage, or the addition of an exclusion. See South Carolina Code 38-77-30
• Relevant: means having any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the investigation or determination of the issue more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence. See South Carolina Code 38-77-1120
• 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.
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• to renew: means the issuance and delivery by an insurer of a policy superseding at the end of the policy period a policy previously issued and delivered by the same insurer or the issuance and delivery of a certificate or notice extending the terms of a policy beyond its policy period or term. See South Carolina Code 38-77-30
• 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.
• Underinsured motor vehicle: means a motor vehicle as defined in item (9) as to which there is bodily injury liability insurance or a bond applicable at the time of the accident in an amount of at least that specified in § 38-77-140 and the amount of the insurance or bond is less than the amount of the insureds' damages. See South Carolina Code 38-77-30
• Uninsured motor vehicle: means a motor vehicle as defined in item (9) as to which:
  
  (a) there is not bodily injury liability insurance and property damage liability insurance both at least in the amounts specified in § 38-77-140; or
  
  (b) there is nominally that insurance, but the insurer writing the same successfully denies coverage thereunder; or
  
  (c) there was that insurance, but the insurer who wrote the same is declared insolvent, or is in delinquency proceedings, suspension, or receivership, or is proven unable fully to respond to a judgment; and
  
  (d) there is no bond or deposit of cash or securities in lieu of the bodily injury and property damage liability insurance;
  
  (e) the owner of the motor vehicle has not qualified as a self-insurer in accordance with the applicable provisions of law. See South Carolina Code 38-77-30