Terms Used In South Carolina Code > Title 56 > Chapter 3 > Article 3 - Registration and Licensing Generally

• Abandoned: means left without provision for reasonable and necessary care or supervision. See South Carolina Code 63-15-302
• Adjourn: A motion to adjourn a legislative chamber or a committee, if passed, ends that day's session.
• Adoptee: means a person who is proposed to be or who has been legally adopted. See South Carolina Code 63-9-30
• Adoption: means the judicial act of creating the relationship of parent and child where it did not exist previously. See South Carolina Code 63-9-30
• Adoptive parent: means an adult who has become a parent of a child through the legal process of adoption. See South Carolina Code 63-9-30
• Adult: means an individual who is at least eighteen years of age or an emancipated minor. See South Carolina Code 63-15-502
• 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.
• agency: means the State Department of Social Services and any person or entity who holds legal or physical custody of a child for the purpose of placement for adoption or a person or entity who facilitates the placement of children for the purpose of adoption. See South Carolina Code 63-9-30
• Allegation: something that someone says happened.
• 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.
• Arrearage: means amounts of past-due and unpaid monthly support obligations established by court or administrative order. See South Carolina Code 63-17-720
• Arrearage: means the total amount overdue under an order of support. See South Carolina Code 63-17-1020
• 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.
• 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.
• Caretaking authority: means the right to live with and care for a child on a day-to-day basis, including physical custody, parenting time, right to access, and visitation. See South Carolina Code 63-15-502
• Child: means a person under the age of eighteen. See South Carolina Code 63-1-40
• Child: means any person under eighteen years of age. See South Carolina Code 63-9-30
• Child: means an individual up to twenty-one years of age. See South Carolina Code 63-9-1720
• Child: means an individual who has not attained eighteen years of age. See South Carolina Code 63-15-302
• Child: means :
  
  (a) an unemancipated individual who has not attained eighteen years of age; or
  
  (b) an adult son or daughter by birth or adoption or under the law of this State, other than this article, who is the subject of an existing court order concerning custodial responsibility. See South Carolina Code 63-15-502
• child: includes , but is not limited to, a person under the age of eighteen years. See South Carolina Code 63-17-10
• Child caring facility: means a campus with one or more staffed residences and with a total population of twenty or more children who are in care apart from their parents, relatives, or guardians on a continuing full-time basis for protection and guidance. See South Carolina Code 63-1-40
• Child custody determination: means a judgment, decree, or other order of a court providing for the legal custody, physical custody, or visitation with respect to a child. See South Carolina Code 63-15-302
• Child custody proceeding: means a proceeding in which legal custody, physical custody, or visitation with respect to a child is an issue. See South Carolina Code 63-15-302
• 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.
• Close and substantial relationship: means a relationship in which a significant bond exists between a child and a nonparent. See South Carolina Code 63-15-502
• Commencement: means the filing of the first pleading in a proceeding. See South Carolina Code 63-15-302
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Compliance with an order for support: means that pursuant to an order for support the person required to pay under the order is in arrears no more than five-hundred dollars and has paid the full child support obligation for the last two consecutive months. See South Carolina Code 63-17-1020
• Consent: means the informed and voluntary release in writing of all parental rights with respect to a child by a parent for the purpose of adoption, or the informed and voluntary release in writing of all custodial or guardianship rights, or both, with respect to a child by the child placing agency or person facilitating the placement of the child for adoption where the child's parent previously has executed a relinquishment to that agency or person. See South Carolina Code 63-9-30
• 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.
• Costs of collections: means costs as provided for in § 63-3-370 in addition to the monthly support obligation. See South Carolina Code 63-17-720
• Court: means any family court in this State. See South Carolina Code 63-9-30
• Court: means an entity authorized under the law of a state to establish, enforce, or modify a child custody determination. See South Carolina Code 63-15-302
• Court: means an entity authorized under the law of this State, other than this article, to establish, enforce, or modify a decision regarding custodial responsibility. See South Carolina Code 63-15-502
• Credit bureau: An agency that collects individual credit information and sells it for a fee to creditors so they can make a decision on granting loans. Typical clients include banks, mortgage lenders, credit card companies, and other financing companies. (Also commonly referred to as consumer-reporting agency or credit-reporting agency.) ^{Source: OCC}
• Custodial responsibility: is a comprehensive term that includes any and all powers and duties relating to caretaking authority and decision-making authority for a child. See South Carolina Code 63-15-502
• Custodian: means a parent, relative, legal guardian, or other person or agency having physical custody of a child. See South Carolina Code 63-17-720
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Decision-making authority: means the power to make important decisions regarding a child, including decisions regarding the child's education, religious training, health care, extra-curricular activities, and travel. See South Carolina Code 63-15-502
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the Department of Social Services. See South Carolina Code 63-9-1720
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Dependent child: means a person who is legally entitled to or the subject of a support order for the provision of proper or necessary subsistence, education, medical care, or other care necessary for the person's health, guidance, or well-being who is not otherwise emancipated, self-supporting, married, or a member of the armed forces of the United States. See South Carolina Code 63-17-720
• Deploying parent: means a service member, who is deployed or has been notified of impending deployment, and is:
  
  (a) a parent of a child under the law of this State other than this article; or
  
  (b) an individual other than a parent who has custodial responsibility of a child under the law of this State other than this article;
  
  (9) "Deployment" means the movement or mobilization of a service member to a location for more than ninety days but fewer than eighteen months pursuant to an official order that:
  
  (a) is designated as unaccompanied;
  
  (b) does not authorize dependent travel; or
  
  (c) otherwise does not permit the movement of family members to that location. See South Carolina Code 63-15-502
• 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 Director of the Child Support Enforcement Division of the State Department of Social Services or the director's designees. See South Carolina Code 63-17-720
• Director: means the Director of the Child Support Enforcement Division of the State Department of Social Services or his designee. See South Carolina Code 63-17-1020
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• Division: means the Child Support Enforcement Division of the State Department of Social Services. See South Carolina Code 63-17-720
• Division: means the Child Support Enforcement Division of the State Department of Social Services. See South Carolina Code 63-17-1020
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Duty of support: includes the duty to pay a monthly support obligation and any arrearage. See South Carolina Code 63-17-720
• entity: means , for the purposes of issuing or revoking a license, a state, county, or municipal agency, board, department, office, or commission that issues a license. See South Carolina Code 63-17-1020
• 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.
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• family childcare home: means a facility within a residence occupied by the operator in which childcare regularly is provided for no more than six children, unattended by a parent or legal guardian, including those children living in the home and the children received for childcare who are related to the resident caregiver. See South Carolina Code 63-13-810
• Family member: includes a sibling, aunt, uncle, cousin, stepparent, or grandparent of a child and an individual recognized to be in a familial relationship with a child under the law of this State other than this article. See South Carolina Code 63-15-502
• 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.
• 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}
• 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.
• Guardian: means a person who legally has the care and management of a child. See South Carolina Code 63-1-40
• Home state: means the state in which a child lived with a parent or a person acting as a parent for at least six consecutive months immediately before the commencement of a child custody proceeding. See South Carolina Code 63-15-302
• Initial determination: means the first child custody determination concerning a particular child. See South Carolina Code 63-15-302
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• 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}
• Issuing court: means the court that makes a child custody determination for which enforcement is sought under this article. See South Carolina Code 63-15-302
• 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.
• Joint custody: means both parents have equal rights and responsibilities for major decisions concerning the child, including the child's education, medical and dental care, extracurricular activities, and religious training; however, a judge may designate one parent to have sole authority to make specific, identified decisions while both parents retain equal rights and responsibilities for all other decisions. See South Carolina Code 63-15-210
• Judge: means the judge of the family court. See South Carolina Code 63-1-40
• judge: means any court or judge in this State having jurisdiction to determine the liability of persons for the support of another person. See South Carolina Code 63-17-720
• 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) a certificate, license, credential, permit, registration, or any other authorization issued by a licensing entity that allows an individual or is required of an individual to engage in a business, occupation, or profession and includes, but is not limited to, a medical license, teaching certificate, commission and certificate of training from the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy for a sworn law enforcement officer, and a hunting, fishing, or trapping license for commercial use and the privilege to hunt, fish, or trap or hold a hunting, fishing, or trapping license for commercial use;
  
  (b) a driver's license and includes, but is not limited to, a beginner's or instruction permit, a restricted driver's license, a motorcycle driver's license, or a commercial driver's license;
  
  (c) a hunting, fishing, or trapping license for recreational purposes and the privilege to hunt, fish, or trap or hold a hunting, fishing, or trapping license for recreational purposes;
  
  (d) a watercraft registration. See South Carolina Code 63-17-1020
• Licensee: means an individual holding a license issued by a licensing entity. See South Carolina Code 63-17-1020
• Limited contact: means the opportunity for a nonparent to visit with a child for a limited period of time. See South Carolina Code 63-15-502
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Modification: means a child custody determination that changes, replaces, supersedes, or is otherwise made after a previous determination concerning the same child, whether or not it is made by the court that made the previous determination. See South Carolina Code 63-15-302
• Monthly support obligation: means the monthly amount of current child support that an obligor is ordered to pay by the court or by the division pursuant to this article. See South Carolina Code 63-17-720
• Nolo contendere: No contest-has the same effect as a plea of guilty, as far as the criminal sentence is concerned, but may not be considered as an admission of guilt for any other purpose.
• Nonparent: means an individual other than a deploying parent or other parent. See South Carolina Code 63-15-502
• 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.
• Obligee: means a person or agency to whom a duty of support is owed or a person or agency having commenced a proceeding for the establishment or enforcement of an alleged duty of support. See South Carolina Code 63-17-720
• Obligor: means a person owing a duty of support or against whom a proceeding for the establishment or enforcement of a duty to support is commenced. See South Carolina Code 63-17-720
• Order: means an administrative order that involves the establishment of paternity and/or the establishment and enforcement of an order for child support and/or medical support issued by the Child Support Enforcement Division of the State Department of Social Services or the administrative agency of another state or comparable jurisdiction with similar authority. See South Carolina Code 63-17-720
• Order for support: means an order being enforced by the division under Title IV-D of the Social Security Act and which provides for periodic payments of funds for the support of a child or maintenance of a spouse or former spouse and support of a child, whether temporary or final and includes, but is not limited to, an order for reimbursement for public assistance or an order for making periodic payments on a support arrearage. See South Carolina Code 63-17-1020
• Other parent: means an individual who, in common with a deploying parent, is:
  
  (a) the parent of a child under the law of this State other than this article; or
  
  (b) an individual other than a parent with custodial responsibility of a child under the law of this State other than this article. See South Carolina Code 63-15-502
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Parent: means biological parent, adoptive parents, step-parent, or person with legal custody. See South Carolina Code 63-1-40
• 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.
• Payee: means a custodial parent on whose behalf child support payments are being collected or an agency or its designee in this or another state to which an assignment of rights to child support has been made. See South Carolina Code 63-17-720
• Person: means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, government, governmental subdivision, governmental agency or instrumentality, public corporation, or any other legal or commercial entity. See South Carolina Code 63-15-302
• Person acting as a parent: means a person, other than a parent, who:
  
  (a) has physical custody of the child or has had physical custody for a period of six consecutive months, including any temporary absence, within one year immediately before the commencement of a child custody proceeding; and
  
  (b) has been awarded legal custody by a court or claims a right to legal custody under the law of this State. See South Carolina Code 63-15-302
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Physical custody: means the physical care and supervision of a child. See South Carolina Code 63-15-302
• Plea: In a criminal case, the defendant's statement pleading "guilty" or "not guilty" in answer to the charges, a declaration made in open court.
• 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.
• 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}
• 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.
• President pro tempore: A constitutionally recognized officer of the Senate who presides over the chamber in the absence of the Vice President. The President Pro Tempore (or, "president for a time") is elected by the Senate and is, by custom, the Senator of the majority party with the longest record of continuous service.
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Probate: Proving a will
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form. See South Carolina Code 63-15-502
• Relinquishment: means the informed and voluntary release in writing of all parental rights with respect to a child by a parent to a child placing agency or to a person who facilitates the placement of a child for the purpose of adoption and to whom the parent has given the right to consent to the adoption of the child. See South Carolina Code 63-9-30
• 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.
• Return from deployment: means the conclusion of a service member's deployment as specified in uniformed service orders. See South Carolina Code 63-15-502
• Service member: means a member of a uniformed service. See South Carolina Code 63-15-502
• 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.
• Sole custody: means a person, including, but not limited to, a parent who has temporary or permanent custody of a child and, unless otherwise provided for by court order, the rights and responsibilities for major decisions concerning the child, including the child's education, medical and dental care, extracurricular activities, and religious training. See South Carolina Code 63-15-210
• South Carolina resident: means a person who has established a true, fixed principal residence and place of habitation in this State, and who intends to remain or expects to return upon leaving without establishing residence in another state. See South Carolina Code 63-9-30
• special needs child: means children who fall into one or more of the following categories:
  
  (a) children who are members of a sibling group;
  
  (b) children of marginalized ethnic backgrounds, except for purposes of § 63-9-60(B);
  
  (c) children aged six or older; or
  
  (d) children with physical, mental, or emotional disabilities. See South Carolina Code 63-9-30
• State: means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. See South Carolina Code 63-15-302
• State: means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. See South Carolina Code 63-15-502
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Subpoena duces tecum: A command to a witness to produce documents.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Supplemental benefits: means payments made by the State Department of Social Services to provide services, including medical subsidies for payment for treatment pursuant to § 63-9-1780, for children who without these services may not have been adopted. See South Carolina Code 63-9-1720
• 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.
• Tribe: means an Indian tribe or band, or Alaskan native village, which is recognized by federal law or formally acknowledged by a state. See South Carolina Code 63-15-302
• Uniformed service: means :
  
  (a) active and reserve components of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard of the United States;
  
  (b) the Merchant Marine, the commissioned corps of the Public Health Service or the commissioned corps of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States; or
  
  (c) the National Guard. See South Carolina Code 63-15-502
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Warrant: means an order issued by a court authorizing law enforcement officers to take physical custody of a child. See South Carolina Code 63-15-302