Terms Used In Virginia Code > Title 16.1 > Chapter 11 > Article 16 - Psychiatric Treatment of Minors Act.

• 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.
• 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.
• Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• 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}
• Chief judge: The judge who has primary responsibility for the administration of a court but also decides cases; chief judges are determined by seniority.
• 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 voluntary, express, and informed agreement to treatment in a mental health facility by a minor 14 years of age or older and by a parent or a legally authorized custodian. See Virginia Code 16.1-336
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• 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 58.1-1
• Designee of the local community services board: means an examiner designated by the local community services board who (i) is skilled in the assessment and treatment of mental illness, (ii) has completed a certification program approved by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, (iii) is able to provide an independent examination of the minor, (iv) is not related by blood, marriage, or adoption to, or is not the legal guardian of, the minor being evaluated, (v) has no financial interest in the admission or treatment of the minor being evaluated, (vi) has no investment interest in the facility detaining or admitting the minor under this article, and (vii) except for employees of state hospitals and of the U. See Virginia Code 16.1-336
• 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
• Employee: means an employee of the local community services board who is skilled in the assessment and treatment of mental illness and has completed a certification program approved by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. See Virginia Code 16.1-336
• 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.
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• 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.
• Hearsay: Statements by a witness who did not see or hear the incident in question but heard about it from someone else. Hearsay is usually not admissible as evidence in court.
• Incapable of making an informed decision: means unable to understand the nature, extent, or probable consequences of a proposed treatment or unable to make a rational evaluation of the risks and benefits of the proposed treatment as compared with the risks and benefits of alternatives to the treatment. See Virginia Code 16.1-336
• Includes: means includes, but not limited to. See Virginia Code 1-218
• Inpatient treatment: means placement for observation, diagnosis, or treatment of mental illness in a psychiatric hospital or in any other type of mental health facility determined by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services to be substantially similar to a psychiatric hospital with respect to restrictions on freedom and therapeutic intrusiveness. See Virginia Code 16.1-336
• Intake officer: means a juvenile probation officer appointed as such pursuant to the authority of this chapter. See Virginia Code 16.1-228
• Inter vivos: Transfer of property from one living person to another living person.
• Investment interest: means the ownership or holding of an equity or debt security, including shares of stock in a corporation, interests or units of a partnership, bonds, debentures, notes, or other equity or debt instruments. See Virginia Code 16.1-336
• Irrevocable trust: A trust arrangement that cannot be revoked, rescinded, or repealed by the grantor.
• judge: includes a retired judge sitting by designation pursuant to § Virginia Code 16.1-336
• law: means the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court Law embraced in this chapter. See Virginia Code 16.1-228
• Least restrictive alternative: means the treatment and conditions of treatment which, separately and in combination, are no more intrusive or restrictive of freedom than reasonably necessary to achieve a substantial therapeutic benefit or to protect the minor or others from physical injury. See Virginia Code 16.1-336
• 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
• Life estate: A property interest limited in duration to the life of the individual holding the interest (life tenant).
• Mental health facility: means a public or private facility for the treatment of mental illness operated or licensed by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. See Virginia Code 16.1-336
• Mental illness: means a substantial disorder of the minor's cognitive, volitional, or emotional processes that demonstrably and significantly impairs judgment or capacity to recognize reality or to control behavior. See Virginia Code 16.1-336
• Minor: means a person less than 18 years of age. See Virginia Code 16.1-336
• 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 (i) a biological or adoptive parent who has legal custody of the minor, including either parent if custody is shared under a joint decree or agreement, (ii) a biological or adoptive parent with whom the minor regularly resides, (iii) a person judicially appointed as a legal guardian of the minor, or (iv) a person who exercises the rights and responsibilities of legal custody by delegation from a biological or adoptive parent, upon provisional adoption or otherwise by operation of law. See Virginia Code 16.1-336
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Personal representative: includes the executor of a will or the administrator of the estate of a decedent, the administrator of such estate with the will annexed, the administrator of such estate unadministered by a former representative, whether there is a will or not, any person who is under the order of a circuit court to take into his possession the estate of a decedent for administration, and every other curator of a decedent's estate, for or against whom suits may be brought for causes of action that accrued to or against the decedent. See Virginia Code 1-234
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Process: includes subpoenas, the summons and complaint in a civil action, and process in statutory actions. See Virginia Code 1-237
• Qualified evaluator: means a psychiatrist or a psychologist licensed in Virginia by either the Board of Medicine or the Board of Psychology, or if such psychiatrist or psychologist is unavailable, (i) any mental health professional licensed in Virginia through the Department of Health Professions as a clinical social worker, professional counselor, marriage and family therapist, or psychiatric advanced practice registered nurse or (ii) any mental health professional employed by a community services board. See Virginia Code 16.1-336
• 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.
• Shelter care: means the temporary care of children in physically unrestricting facilities. See Virginia Code 16.1-228
• State Board: means the State Board of Juvenile Justice. See Virginia Code 16.1-228
• 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
• 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 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
• Treatment: means any planned intervention intended to improve a minor's functioning in those areas which show impairment as a result of mental illness. See Virginia Code 16.1-336
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.