Terms Used In South Carolina Code > Title 63 > Chapter 9 - Adoptions

• 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
• 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
• 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.
• Child: means an individual up to twenty-one years of age. See South Carolina Code 63-9-1720
• Child: means any person under eighteen years of age. See South Carolina Code 63-9-30
• Child: means a person under the age of eighteen. See South Carolina Code 63-1-40
• 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.
• 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
• 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.
• Court: means any family court in this State. See South Carolina Code 63-9-30
• Department: means the Department of Social Services. See South Carolina Code 63-9-1720
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• 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.
• 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
• Judge: means the judge of the family court. See South Carolina Code 63-1-40
• 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}
• 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.
• Parent: means biological parent, adoptive parents, step-parent, or person with legal custody. See South Carolina Code 63-1-40
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• 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.
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• 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.
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• 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
• 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.
• 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
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.