Terms Used In Tennessee Code > Title 47 > Chapter 18 > Part 1 - Consumer Protection Act of 1977

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Ascertainable loss: means an identifiable deprivation, detriment or injury arising from the identity theft or from any unfair, misleading or deceptive act or practice even when the precise amount of the loss is not known. See Tennessee Code 47-18-2102
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Attorney general: means the attorney general and reporter, or the attorney general and reporter's designee. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• Automatic renewal: means a plan or arrangement in which a paid subscription or purchasing agreement is automatically renewed at the end of a definite term for a subsequent term. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• Automatic renewal offer terms: means the following clear and conspicuous disclosures:
  (A) That the subscription or purchasing agreement will continue until the consumer cancels. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• 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}
• Clear and conspicuous: means in larger type than the surrounding text, or in contrasting type, font, or color to the surrounding text of the same size, or set off from the surrounding text of the same size by symbols or other marks, in a manner that clearly calls attention to the language. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• clearly and conspicuously: means in a volume and cadence sufficient to be readily audible and understandable. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• Code: includes the Tennessee Code and all amendments and revisions to the code and all additions and supplements to the code. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Consumer: means any natural person who seeks or acquires by purchase, rent, lease, assignment, award by chance, or other disposition, any goods, services, or property, tangible or intangible, real, personal or mixed, and any other article, commodity, or thing of value wherever situated or any person who purchases or to whom is offered for sale a franchise or distributorship agreement or any similar type of business opportunity. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• consumer transaction: means the advertising, offering for sale, lease or rental, or distribution of any goods, services, or property, tangible or intangible, real, personal, or mixed, and other articles, commodities, or things of value wherever situated. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• Continuous service: means a plan or arrangement in which a subscription or purchasing agreement continues until the consumer cancels the service. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Contract for home improvement services: means a contractual agreement, written or oral, between a person performing home improvement services and a residential owner, and includes all labor, services and materials to be furnished and performed under such agreement. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• 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.
• Covered file-sharing program: means a computer program, application, or software that enables the computer on which such program, application, or software is installed to designate files as available for searching by and copying to one (1) or more other computers, to transmit such designated files directly to one (1) or more other computers, and to request the transmission of such designated files directly from one (1) or more other computers. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• 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.
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Documentary material: means the original or copy of any book, record, memorandum, paper, communication, tabulation, map, chart, photograph, mechanical transcription, or other tangible document or recording, wherever situated. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• 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.
• 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.
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Goods: means any tangible chattels leased, bought, or otherwise obtained for use by an individual primarily for personal, family, or household purposes or a franchise, distributorship agreement, or similar business opportunity. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• Home improvement services: means the repair, replacement, remodeling, alteration, conversion, modernization, improvement, or addition to any residential property, and includes but is not limited to, the repair, replacement, remodeling, alteration, conversion, modernization, improvement, or addition to driveways, swimming pools, porches, garages, landscaping, fences, fall-out shelters, and roofing. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• Home improvement services provider: means any person or entity, whether or not licensed pursuant to title 62, chapter 6, who undertakes to, attempts to, or submits a price or bid or offers to construct, supervise, superintend, oversee, schedule, direct, or in any manner assume charge of the home improvement service for a fee. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• 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.
• knowing: means actual awareness of the falsity or deception, but actual awareness may be inferred where objective manifestations indicate that a reasonable person would have known or would have had reason to know of the falsity or deception. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• Lawsuit: A legal action started by a plaintiff against a defendant based on a complaint that the defendant failed to perform a legal duty, resulting in harm to the plaintiff.
• 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}
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Local telephone directory: includes :
  (A) A classified advertising directory, commonly referred to as the yellow pages. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• National Bank: A bank that is subject to the supervision of the Comptroller of the Currency. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is a bureau of the U.S. Treasury Department. A national bank can be recognized because it must have "national" or "national association" in its name. ^{Source: OCC}
• National Credit Union Administration: The federal regulatory agency that charters and supervises federal credit unions. (NCUA also administers the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund, which insures the deposits of federal credit unions.) ^{Source: OCC}
• Oath: includes affirmation. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• 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.
• 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 natural person, individual, governmental agency, partnership, corporation, trust, estate, incorporated or unincorporated association, and any other legal or commercial entity however organized. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• Physical address: means the mailing address, including a zip code, which details the actual location of a person or entity, but does not include a post office box. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• Possession: means actual care, custody, control, or management of residential property, but shall not include occupancy of residential property through a lease or rental agreement. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• real property: include lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all rights thereto and interests therein, equitable as well as legal. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• 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 a perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• 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).
• Representative: when applied to those who represent a decedent, includes executors and administrators, unless the context implies heirs and distributees. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Residential owner: means a person who has possession of residential real property, including any person authorized by such residential owner to act on the residential owner's behalf. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• Residential property: means the building structure where a person abides, lodges, resides or establishes a living accommodation or where a residential owner intends to abide, lodge, reside or establish a living accommodation following the completion of home improvement services made pursuant to a contract for home improvement services and includes the land on or adjacent to such building structure. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• Road: includes public bridges and may be held equivalent to the words "county way" "county road" or "state road". See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• Services: means any work, labor, or services including services furnished in connection with the sale or repair of goods or real property or improvements thereto. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• 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.
• signed: includes a mark, the name being written near the mark and witnessed, or any other symbol or methodology executed or adopted by a party with intention to authenticate a writing or record, regardless of being witnessed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Subscription: includes a mark, the name being written near the mark and witnessed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• switch: means advertising items to lure consumers, then inducing the consumers to buy different and more expensive items by failing to make available the goods or services advertised, or by disparaging the less expensive product. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• Temporary restraining order: Prohibits a person from an action that is likely to cause irreparable harm. This differs from an injunction in that it may be granted immediately, without notice to the opposing party, and without a hearing. It is intended to last only until a hearing can be held.
• Tennessee Consumer Protection Act: means the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act of 1977, as amended, compiled in part 1 of this chapter and related statutes. See Tennessee Code 47-18-2102
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• 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}
• Uniform Commercial Code: A set of statutes enacted by the various states to provide consistency among the states' commercial laws. It includes negotiable instruments, sales, stock transfers, trust and warehouse receipts, and bills of lading. ^{Source: OCC}
• United States: includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Year: means a calendar year, unless otherwise expressed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105