Terms Used In Tennessee Code > Title 56 > Chapter 8 - Unfair Competition and Unfair or Deceptive Practices

• Abuse: means the occurrence of one (1) or more of the following acts:
  (A) Attempting to cause or intentionally, knowingly or recklessly causing another person, including a minor child, bodily injury, physical harm, severe emotional distress, psychological trauma, rape, sexual assault or involuntary sexual intercourse. See Tennessee Code 56-8-202
• Abuse status: means the fact or perception that a person is, has been, or may be a subject of abuse, regardless of whether the person has sustained abuse-related medical conditions or has incurred abuse-related claims. See Tennessee Code 56-8-202
• Abuse-related medical condition: means a medical condition sustained by a subject of abuse that arises in whole or part out of an act or pattern of abuse. See Tennessee Code 56-8-202
• 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.
• 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}
• 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
• Commissioner: means the commissioner of commerce and insurance. See Tennessee Code 56-1-102
• Common law: The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on judicial decisions rather than legislative action.
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Cooperative agreement: means an agreement among two (2) or more community mental health centers for the offering, provision, operation, coordination, planning, funding, pricing, contracting, utilization review, or management of mental health and related services under programs funded or administered by departments or agencies of state government, including, but not limited to, the TennCare program, or the sharing, allocation, or referral of service recipients, personnel, instructional programs, support services, ancillary services, and facilities, or other services traditionally offered by community mental health centers for the programs. See Tennessee Code 33-2-703
• 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.
• Department: means the department of commerce and insurance. See Tennessee Code 56-1-102
• Department: means the department of mental health and substance abuse services. See Tennessee Code 33-1-101
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• 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.
• 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}
• Foreign: when used without limitation, includes all companies formed by authority of any other state or government. See Tennessee Code 56-1-102
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Health benefit plan: includes accident only, credit health, dental, vision, medicare supplement, or long-term care coverage issued as a supplement to liability insurance, automobile medical payment insurance, short-term and catastrophic health insurance policies, and a policy that pays on a cost-incurred basis. See Tennessee Code 56-8-202
• Health carrier: means an entity subject to the insurance laws and regulations of this state, or subject to the jurisdiction of the commissioner, that contracts or offers to contract to provide, deliver, arrange for, pay for or reimburse any of the cost of health care services, including a sickness and accident insurance company, a health maintenance organization, a nonprofit hospital and health service corporation, or any other entity providing a plan of health insurance, health benefits or health services. See Tennessee Code 56-8-202
• insured: includes a person who is a beneficiary covered by a group policy, certificate, or health benefit plan. See Tennessee Code 56-8-202
• 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.
• 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.
• Minor: means any person who has not attained eighteen (18) years of age. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Mortgagor: The person who pledges property to a creditor as collateral for a loan and who receives the money.
• 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 any association, aggregate of individuals, business, company, corporation, individual, joint-stock company, Lloyds-type organization, organization, partnership, receiver, reciprocal or interinsurance exchange, trustee or society. See Tennessee Code 56-16-102
• Person: includes a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• plan: means a policy, contract, certificate or agreement offered by a carrier to provide, deliver, arrange for, pay for or reimburse any of the costs of health care services. See Tennessee Code 56-8-202
• Policy: means a contract of insurance, certificate, indemnity, suretyship, or annuity issued, proposed for issuance, or intended for issuance by an insurer, including endorsements or riders to an insurance policy or contract. See Tennessee Code 56-8-202
• 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.
• Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Reciprocal: means the aggregation of subscribers under a common name. See Tennessee Code 56-16-102
• 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
• Savings and loan association: includes a building and loan association, a federal or state savings and loan association, a federal savings bank, and any other financial institution, the accounts of which are insured by the [former] federal savings and loan insurance corporation (FSLIC) or any successor [repealed] of such corporation. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• 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.
• sex: means a person's immutable biological sex as determined by anatomy and genetics existing at the time of birth and evidence of a person's biological sex. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• 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
• Subject of abuse: means a person to whom a family member, or a current or former household member, intimate partner, or caretaker, or a perpetrator of sexual assault, a stalker or a sex offender has directed an act as defined in subdivision (1). See Tennessee Code 56-8-202
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• United States: includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• 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