Terms Used In Vermont Statutes > Title 3 > Chapter 11 - State Officers and Employees Generally

• Abusive litigation: means litigation or other legal action to deter, prevent, sanction, or punish any person engaging in legally protected health care activity by:

• Actor: means a person charged with sexual assault or aggravated sexual assault. See
• 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.
• Agritourism activity: means an interactive or passive activity that is carried out for recreational, entertainment, or educational purposes on a farm and includes farming, food production, historical, cultural, pick-your-own, and nature-based activities. See
• Agritourism host: means a person who provides the facilities and equipment necessary to participate in an agritourism activity. See
• 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.
• Annual meeting: when applied to towns shall mean the annual town meeting in March or an adjournment thereof. See
• 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.
• 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
• Arraignment: A proceeding in which an individual who is accused of committing a crime is brought into court, told of the charges, and asked to plead guilty or not guilty.
• 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.
• 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.
• Blackmail: means the extortion of money, labor, commercial sexual activity, or anything of value from a person through use of a threat to expose a secret or publicize an asserted fact, whether true or false, that would tend to subject the person to hatred, contempt, ridicule, or prosecution. See
• Board: means the Transportation Board. See
• Bodily injury: means physical pain, illness, or any impairment of physical condition. See
• Case law: The law as laid down in cases that have been decided in the decisions of the courts.
• Coercion: means :

• Commercial sex act: means any sexual act, sexual conduct, or sexually explicit performance on account of which anything of value is promised to, given to, or received by any person. See
• 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.
• Consent: means the affirmative, unambiguous, and voluntary agreement to engage in a sexual act, which can be revoked at any time. See
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Deadly force: means physical force that a person uses with the intent of causing, or that the person knows or should have known would create a substantial risk of causing, death or serious bodily injury. See
• Deadly weapon: means :

• Debt bondage: means a condition or arrangement in which a person requires that a debtor or another person under the control of a debtor perform labor, services, sexual acts, sexual conduct, or a sexually explicit performance in order to retire, repay, or service a real or purported debt that the person has caused with the intent to defraud the debtor. See
• 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.
• 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.
• Disease: means any disease, illness, ailment, or adverse physiological or chemical change linked to exposure to a proven toxic substance. See
• Domestic: when applied to a corporation, company, association, or copartnership shall mean organized under the laws of this State; "foreign" when so applied, shall mean organized under the laws of another state, government, or country. See
• Emancipated minor: means a minor who:

• 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}
• Exposure: means ingestion, inhalation, or absorption through any body surface. See
• Extradition: The formal process of delivering an accused or convicted person from authorities in one state to authorities in another state.
• Facility: means all contiguous land, structures, other appurtenances, and improvements on the land where proven toxic substances are manufactured, processed, used, or stored. See
• Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
• Family member: means a spouse, child, sibling, parent, next of kin, domestic partner, or legal guardian of a victim. See
• Farm: means a parcel or parcels of land owned, leased, or managed by a person and devoted primarily to farming that meets the threshold criteria established by the Required Agricultural Practices. See
• 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.
• Human trafficking: means :

• Incapable of consenting: means the person:

• Indictment: The formal charge issued by a grand jury stating that there is enough evidence that the defendant committed the crime to justify having a trial; it is used primarily for felonies.
• Inherent risk: means any danger or condition that is an integral part of, or arises from, an agritourism activity, including:

• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Justice: when applied to a person, other than a Justice of the Supreme Court, shall mean a justice of the peace for the county for which he or she is elected or appointed. See
• Labor servitude: means labor or services performed or provided by a person that are induced or maintained through force, fraud, or coercion. See
• Law enforcement officer: means a person certified as a law enforcement officer under the provisions of 20 Vt. See
• 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.
• 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.
• Medical monitoring: means a program of medical tests or procedures for the purpose of early detection of signs or symptoms of a latent disease resulting from exposure. See
• Merchandise: means any items of tangible personal property displayed, held, stored, or offered for sale. See
• Merchant: means an owner or manager of any retail mercantile establishment, or any person or persons in a supervisory capacity or security officer authorized in writing by the owner or manager to make requests or detentions under this subchapter. See
• Month: shall mean a calendar month and "year" shall mean a calendar year and be equivalent to the expression "year of our Lord. See
• Movable property: means property the location of which can be changed, including things growing on, affixed to, or found in land, and documents although the rights represented thereby have no physical location. See
• 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.
• Operator: means a person who manages, conducts, or directs the operations of a facility. See
• Owner: means a person who owns or controls a facility. See
• Participant: means any individual who is invited to observe or participate in an agritourism activity, regardless of whether the individual paid to observe or participate in the agritourism activity. See
• Person: means an individual, firm, partnership, corporation, company, association, joint stock association, or body politic, including a trustee, receiver, assignee, or other similar representative. See
• Person: means any individual; partnership; company; corporation; association; unincorporated association; joint venture; trust; municipality; the State of Vermont or any agency, department, or subdivision of the State; federal agency; or any other legal or commercial entity. See
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Premises of a retail mercantile establishment: includes the retail mercantile establishment, any common use areas in shopping centers, and all parking areas set aside by a merchant or on behalf of a merchant for the parking of vehicles for the convenience of the patrons of the retail mercantile establishment. See
• Pro se: A Latin term meaning "on one's own behalf"; in courts, it refers to persons who present their own cases without lawyers.
• 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.
• Proven toxic substance: means any substance, mixture, or compound that may cause personal injury or disease to humans and that satisfies one or more of the following:

• real estate: shall include lands, tenements, and hereditaments and all rights thereto and interests therein, and pews or slips in places of public worship shall be treated as real estate. See
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Reasonable force: means only that minimum amount of force necessary to detain the person who the merchant has reasonable cause to believe has committed the offense of retail theft. See
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• Retail mercantile establishment: means any place where merchandise is displayed or offered for sale to the public, including storage areas on the premises of such an establishment. See
• Retail value: means the merchant's indicated price of the merchandise at the time of the theft. See
• Risk of harm: means a significant danger that a child will suffer serious harm other than by accidental means, which would be likely to cause physical injury, neglect, emotional maltreatment, or sexual abuse. See
• road: shall include bridges thereon and their approaches. See
• seal: shall include an impression of the official seal made upon paper alone or by means of a wafer or wax affixed thereto. See
• Services: includes labor, professional service, transportation, public services not provided for in section 2021 of this title, accommodation in hotels, restaurants, or elsewhere, admission to exhibitions, or amusements or recreational facilities, use of vehicles or other movable property. See
• 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.
• sexual act: means conduct between persons consisting of contact between the penis and the vulva, the penis and the anus, the mouth and the penis, the mouth and the vulva, or any intrusion, however slight, by any part of a person's body or any object into the genital or anal opening of another. See
• Sexual conduct: means any conduct or behavior relating to sexual activities of the complaining witness, including but not limited to prior experience of sexual acts, use of contraceptives, living arrangement, and mode of living. See
• Sexually explicit performance: means a public, live, photographed, recorded, or videotaped act or show that:

• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• 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.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Tort: A civil wrong or breach of a duty to another person, as outlined by law. A very common tort is negligent operation of a motor vehicle that results in property damage and personal injury in an automobile accident.
• tortious: means negligence, trespass, nuisance, product liability, or common law liability for ultra-hazardous or abnormally dangerous activity. See
• 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.
• Venture: means any group of two or more individuals associated in fact, whether or not a legal entity. See
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.
• Victim of human trafficking: means a victim of a violation of section 2652 of this title. See