Terms Used In Virginia Code > Title 19.2 > Chapter 10 - Disability of Judge or Attorney for Commonwealth; Court- Appointed Counsel; Interpreters; Transcripts

• Abstract of judgment: In a federal criminal proceeding, A certification from a U.S. District Court clerk that a judgment of restitution was entered against the defendant owing to the victim. If the defendant inherits, owns, or sells real property or holdings, these assets can then be attached at the state and local levels as well.
• Abused or neglected child: means any child less than 18 years of age:

  1. See Virginia Code 63.2-100

• Accounting period: includes a part of a calendar year or another period of 12 calendar months or approximately 12 calendar months that begins when an income interest begins or ends when an income interest ends. See Virginia Code 64.2-1033
• Acquirer: means a business organization, financial institution or an agent of a business organization or financial institution that authorizes a merchant to accept payment by credit card or credit card number for money, goods, services or anything else of value. See Virginia Code 18.2-191
• administrative support order: means a noncourt-ordered legally enforceable support obligation having the force and effect of a support order established by the court. See Virginia Code 63.2-1900
• Adoptive home: means any family home selected and approved by a parent, local board or a licensed child-placing agency for the placement of a child with the intent of adoption. See Virginia Code 63.2-100
• Adoptive placement: means arranging for the care of a child who is in the custody of a child-placing agency in an approved home for the purpose of adoption. See Virginia Code 63.2-100
• Adult: means any person 60 years of age or older, or any person 18 years of age or older who is incapacitated and who resides in the Commonwealth; provided, however, "adult" may include qualifying nonresidents who are temporarily in the Commonwealth and who are in need of temporary or emergency protective services. See Virginia Code 63.2-1603
• Adult: means a person 18 years of age or more. See Virginia Code 1-203
• Adult abuse: means the willful infliction of physical pain, injury or mental anguish or unreasonable confinement of an adult as defined in § Virginia Code 63.2-100
• Adult day center: means any facility that is either operated for profit or that desires licensure and that provides supplementary care and protection during only a part of the day to four or more adults who are aged or infirm or who have disabilities and who reside elsewhere, except (i) a facility or portion of a facility licensed by the State Board of Health or the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, and (ii) the home or residence of an individual who cares for only persons related to him by blood or marriage. See Virginia Code 63.2-100
• Adult foster care: means room and board, supervision, and special services to an adult who has a physical or mental condition. See Virginia Code 63.2-100
• 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.
• Affirmation: means a notarial act, or part thereof, that is legally equivalent to an oath and in which an individual at a single time and place (i) appears in person before the notary and presents a document; (ii) is personally known to the notary or identified by the notary through satisfactory evidence of identity; and (iii) makes a vow of truthfulness or fidelity on penalty of perjury. See Virginia Code 47.1-2
• Affirmed: In the practice of the appellate courts, the decree or order is declared valid and will stand as rendered in the lower court.
• 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.
• Amortization: Paying off a loan by regular installments.
• 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.
• Appointee: means a person to which a powerholder makes an appointment of appointive property. See Virginia Code 64.2-2700
• Appointive property: means the property or property interest subject to a power of appointment. See Virginia Code 64.2-2700
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Asset-backed security: includes rights or other assets that ensure the servicing or timely distribution of proceeds to the holder of the asset-backed security. See Virginia Code 64.2-1033
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Assignment of rights: means the legal procedure whereby an individual assigns support rights to the Commonwealth on behalf of a dependent child or spouse and dependent child. See Virginia Code 63.2-1900
• 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.
• Attorney-in-fact: A person who, acting as an agent, is given written authorization by another person to transact business for him (her) out of court.
• Authorization to seek or enforce a support obligation: means a signed authorization to the Commonwealth to seek or enforce support on behalf of a dependent child or a spouse and dependent child or on behalf of a person deemed to have submitted an application by operation of law. See Virginia Code 63.2-1900
• 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.
• Ballistic knife: means any knife with a detachable blade that is propelled by a spring-operated mechanism. See Virginia Code 18.2-307.1
• 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}
• Beneficiary: includes :

  1. See Virginia Code 64.2-1033

• Cardholder: means the person or organization named on the face of a credit card to whom or for whose benefit the credit card is issued by an issuer. See Virginia Code 18.2-191
• Cash medical support: means the proportional amount the court or the Department shall order both parents to pay toward reasonable and necessary unreimbursed medical or dental expenses pursuant to subsection D of § Virginia Code 63.2-1900
• certificate: means the part of, or attachment to, a notarized document that is completed by the notary public, bears the notary public's signature, title, commission expiration date, notary registration number, and other required information concerning the date and place of the notarization and states the facts attested to or certified by the notary public in a particular notarization. See Virginia Code 47.1-2
• 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 support services: means any civil, criminal or administrative action taken by the Division of Child Support Enforcement to locate parents; establish paternity; and establish, modify, enforce, or collect child support, or child and spousal support. See Virginia Code 63.2-100
• Child-protective services: means the identification, receipt and immediate response to complaints and reports of alleged child abuse or neglect for children under 18 years of age. See Virginia Code 63.2-100
• 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.
• Commissioner: means the Commissioner of the Department, his designee or authorized representative. See Virginia Code 63.2-100
• Committee membership: Legislators are assigned to specific committees by their party. Seniority, regional balance, and political philosophy are the most prominent factors in the committee assignment process.
• 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.
• Communicable disease of public health threat: means an illness of public health significance, as determined by the State Health Commissioner in accordance with regulations of the Board of Health, caused by a specific or suspected infectious agent that may be reasonably expected or is known to be readily transmitted directly or indirectly from one individual to another and has been found to create a risk of death or significant injury or impairment; this definition shall not, however, be construed to include human immunodeficiency viruses or tuberculosis, unless used as a bioterrorism weapon. See Virginia Code 44-146.16
• 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.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Coordinator: means the Coordinator of the Department of Emergency Management. See Virginia Code 44-146.34
• counterfeit controlled substance: means a controlled substance that, without authorization, bears, is packaged in a container or wrapper that bears, or is otherwise labeled to bear, the trademark, trade name, or other identifying mark, imprint or device or any likeness thereof, of a drug manufacturer, processor, packer, or distributor other than the manufacturer, processor, packer, or distributor who did in fact so manufacture, process, pack or distribute such drug. See Virginia Code 18.2-247
• County: means any existing county or such unit hereafter created. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Court: means any court vested with appropriate jurisdiction under the Constitution and laws of the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 19.2-5
• Court: means the juvenile and domestic relations district court of the county or city. See Virginia Code 63.2-1501
• Court: means the court in the Commonwealth having jurisdiction relating to a trust, estate, or life estate or other term interest described in subdivision 2 of § Virginia Code 47.1-2
• Credit card: means any instrument or device, whether known as a credit card, credit plate, payment device number, or by any other name, issued with or without fee by an issuer for the use of the cardholder in obtaining money, goods, services or anything else of value on credit. See Virginia Code 18.2-191
• Credit report: A detailed report of an individual's credit history prepared by a credit bureau and used by a lender in determining a loan applicant's creditworthiness. ^{Source: OCC}
• Current income beneficiary: means a beneficiary to which a fiduciary may distribute net income, whether or not the fiduciary also may distribute principal to the beneficiary. See Virginia Code 64.2-1033
• Custodial parent: means the natural or adoptive parent with whom the child resides; a stepparent or other person who has physical custody of the child and with whom the child resides; or a local board that has legal custody of a child in foster care. See Virginia Code 63.2-1900
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Debt: means the total unpaid support obligation established by court order, administrative process or by the payment of public assistance and owed by a noncustodial parent to either the Commonwealth or to his dependent(s). See Virginia Code 63.2-1900
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Defense attorney: Represent defendants in criminal matters.
• Department: means the Department of Emergency Management. See Virginia Code 44-146.31
• Department: means the Department of Emergency Management. See Virginia Code 44-146.34
• Department: means the State Department of Social Services. See Virginia Code 63.2-100
• Department: means the Department of State Police. See Virginia Code 18.2-265.6
• Department of Health and Human Services: means the Department of Health and Human Services of the United States government or any department or agency thereof that may hereafter be designated as the agency to administer the Social Security Act, as amended. See Virginia Code 63.2-100
• Department-sponsored health care coverage: means any health care coverage that the Department may make available through a private contractor for children receiving child support services from the Department. See Virginia Code 63.2-1900
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Dependent child: means any person who meets the eligibility criteria set forth in § Virginia Code 63.2-1900
• 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.
• Dextromethorphan: means the dextrorotatory isomer of 3-methoxy-N-methylmorphinan and its salts. See Virginia Code 18.2-265.19
• Disaster: means (i) any man-made disaster, including any condition following an attack by any enemy or foreign nation upon the United States resulting in substantial damage of property or injury to persons in the United States including by use of bombs, missiles, shell fire, or nuclear, radiological, chemical, or biological means or other weapons or by overt paramilitary actions; terrorism, foreign and domestic; cyber incidents; and any industrial, nuclear, or transportation accident, explosion, conflagration, power failure, resources shortage, or other condition such as sabotage, oil spills, and other injurious environmental contaminations that threaten or cause damage to property, human suffering, hardship, or loss of life and (ii) any natural disaster, including any hurricane, tornado, storm, flood, high water, wind-driven water, tidal wave, earthquake, drought, fire, communicable disease of public health threat, or other natural catastrophe resulting in damage, hardship, suffering, or possible loss of life. See Virginia Code 44-146.16
• Discharge: means spillage, leakage, pumping, pouring, seepage, emitting, dumping, emptying, injecting, escaping, leaching, fire, explosion, or other releases. See Virginia Code 44-146.16
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• Disposable income: means that part of the income due and payable of any individual remaining after the deduction of any amount required by law to be withheld. See Virginia Code 63.2-100
• Distribution: means a payment or transfer by a fiduciary to a beneficiary in the beneficiary's capacity as a beneficiary, made under the terms of the trust, without consideration other than the beneficiary's right to receive the payment or transfer under the terms of the trust. See Virginia Code 64.2-1033
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Document: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form, including a record as defined in the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (§ Virginia Code 47.1-2
• drug paraphernalia: means all equipment, products, and materials of any kind which are either designed for use or which are intended by the person charged with violating § Virginia Code 18.2-265.1
• Electronic: means relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic, or similar capabilities. See Virginia Code 47.1-2
• Electronic document: means information that is created, generated, sent, communicated, received, or stored by electronic means. See Virginia Code 47.1-2
• Electronic means: means service of a required notice by the Department through its secure online child support portal to any person who has agreed to accept service through the portal and has created a user account. See Virginia Code 63.2-1900
• electronic notarization: means an official act by a notary under § Virginia Code 47.1-2
• electronic notary: means a notary public who has been commissioned by the Secretary of the Commonwealth with the capability of performing electronic notarial acts under § Virginia Code 47.1-2
• Electronic signature: means an electronic sound, symbol, or process attached to or logically associated with an electronic document and executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the document. See Virginia Code 47.1-2
• electronic system: means a real-time electronic recordkeeping and monitoring system for the sale of ephedrine or related compounds. See Virginia Code 18.2-265.6
• Embezzlement: In most states, embezzlement is defined as theft/larceny of assets (money or property) by a person in a position of trust or responsibility over those assets. Embezzlement typically occurs in the employment and corporate settings. ^{Source: OCC}
• Emergency: means any occurrence, or threat thereof, whether natural or man-made, which results or may result in substantial injury or harm to the population or substantial damage to or loss of property or natural resources and may involve governmental action beyond that authorized or contemplated by existing law because governmental inaction for the period required to amend the law to meet the exigency would work immediate and irrevocable harm upon the citizens or the environment of the Commonwealth or some clearly defined portion or portions thereof. See Virginia Code 44-146.16
• Emergency: means (i) that an adult is living in conditions that present a clear and substantial risk of death or immediate and serious physical harm to himself or others or (ii) that an adult has been, within a reasonable period of time, subjected to an act of violence, force, or threat or been subjected to financial exploitation. See Virginia Code 63.2-1603
• Emergency services: means the preparation for and the carrying out of functions, other than functions for which military forces are primarily responsible, to prevent, minimize, and repair injury and damage resulting from disasters, together with all other activities necessary or incidental to the preparation for and carrying out of the foregoing functions. See Virginia Code 44-146.16
• Employee: means any individual receiving income. See Virginia Code 63.2-1900
• Employer: means the source of any income. See Virginia Code 63.2-1900
• Energy assistance: means benefits to assist low-income households with their home heating and cooling needs, including, but not limited to, purchase of materials or substances used for home heating, repair or replacement of heating equipment, emergency intervention in no-heat situations, purchase or repair of cooling equipment, and payment of electric bills to operate cooling equipment, in accordance with § Virginia Code 63.2-100
• Ephedrine or related compounds: means ephedrine and pseudoephedrine base or their salts, isomers, or salts of isomers. See Virginia Code 18.2-265.6
• 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}
• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• Estate: includes the property of the decedent as the estate is originally constituted and the property of the estate as it exists at any time during administration. See Virginia Code 64.2-1033
• 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 and permanency team: means the group of individuals assembled by the local department to assist with determining planning and placement options for a child, which shall include, as appropriate, all biological relatives and fictive kin of the child, as well as any professionals who have served as a resource to the child or his family, such as teachers, medical or mental health providers, and clergy members. See Virginia Code 63.2-100
• Federal-Funded Kinship Guardianship Assistance program: means a program consistent with Virginia Code 63.2-100
• Fictive kin: means persons who are not related to a child by blood or adoption but have an established relationship with the child or his family. See Virginia Code 63.2-100
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Fiduciary: includes a trustee, trust director under the Uniform Directed Trust Act (§ Virginia Code 64.2-1033
• Financial exploitation: includes (i) an intentional breach of a fiduciary obligation to an adult to his detriment or an intentional failure to use the financial resources of an adult in a manner that results in neglect of such adult; (ii) the acquisition, possession, or control of an adult's financial resources or property through the use of undue influence, coercion, or duress; and (iii) forcing or coercing an adult to pay for goods or services against his will for another's profit, benefit, or advantage if the adult did not agree, or was tricked, misled, or defrauded into agreeing, to pay for such goods or services. See Virginia Code 63.2-1603
• Financial institution: means a depository institution, an institution-affiliated party, any federal credit union or state credit union including an institution-affiliated party of such a credit union, and any benefit association, insurance company, safe deposit company, money market mutual fund, or similar entity authorized to do business in the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 63.2-1900
• Financial institution staff: means any employee, agent, qualified individual, or representative of a bank, trust company, savings institution, loan association, consumer finance company, credit union, investment company, investment advisor, securities firm, accounting firm, or insurance company. See Virginia Code 63.2-1603
• Financial records: includes , but is not limited to, records held by employers showing income, profit sharing contributions and benefits paid or payable and records held by financial institutions, broker-dealers and other institutions and entities showing bank accounts, IRA and separate contributions, gross winnings, dividends, interest, distributive share, stocks, bonds, agricultural subsidies, royalties, prizes and awards held for or due and payable to a responsible person. See Virginia Code 63.2-1900
• 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.
• 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}
• Foreign support order: means any order issued outside of the Commonwealth by a court or tribunal as defined in § Virginia Code 63.2-1900
• Forgery: The fraudulent signing or alteration of another's name to an instrument such as a deed, mortgage, or check. The intent of the forgery is to deceive or defraud. ^{Source: OCC}
• Foster care placement: means placement of a child through (i) an agreement between the parents or guardians and the local board where legal custody remains with the parents or guardians or (ii) an entrustment or commitment of the child to the local board or licensed child-placing agency. See Virginia Code 63.2-100
• Foster home: means a residence approved by a child-placing agency or local board in which any child, other than a child by birth or adoption of such person or a child who is the subject of a power of attorney to delegate parental or legal custodial powers by his parents or legal custodian to the natural person who has been designated the child's legal guardian pursuant to Chapter 10 of Title 20 and who exercises legal authority over the child on a continuous basis for at least 24 hours without compensation, resides as a member of the household. See Virginia Code 63.2-100
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Freedom of Information Act: A federal law that mandates that all the records created and kept by federal agencies in the executive branch of government must be open for public inspection and copying. The only exceptions are those records that fall into one of nine exempted categories listed in the statute. ^{Source: OCC}
• Garnishment: Generally, garnishment is a court proceeding in which a creditor asks a court to order a third party who owes money to the debtor or otherwise holds assets belonging to the debtor to turn over to the creditor any of the debtor
• General power of appointment: means a power of appointment exercisable in favor of the powerholder, the powerholder's estate, a creditor of the powerholder, or a creditor of the powerholder's estate. See Virginia Code 64.2-2700
• governing body: includes both or all of them. See Virginia Code 15.2-2602
• Grand jury: agreement providing that a lender will delay exercising its rights (in the case of a mortgage,
• 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.
• Habeas corpus: A writ that is usually used to bring a prisoner before the court to determine the legality of his imprisonment. It may also be used to bring a person in custody before the court to give testimony, or to be prosecuted.
• Handgun: means any pistol or revolver or other firearm, except a machine gun, originally designed, made, and intended to fire a projectile by means of an explosion of a combustible material from one or more barrels when held in one hand. See Virginia Code 18.2-307.1
• Hazard mitigation: means any action taken to reduce or eliminate the long-term risk to human life and property from natural hazards. See Virginia Code 44-146.16
• Hazardous materials: means substances or materials which may pose unreasonable risks to health, safety, property, or the environment when used, transported, stored or disposed of, which may include materials which are solid, liquid or gas. See Virginia Code 44-146.34
• Health care coverage: means any plan providing hospital, medical or surgical care coverage for dependent children provided such coverage is available and can be obtained by a parent, parents, or a parent's spouse at a reasonable cost. See Virginia Code 63.2-1900
• Identity proofing: means a process or service that independently verifies an individual's identity in accordance with § Virginia Code 47.1-2
• imitation controlled substance: when used in this article means (i) a counterfeit controlled substance or (ii) a pill, capsule, tablet, or substance in any form whatsoever which is not a controlled substance subject to abuse, and:

  1. See Virginia Code 18.2-247

• Incapacitated person: means any adult who is impaired by reason of mental illness, intellectual disability, physical illness or disability, advanced age or other causes to the extent that the adult lacks sufficient understanding or capacity to make, communicate or carry out responsible decisions concerning his or her well-being. See Virginia Code 63.2-1603
• Includes: means includes, but not limited to. See Virginia Code 1-218
• Income: means any periodic or other form of payment due an individual from any source and shall include, but not be limited to, income from salaries, wages, commissions, royalties, bonuses, dividends, severance pay, payments pursuant to a pension or retirement program, interest, trust income, annuities, capital gains, social security benefits, workers' compensation benefits, unemployment insurance benefits, disability insurance benefits, veterans' benefits, spousal support, net rental income, gifts, prizes or awards. See Virginia Code 63.2-1900
• Income: includes a part of receipts from a sale, exchange, or liquidation of a principal asset, to the extent provided in Articles 4 (§ Virginia Code 63.2-100
• isomer: means the optical, position, and geometric isomers. See Virginia Code 18.2-247
• Issuer: means the business organization or financial institution or its duly authorized agent which issues a credit card. See Virginia Code 18.2-191
• Judge: means any judge, associate judge or substitute judge of any court or any magistrate. See Virginia Code 19.2-5
• 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.
• Kinship care: means the full-time care, nurturing, and protection of children by relatives. See Virginia Code 63.2-100
• Kinship guardian: means the adult relative of a child in a kinship guardianship established in accordance with § Virginia Code 63.2-100
• Kinship guardianship: means a relationship established in accordance with § Virginia Code 63.2-100
• Knowledge-based authentication assessment: means an identity assessment formulated from public or private data sources for which the principal has not provided a prior answer that meets the following requirements:

  1. See Virginia Code 47.1-2

• Law-enforcement officer: means those individuals defined as a law-enforcement officer in § Virginia Code 18.2-307.1
• Lawfully admitted for permanent residence: means the status of having been lawfully accorded the privilege of residing permanently in the United States as an immigrant in accordance with the immigration laws, such status not having changed. See Virginia Code 18.2-307.1
• 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}
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• license to operate a motor vehicle: shall mean any document issued under Chapter 3 of Virginia Code 18.2-6
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Local board: means the local board of social services representing one or more counties or cities. See Virginia Code 63.2-100
• Local department: means the local department of social services of any county or city in the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 63.2-100
• Local director: means the director or his designated representative of the local department of the city or county. See Virginia Code 63.2-100
• Local emergency: means the condition declared by the local governing body when in its judgment the threat or actual occurrence of an emergency or disaster is or threatens to be of sufficient severity and magnitude to warrant coordinated local government action to prevent or alleviate the damage, loss, hardship, or suffering threatened or caused thereby, provided, however, that a local emergency arising wholly or substantially out of a resource shortage may be declared only by the Governor, upon petition of the local governing body, when he deems the threat or actual occurrence of such an emergency or disaster to be of sufficient severity and magnitude to warrant coordinated local government action to prevent or alleviate the damage, loss, hardship, or suffering threatened or caused thereby, and provided, however, nothing in this chapter shall be construed as prohibiting a local governing body from the prudent management of its water supply to prevent or manage a water shortage. See Virginia Code 44-146.16
• 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
• Major disaster: means any natural catastrophe, including any: hurricane, tornado, storm, high water, wind-driven water, tidal wave, tsunami, earthquake, volcanic eruption, landslide, mudslide, snowstorm, or drought, or regardless of cause, any fire, flood, or explosion, in any part of the United States, which, in the determination of the President of the United States is, or thereafter determined to be, of sufficient severity and magnitude to warrant major disaster assistance under the Stafford Act (P. See Virginia Code 44-146.16
• Mandatory income interest: means the right of a current income beneficiary to receive net income that the terms of the trust require the fiduciary to distribute. See Virginia Code 64.2-1033
• marijuana: when used in this article means any part of a plant of the genus Cannabis, whether growing or not, its seeds or resin; and every compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of such plant, its seeds, its resin, or any extract containing one or more cannabinoids. See Virginia Code 18.2-247
• Marital deduction: The deduction(s) that can be taken in the determination of gift and estate tax liabilities because of the existence of a marriage or marital relationship.
• Mistake of fact: means an error in the identity of the payor or the amount of current support or arrearage. See Virginia Code 63.2-1900
• Mistrial: An invalid trial, caused by fundamental error. When a mistrial is declared, the trial must start again from the selection of the jury.
• Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
• Net income: includes an adjustment from principal to income under § Virginia Code 63.2-1900
• notarization: means any official act performed by a notary under § Virginia Code 47.1-2
• notary: means any person commissioned to perform official acts under the title, and includes an electronic notary except where expressly provided otherwise. See Virginia Code 47.1-2
• Notary: means notary public. See Virginia Code 1-226
• Nuclear power station: means a facility producing electricity through the utilization of nuclear energy for sale to the public which is required to be licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and includes all units of the facility at a single site. See Virginia Code 44-146.31
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• Oath: shall include "affirmation. See Virginia Code 47.1-2
• Oath: includes affirmation. See Virginia Code 1-228
• Obligee: means (i) an individual to whom a duty of support is or is alleged to be owed or in whose favor a support order has been issued or a judgment determining parentage has been rendered, (ii) a state or political subdivision to which the rights under a duty of support or support order have been assigned or that has independent claims based on financial assistance provided to an individual obligee, or (iii) an individual seeking a judgment determining parentage of the individual's child. See Virginia Code 63.2-1900
• Obligor: means an individual, or the estate of a decedent, who (i) owes or is alleged to owe a duty of support, (ii) is alleged but has not been adjudicated to be a parent of a child, or (iii) is liable under a support order. See Virginia Code 63.2-1900
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Parental placement: means locating or effecting the placement of a child or the placing of a child in a family home by the child's parent or legal guardian for the purpose of foster care or adoption. See Virginia Code 63.2-100
• Payee: means any person to whom spousal or child support is to be paid. See Virginia Code 63.2-1900
• Person: means any individual, corporation, partnership, firm, association, trust, estate, public or private institution, group, agency, political subdivision or agency thereof, and any legal successor, representative, agent or agency of the foregoing. See Virginia Code 44-146.31
• Person: means an individual, estate, trust, business or nonprofit entity, public corporation, government or governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, or other legal entity. See Virginia Code 64.2-1033
• Person: means an individual; estate; trust; business or nonprofit entity; public corporation; government or governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality; or other legal entity. See Virginia Code 64.2-2700
• 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 knowledge: means knowledge of a fact that a person has himself gained through his own senses, or knowledge that was gained by a law-enforcement officer or prosecutor through the performance of his official duties. See Virginia Code 18.2-307.1
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• personally knows: means familiarity with an individual resulting from interactions with that individual over a period of time sufficient to dispel any reasonable uncertainty that the individual has the identity claimed. See Virginia Code 47.1-2
• Pharmacy: means any establishment or institution from which drugs, medicines, or medicinal chemicals are dispensed or offered for sale or on which a sign is displayed bearing the words "apothecary" "druggist" "drugs" "drug store" "drug sundries" "medicine store" "pharmacist" "pharmacy" or "prescriptions filled" or any similar words intended to indicate that the practice of pharmacy is being conducted pursuant to a license issued under Chapter 33 of Title 54. See Virginia Code 18.2-265.6
• Pharmacy: means any establishment or institution from which drugs, medicines, or medicinal chemicals are dispensed or offered for sale or on which a sign is displayed bearing the words "apothecary" "druggist" "drugs" "drug store" "drug sundries" "medicine store" "pharmacist" "pharmacy" "prescriptions filled" or any similar words intended to indicate that the practice of pharmacy is being conducted pursuant to a license issued under Chapter 33 of Title 54. See Virginia Code 18.2-265.19
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Plea: In a criminal case, the defendant's statement pleading "guilty" or "not guilty" in answer to the charges, a declaration made in open court.
• 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:
• Political subdivision: means any city or county in the Commonwealth and, for the purposes of this chapter, the Town of Chincoteague and any town of more than 5,000 population that chooses to have an emergency management program separate from that of the county in which such town is located. See Virginia Code 44-146.16
• Political subdivision: means any city or county in the Commonwealth, and for the purposes of this chapter, any town with a population of more than 5,000 which chooses to have an emergency management program separate from that of the county in which the town is located. See Virginia Code 44-146.34
• Power of appointment: means a power that enables a powerholder acting in a nonfiduciary capacity to designate a recipient of an ownership interest in or another power of appointment over the appointive property. See Virginia Code 64.2-2700
• Power of attorney: A written instrument which authorizes one person to act as another's agent or attorney. The power of attorney may be for a definite, specific act, or it may be general in nature. The terms of the written power of attorney may specify when it will expire. If not, the power of attorney usually expires when the person granting it dies. ^{Source: OCC}
• Powerholder: means a person in which a donor creates a power of appointment. See Virginia Code 64.2-2700
• 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.
• Prevention: means efforts that (i) promote health and competence in people and (ii) create, promote and strengthen environments that nurture people in their development. See Virginia Code 63.2-1501
• Principal: means (i) a person whose signature is notarized or (ii) a person, other than a credible witness, taking an oath or affirmation from the notary. See Virginia Code 47.1-2
• Principal: means property held in trust for distribution to, production of income for, or use by a current or successor beneficiary. See Virginia Code 64.2-1033
• 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.
• Project: means any public improvement, property or undertaking for which the locality is authorized by law to appropriate money, except for current expenses, and specific undertakings from which the locality may derive revenues (sometimes called "revenue-producing undertakings") including, without limitation, water, sewer, sewage disposal, and garbage and refuse collection and disposal systems and facilities as defined in § Virginia Code 15.2-2602
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Public assistance: means Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF); auxiliary grants to the aged, blind, and disabled; medical assistance; energy assistance; food stamps; employment services; child care; and general relief. See Virginia Code 63.2-100
• Public defender: Represent defendants who can't afford an attorney in criminal matters.
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• Qualified assessor: means an entity contracting with the Department of Medical Assistance Services to perform nursing facility pre-admission screening or to complete the uniform assessment instrument for a home and community-based waiver program, including an independent physician contracting with the Department of Medical Assistance Services to complete the uniform assessment instrument for residents of assisted living facilities, or any hospital that has contracted with the Department of Medical Assistance Services to perform nursing facility pre-admission screenings. See Virginia Code 63.2-100
• Qualified individual: means a trained professional or licensed clinician who is not an employee of the local board of social services or licensed child-placing agency that placed the child in a qualified residential treatment program and is not affiliated with any placement setting in which children are placed by such local board of social services or licensed child-placing agency. See Virginia Code 63.2-100
• Qualified residential treatment program: means a program that (i) provides 24-hour residential placement services for children in foster care; (ii) has adopted a trauma-informed treatment model that meets the clinical and other needs of children with serious emotional or behavioral disorders, including any clinical or other needs identified through assessments conducted pursuant to clause (viii) of this definition; (iii) employs registered or licensed nursing and other clinical staff who provide care, on site and within the scope of their practice, and are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; (iv) conducts outreach with the child's family members, including efforts to maintain connections between the child and his siblings and other family; documents and maintains records of such outreach efforts; and maintains contact information for any known biological family and fictive kin of the child; (v) whenever appropriate and in the best interest of the child, facilitates participation by family members in the child's treatment program before and after discharge and documents the manner in which such participation is facilitated; (vi) provides discharge planning and family-based aftercare support for at least six months after discharge; (vii) is licensed in accordance with Virginia Code 63.2-100
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• receiving: means acquiring possession or control of the credit card number or payment device number or accepting the same as security for a loan. See Virginia Code 18.2-191
• Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form. See Virginia Code 64.2-2700
• 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.
• Remote online notarization: means an electronic notarization under this chapter where the signer is not in the physical presence of the notary. See Virginia Code 47.1-2
• 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).
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• Retail distributor: means an entity licensed to conduct business in the Commonwealth that offers for sale to the public at a retail outlet any nonprescription compound, mixture, or preparation containing ephedrine or related compounds. See Virginia Code 18.2-265.6
• Retail distributor: means an entity licensed to conduct business in the Commonwealth that offers for sale to the public at a retail outlet any nonprescription compound, mixture, or preparation containing dextromethorphan. See Virginia Code 18.2-265.19
• Satisfactory evidence of identity: means identification of an individual based on (i) examination of one or more of the following unexpired documents bearing a photographic image of the individual's face and signature: a United States Passport Book, a United States Passport Card, a certificate of United States citizenship, a certificate of naturalization, a foreign passport, an alien registration card with photograph, a state issued driver's license or a state issued identification card or a United States military card or (ii) the oath or affirmation of one credible witness unaffected by the document or transaction who is personally known to the notary and who personally knows the individual or of two credible witnesses unaffected by the document or transaction who each personally knows the individual and shows to the notary documentary identification as described in clause (i). See Virginia Code 47.1-2
• Seal: means a device for affixing on a paper document an image containing the notary's name and other information related to the notary's commission. See Virginia Code 47.1-2
• Secretary: means the Secretary of the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 47.1-2
• Sentencing guidelines: A set of rules and principles established by the United States Sentencing Commission that trial judges use to determine the sentence for a convicted defendant. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• 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.
• Sibling: means each of two or more children having one or more parents in common. See Virginia Code 63.2-100
• Social services: means foster care, adoption, adoption assistance, child-protective services, domestic violence services, or any other services program implemented in accordance with regulations adopted by the Board. See Virginia Code 63.2-100
• Special order: means an order imposing an administrative sanction issued to any party licensed pursuant to this title by the Commissioner that has a stated duration of not more than 12 months. See Virginia Code 63.2-100
• Specific-exercise clause: means a clause in an instrument which specifically refers to and exercises a particular power of appointment. See Virginia Code 64.2-2700
• Spring stick: means a spring-loaded metal stick activated by pushing a button that rapidly and forcefully telescopes the weapon to several times its original length. See Virginia Code 18.2-307.1
• State: includes any state, territory, or possession of the United States. See Virginia Code 47.1-2
• state agency: means the same as that term is defined in § Virginia Code 1-206
• State of emergency: means the condition declared by the Governor when in his judgment the threat or actual occurrence of an emergency or a disaster in any part of the Commonwealth is of sufficient severity and magnitude to warrant disaster assistance by the Commonwealth to supplement the efforts and available resources of the several localities and relief organizations in preventing or alleviating the damage, loss, hardship, or suffering threatened or caused thereby and is so declared by him. See Virginia Code 44-146.16
• State-Funded Kinship Guardianship Assistance program: means a program that provides payments to eligible individuals who have received custody of a relative child subject to a kinship guardianship assistance agreement developed in accordance with § Virginia Code 63.2-100
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Successive interest: means the interest of a successor beneficiary. See Virginia Code 64.2-1033
• Successor beneficiary: means a person entitled to receive income or principal or to use property when an income interest or other current interest ends. See Virginia Code 64.2-1033
• 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
• Taker in default of appointment: means a person that takes all or part of the appointive property to the extent that the powerholder does not effectively exercise the power of appointment. See Virginia Code 64.2-2700
• TANF: means the program administered by the Department through which a relative can receive monthly cash assistance for the support of his eligible children. See Virginia Code 63.2-100
• Terms of a trust: means :

  1. See Virginia Code 64.2-1033

• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• tetrahydrocannabinol: means any naturally occurring or synthetic tetrahydrocannabinol, including its salts, isomers, and salts of isomers whenever the existence of such salts, isomers, and salts of isomers is possible within the specific chemical designation and any preparation, mixture, or substance containing, or mixed or infused with, any detectable amount of tetrahydrocannabinol. See Virginia Code 18.2-247
• 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.
• 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
• Transcript: A written, word-for-word record of what was said, either in a proceeding such as a trial or during some other conversation, as in a transcript of a hearing or oral deposition.
• transportation: means any movement of property by any mode and any packing, loading, unloading, or storage incidental thereto. See Virginia Code 44-146.34
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Trust: includes all trusts described in § Virginia Code 64.2-1033
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Trustee: includes an original, additional, or successor trustee, whether or not appointed or confirmed by a court. See Virginia Code 64.2-1033
• Unfinished dextromethorphan: means dextromethorphan in the form of a "bulk drug substance" as defined in § Virginia Code 18.2-265.19
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Veto: The procedure established under the Constitution by which the President/Governor refuses to approve a bill or joint resolution and thus prevents its enactment into law. A regular veto occurs when the President/Governor returns the legislation to the house in which it originated. The President/Governor usually returns a vetoed bill with a message indicating his reasons for rejecting the measure. In Congress, the veto can be overridden only by a two-thirds vote in both the Senate and the House.
• Voter: means a qualified voter as defined in § Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.