Terms Used In Virginia Code > Title 15.2 > Subtitle II > Chapter 21 > Article 2 - General Provisions for Public Utilities.

• Abused or neglected child: means any child:

  1. See Virginia Code 16.1-228

• Adoptive home: means the place of residence of any natural person in which a child resides as a member of the household and in which he has been placed for the purposes of adoption or in which he has been legally adopted by another member of the household. See Virginia Code 16.1-228
• Adult: means a person 18 years of age or older. See Virginia Code 16.1-228
• 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.
• affiliated group: has the meaning given in § Virginia Code 58.1-2600
• Affordable Care Act: means the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, P. See Virginia Code 38.2-6600
• Allegation: something that someone says happened.
• 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.
• ancillary charge: means any delinquent act committed by a juvenile as a part of the same act or transaction as, or that constitutes a part of a common scheme or plan with, a delinquent act that would be a felony if committed by an adult. See Virginia Code 16.1-228
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Attorney-at-law: A person who is legally qualified and licensed to practice law, and to represent and act for clients in legal proceedings.
• 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.
• Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
• Board: means the Safety and Health Codes Board. See Virginia Code 40.1-2
• Business establishment: means any proprietorship, firm or corporation where people are employed, permitted or suffered to work, including agricultural employment on a farm. See Virginia Code 40.1-2
• Carrier: means a person who operates or causes to be operated a commercial highway vehicle on any highway in the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 58.1-2700
• Certificated motor vehicle carrier: means a common carrier by motor vehicle, as defined in § Virginia Code 58.1-2600
• Chief judge: The judge who has primary responsibility for the administration of a court but also decides cases; chief judges are determined by seniority.
• Child in need of services: means (i) a child whose behavior, conduct or condition presents or results in a serious threat to the well-being and physical safety of the child or (ii) a child under the age of 14 whose behavior, conduct or condition presents or results in a serious threat to the well-being and physical safety of another person; however, no child who in good faith is under treatment solely by spiritual means through prayer in accordance with the tenets and practices of a recognized church or religious denomination shall for that reason alone be considered to be a child in need of services, nor shall any child who habitually remains away from or habitually deserts or abandons his family as a result of what the court or the local child protective services unit determines to be incidents of physical, emotional or sexual abuse in the home be considered a child in need of services for that reason alone. See Virginia Code 16.1-228
• Child welfare agency: means a child-placing agency, child-caring institution or independent foster home as defined in § Virginia Code 16.1-228
• City: means an independent incorporated community which became a city as provided by law before noon on July 1, 1971, or which has within defined boundaries a population of 5,000 or more and which has become a city as provided by law. See Virginia Code 1-208
• 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.
• Cogenerator: means a qualifying cogenerator or qualifying small power producer within the meaning of regulations adopted by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in implementation of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (P. See Virginia Code 58.1-2600
• Commission: means the Safety and Health Codes Board. See Virginia Code 40.1-2
• Commission: means the State Corporation Commission. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• Commission: means the State Corporation Commission. See Virginia Code 58.1-2500
• Commission: means the State Corporation Commission which is hereby designated pursuant to Article X, § 2 of the Constitution of Virginia as the central state agency responsible for the assessment of the real and personal property of all public service corporations, except those public service corporations for which the Department of Taxation is so designated, upon which the Commonwealth levies a license tax measured by the gross receipts of such corporations. See Virginia Code 58.1-2600
• Commissioner: means the Commissioner of Labor and Industry. See Virginia Code 40.1-2
• Company: means any association, aggregation of individuals, business, corporation, individual, joint-stock company, Lloyds type of organization, organization, partnership, receiver, reciprocal or inter-insurance exchange, trustee or society. See Virginia Code 58.1-2500
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• 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.
• County: means any existing county or such unit hereafter created. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• 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.
• Delinquent act: means (i) an act designated a crime under the law of the Commonwealth, or an ordinance of any city, county, town, or service district, or under federal law, (ii) a violation of § Virginia Code 16.1-228
• Department: means the Department of Labor and Industry. See Virginia Code 40.1-2
• Department: means the Department of Taxation. See Virginia Code 58.1-1
• Department: means the Department of Motor Vehicles, acting through its officers and agents. See Virginia Code 58.1-2700
• Department: means the Department of Juvenile Justice and "Director" means the administrative head in charge thereof or such of his assistants and subordinates as are designated by him to discharge the duties imposed upon him under this law. See Virginia Code 16.1-228
• Department: means the Department of Taxation. See Virginia Code 58.1-2500
• Department: means the Department of Taxation which is hereby designated pursuant to Article X, § 2 of the Constitution of Virginia as the central state agency to assess the real and personal property of railroads and pipeline transmission companies as defined herein. See Virginia Code 58.1-2600
• 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.
• detention home: means a local, regional or state public or private locked residential facility that has construction fixtures designed to prevent escape and to restrict the movement and activities of children held in lawful custody. See Virginia Code 16.1-228
• Direct gross premium income: means the gross amount of all premiums, assessments, dues and fees collected, received or derived, or obligations taken therefor, from business in this Commonwealth during each year ending December 31, excluding premiums received for reinsurance assumed from licensed insurance companies, without any deduction for dividends paid or deduction on any other account except for premiums returned on cancelled policies, or on account of reduction in rates or reduction in the amount insured, and excluding premiums received or derived to provide insurance of the kinds classified in §§ Virginia Code 58.1-2500
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Electric supplier: means any person owning or operating facilities for the generation, storage, transmission or distribution of electricity for sales, except any person owning or operating facilities with a designed generation or storage capacity of 25 megawatts or less. See Virginia Code 58.1-2600
• Employ: shall include to permit or suffer to work. See Virginia Code 40.1-2
• Employee: means any person who, in consideration of wages, salaries or commissions, may be permitted, required or directed by any employer to engage in any employment directly or indirectly. See Virginia Code 40.1-2
• Employer: means an individual, partnership, association, corporation, legal representative, receiver, trustee, or trustee in bankruptcy doing business in or operating within this Commonwealth who employs another to work for wages, salaries, or on commission and shall include any similar entity acting directly or indirectly in the interest of an employer in relation to an employee. See Virginia Code 40.1-2
• Energy storage system: means the same as that term is defined in § Virginia Code 58.1-2600
• 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}
• Estimated tax: means the amount which the insurance company estimates as the amount of the tax imposed by this chapter for the license year, measured by direct gross premium income received or derived in the taxable year. See Virginia Code 58.1-2500
• 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.
• 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 abuse: means any act involving violence, force, or threat that results in bodily injury or places one in reasonable apprehension of death, sexual assault, or bodily injury and that is committed by a person against such person's family or household member. See Virginia Code 16.1-228
• Family or household member: means (i) the person's spouse, whether or not such spouse resides in the same home with the person; (ii) the person's former spouse, whether or not such person resides in the same home with the person; (iii) the person's parents, stepparents, children, stepchildren, brothers, sisters, half-brothers, half-sisters, grandparents, and grandchildren, regardless of whether such persons reside in the same home with the person; (iv) the person's mother-in-law, father-in-law, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, brothers-in-law, and sisters-in-law who reside in the same home with the person; (v) any individual who has a child in common with the person, whether or not the person and that individual have been married or have resided together at any time; (vi) any individual who cohabits or who, within the previous 12 months, cohabited with the person, and any children of either of them then residing in the same home with the person; or (vii) an individual who is a legal custodian of a juvenile. See Virginia Code 16.1-228
• farm: means any person that obtains at least 51 percent of its annual gross income from agricultural operations and produces the agricultural waste used as feedstock for the waste-to-energy technology, (ii) "agricultural waste" means biomass waste materials capable of decomposition that are produced from the raising of plants and animals during agricultural operations, including animal manures, bedding, plant stalks, hulls, and vegetable matter, and (iii) "waste-to-energy technology" means any technology, including but not limited to a methane digester, that converts agricultural waste into gas, steam, or heat that is used to generate electricity on-site. See Virginia Code 1-222.1
• 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.
• Freight car company: includes every car trust, mercantile or other company or person not domiciled in this Commonwealth owning stock cars, furniture cars, fruit cars, tank cars or other similar cars. See Virginia Code 58.1-2600
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Governing body: means the board of supervisors of a county, council of a city, or council of a town, as the context may require. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Grand jury: agreement providing that a lender will delay exercising its rights (in the case of a mortgage,
• Gross receipts: means the total of all revenue derived in the Commonwealth, including but not limited to income from the provision or performance of a service or the performance of incidental operations not necessarily associated with the particular service performed, without deductions for expenses or other adjustments. See Virginia Code 58.1-2600
• 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.
• IFTA: means the International Fuel Tax Agreement, as entered into by the Department, and as amended by the International Fuel Tax Association, Inc. See Virginia Code 58.1-2700
• Impeachment: (1) The process of calling something into question, as in "impeaching the testimony of a witness." (2) The constitutional process whereby the House of Representatives may "impeach" (accuse of misconduct) high officers of the federal government for trial in the Senate.
• in writing: include any representation of words, letters, symbols, numbers, or figures, whether (i) printed or inscribed on a tangible medium or (ii) stored in an electronic or other medium and retrievable in a perceivable form and whether an electronic signature authorized by Virginia Code 1-257
• Includes: means includes, but not limited to. See Virginia Code 1-218
• 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.
• inhabitants: means with reference to any county, city, town, political subdivision of the Commonwealth or any combination thereof, the natural persons in such county, city, town, political subdivision or combination as shown by the unadjusted United States decennial census last preceding the time at which any provision dependent upon population is being applied or the time as of which it is being construed. See Virginia Code 1-235
• Insurance company: means any company engaged in the business of making contracts of insurance. See Virginia Code 58.1-2500
• Intake officer: means a juvenile probation officer appointed as such pursuant to the authority of this chapter. See Virginia Code 16.1-228
• Interrogatories: Written questions asked by one party of an opposing party, who must answer them in writing under oath; a discovery device in a lawsuit.
• judge: means the judge or the substitute judge of the juvenile and domestic relations district court of each county or city. See Virginia Code 16.1-228
• 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.
• law: means the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court Law embraced in this chapter. See Virginia Code 16.1-228
• 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}
• Legal custody: means (i) a legal status created by court order which vests in a custodian the right to have physical custody of the child, to determine and redetermine where and with whom he shall live, the right and duty to protect, train and discipline him and to provide him with food, shelter, education and ordinary medical care, all subject to any residual parental rights and responsibilities or (ii) the legal status created by court order of joint custody as defined in § Virginia Code 16.1-228
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• License year: means the 12-month period beginning on July 1 next succeeding the taxable year and ending on June 30 of the subsequent year. See Virginia Code 58.1-2500
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• local government: shall be construed to mean a county, city, or town as the context may require. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Locality: means a county, city, or town as the context may require. See Virginia Code 1-221
• minor: means a person who is (i) younger than 18 years of age or (ii) for purposes of the Fostering Futures program set forth in Article 2 (§ Virginia Code 16.1-228
• Month: means a calendar month and "year" means a calendar year. See Virginia Code 1-223
• Motor carrier: means every person, firm or corporation who owns or operates or causes to be operated on any highway in this Commonwealth any qualified highway vehicle. See Virginia Code 58.1-2700
• 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.
• Operations: means the physical activities of all such vehicles, whether loaded or empty, whether for compensation or not for compensation, and whether owned by or leased to the motor carrier who operates them or causes them to be operated. See Virginia Code 58.1-2700
• Parent: includes parent, guardian, legal custodian, or other person standing in loco parentis. See Virginia Code 16.1-278.1
• 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: includes any individual, corporation, partnership, association, cooperative, limited liability company, trust, joint venture, government, political subdivision, or any other legal or commercial entity and any successor, representative, agent, agency, or instrumentality thereof. See Virginia Code 1-230
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Pipeline distribution company: means a corporation, other than a pipeline transmission company, which transmits, by means of a pipeline, natural gas, manufactured gas or crude petroleum and the products or by-products thereof to a purchaser for purposes of furnishing heat or light. See Virginia Code 58.1-2600
• Pipeline transmission company: means a corporation authorized to transmit natural gas, manufactured gas or crude petroleum and the products or by-products thereof in the public service by means of a pipeline or pipelines from one point to another when such gas or petroleum is not for sale to an ultimate consumer for purposes of furnishing heat or light. See Virginia Code 58.1-2600
• Plea agreement: An arrangement between the prosecutor, the defense attorney, and the defendant in which the defendant agrees to plead guilty in exchange for special considerations. ^Source:
• 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.
• 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.
• Preliminary hearing: A hearing where the judge decides whether there is enough evidence to make the defendant have a trial.
• Pro se: A Latin term meaning "on one's own behalf"; in courts, it refers to persons who present their own cases without lawyers.
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• Process: includes subpoenas, the summons and complaint in a civil action, and process in statutory actions. See Virginia Code 1-237
• Program: means the Commonwealth Health Reinsurance Program established pursuant to this chapter. See Virginia Code 38.2-6600
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Public service project: means any governmental or quasi-governmental agency project or any project of a nonprofit corporation or association operated exclusively for charitable or community purposes. See Virginia Code 16.1-278.1
• Qualified highway vehicle: means a highway vehicle used, designed, or maintained for transportation of persons or property that (i) has two axles and a gross vehicle weight or registered gross vehicle weight exceeding 26,000 pounds or 11,797 kilograms, (ii) has three or more axles regardless of weight, or (iii) is used in combination, when the weight of such combination exceeds 26,000 pounds or 11,797 kilograms gross vehicle or registered gross vehicle weight. See Virginia Code 58.1-2700
• real estate: includes lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all rights and appurtenances thereto and interests therein, other than a chattel interest. See Virginia Code 1-219
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• 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.
• Remand: When an appellate court sends a case back to a lower court for further proceedings.
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• 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.
• Shelter care: means the temporary care of children in physically unrestricting facilities. See Virginia Code 16.1-228
• State: means any commonwealth, state, territory, district or insular possession of the United States. See Virginia Code 38.2-100
• State: when applied to a part of the United States, includes any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-245
• state agency: means the same as that term is defined in § Virginia Code 1-206
• State Board: means the State Board of Juvenile Justice. See Virginia Code 16.1-228
• State Innovation Waiver: means a waiver of one or more requirements of the Affordable Care Act authorized by § 1332 of the Affordable Care Act, Virginia Code 38.2-6600
• Status offender: means a child who commits an act prohibited by law which would not be criminal if committed by an adult. See Virginia Code 16.1-228
• Status offense: means an act prohibited by law which would not be an offense if committed by an adult. See Virginia Code 16.1-228
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Storage: means the storage of energy by an energy storage system. See Virginia Code 58.1-2600
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Subscriber fee income: means the gross premium or deposit income collected, received or derived from and credited to the accounts of subscribers from business in the Commonwealth during the preceding year ending December 31, decreased by all returns for cancellation and all amounts returned to subscribers or credited to their accounts as savings. See Virginia Code 58.1-2500
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Supreme Court: means the Supreme Court of Virginia. See Virginia Code 1-249
• sworn: means "affirm" or "affirmed. See Virginia Code 1-250
• Tax: means the amount derived by multiplying the direct gross premium income in the taxable year by the tax rate. See Virginia Code 58.1-2500
• Tax Commissioner: means the chief executive officer of the Department of Taxation or his designee. See Virginia Code 58.1-2600
• Tax year: means the twelve-month period beginning on January 1 and ending on December 31 of the same calendar year, such year also being the tax assessment year or the year in which the tax levied under this chapter shall be paid. See Virginia Code 58.1-2600
• Taxable year: means the calendar year preceding the license year upon the basis of which direct gross premium income is computed. See Virginia Code 58.1-2500
• Taxable year: means the calendar year preceding the tax year, upon which the gross receipts are computed as a basis for the payment of the tax levied pursuant to this chapter. See Virginia Code 58.1-2600
• Telegraph company: means a corporation or person operating the apparatus necessary to communicate by telegraph. See Virginia Code 58.1-2600
• Telephone company: means a person holding a certificate of convenience and necessity granted by the State Corporation Commission authorizing telephone service; or a person authorized by the Federal Communications Commission to provide commercial mobile service as defined in § 332(d)(1) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, where such service includes cellular mobile radio communications services or broadband personal communications services; or a person holding a certificate issued pursuant to § 214 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, authorizing domestic telephone service and belonging to an affiliated group including a person holding a certificate of convenience and necessity granted by the State Corporation Commission authorizing telephone service. See Virginia Code 58.1-2600
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Town: means any existing town or an incorporated community within one or more counties which became a town before noon, July one, nineteen hundred seventy-one, as provided by law or which has within defined boundaries a population of 1,000 or more and which has become a town as provided by law. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Town: means any existing town or an incorporated community within one or more counties which became a town before noon, July 1, 1971, as provided by law or which has within defined boundaries a population of 1,000 or more and which has become a town as provided by law. See Virginia Code 1-254
• 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}
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• United States: includes the 50 states, the District of Columbia the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-255
• Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.
• Victim Impact Statement: A written or spoken statement by the victim or his or her representative about the physical, emotional, and financial impact of a crime on the victim. The statement is given to the court before sentencing.
• Violent juvenile felony: means any of the delinquent acts enumerated in subsection B or C of § Virginia Code 16.1-228