Terms Used In Virginia Code > Title 2.2 > Subtitle II > Part B > Chapter 37 - Virginia Freedom of Information Act

• Adult: means a person 18 years of age or more. See Virginia Code 1-203
• 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.
• agency: means any agency, institution, board, bureau, commission, council, public institution of higher education, or instrumentality of state government in the executive department listed in the appropriation act. See Virginia Code 2.2-2006
• All-virtual public meeting: means a public meeting (i) conducted by a public body, other than those excepted pursuant to subsection C of § Virginia Code 2.2-3701
• 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.
• Animal food manufacturer: means any person engaged in the business of preparing animal (including poultry) food derived wholly or in part from livestock or poultry carcasses or parts or products of such carcasses. See Virginia Code 3.2-5400
• 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.
• Apprentice: means a person at least 16 years of age who is covered by a written agreement with an employer and approved by the Commissioner. See Virginia Code 2.2-2043
• 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
• 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.
• Baseline: Projection of the receipts, outlays, and other budget amounts that would ensue in the future without any change in existing policy. Baseline projections are used to gauge the extent to which proposed legislation, if enacted into law, would alter current spending and revenue levels.
• 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}
• Bequest: Property gifted by will.
• Board: means the Board of Agriculture and Consumer Services. See Virginia Code 3.2-100
• Broker: means any person engaged in the business of buying or selling livestock products or poultry products on commission, or otherwise negotiating purchases or sales of such articles other than for his own account or as an employee of another person. See Virginia Code 3.2-5400
• Caregiver: means an adult who provides care for a person with a disability as defined in § Virginia Code 2.2-3701
• 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.
• Closed meeting: means a meeting from which the public is excluded. See Virginia Code 2.2-3701
• Commissioner: means the Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services. See Virginia Code 3.2-100
• Commissioner: means the Commissioner of the Department of Workforce Development and Advancement. See Virginia Code 2.2-2036
• Commodity in package form: means any commodity packaged in any manner in advance of sale in units suitable for either wholesale or retail sale, exclusive of an auxiliary shipping container enclosing packages that individually conform to the requirements of this chapter. See Virginia Code 3.2-5600
• Commonwealth information technology project: means any state agency information technology project that is under Commonwealth governance and oversight. See Virginia Code 2.2-2006
• Commonwealth Project Management Standard: means a document developed and adopted by the Chief Information Officer (CIO) pursuant to § Virginia Code 2.2-2006
• 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.
• costs: means the reasonable and customary charges for goods and services incurred or to be incurred. See Virginia Code 2.2-2022
• Council: means the Apprenticeship Council. See Virginia Code 2.2-2036
• County: means any existing county or such unit hereafter created. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Courts of record: means the Supreme Court of Virginia, the Court of Appeals of Virginia, and the circuit courts. See Virginia Code 1-212
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• 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.
• Department: means the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. See Virginia Code 3.2-100
• Department: means the Department of Workforce Development and Advancement. See Virginia Code 2.2-2036
• 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.
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Electronic communication: means the use of technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic, or similar capabilities to transmit or receive information. See Virginia Code 2.2-3701
• Emergency: means an unforeseen circumstance rendering the notice required by this chapter impossible or impracticable and which circumstance requires immediate action. See Virginia Code 2.2-3701
• Employer: means any person or organization employing a registered apprentice, whether or not such person or organization is a party to an apprenticeship agreement with a sponsor. See Virginia Code 2.2-2043
• Encrypted: means the same as that term is defined in § Virginia Code 2.2-2036
• Enterprise: means an organization with common or unifying business interests. See Virginia Code 2.2-2006
• 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.
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• Ex officio: means service by virtue of one's office and includes voting privileges for ex officio members unless otherwise provided. See Virginia Code 1-215
• 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.
• Federal acts: means the Federal Meat Inspection Act (Virginia Code 3.2-5400
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• 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.
• Food establishment: means those operations subject to regulation by the Virginia Department of Health as food establishments under the authority granted by § Virginia Code 3.2-5508
• 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}
• 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
• Gross weight: means the total weight of the commodity, including any wrapper, and any other material or thing weighed or packed with such commodity, and including the vehicle or vessel containing the commodity. See Virginia Code 3.2-5600
• 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.
• Immediate container: means any consumer package; or any other container in which livestock products or poultry products, not consumer packaged, are packed. See Virginia Code 3.2-5400
• 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
• Indemnification: In general, a collateral contract or assurance under which one person agrees to secure another person against either anticipated financial losses or potential adverse legal consequences. ^{Source: FDIC}
• Information technology: means communications, telecommunications, automated data processing, applications, databases, data networks, the Internet, management information systems, and related information, equipment, goods, and services. See Virginia Code 2.2-2006
• 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
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Inspector: means a state inspector who is employed and authorized to test, certify, and seal weights and measures. See Virginia Code 3.2-5600
• Inspector: means an employee or official of the Commonwealth authorized by the Commissioner or any employee or official of the government of any locality authorized by the Commissioner to perform any inspection functions under this article under an agreement between the Commissioner and such governmental subdivision. See Virginia Code 3.2-5400
• Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
• ITAC: means the Information Technology Advisory Council created in § Virginia Code 2.2-2006
• Joint apprenticeship committee: means a group equally representative of management and labor representatives that works under a bargaining agreement and is established to carry out the administration of an apprenticeship training program. See Virginia Code 2.2-2043
• 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.
• Label: means a display of written, printed, or graphic matter upon any article or the immediate container (not including package liners) of any article. See Virginia Code 3.2-5400
• Labeling: means all labels and other written, printed, or graphic matter: (i) upon any article or any of its containers or wrappers; or (ii) accompanying such article. See Virginia Code 3.2-5400
• 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}
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Livestock: means any cattle, sheep, swine, goats, horses, mules, or other equines, whether live or dead. See Virginia Code 3.2-5400
• Livestock product: means any carcass, part thereof, meat, or meat food product of any livestock. See Virginia Code 3.2-5400
• Locality: means a county, city, or town as the context may require. See Virginia Code 1-221
• Major information technology project: means any Commonwealth information technology project that has a total estimated cost of more than $1 million or that has been designated a major information technology project by the CIO pursuant to the Commonwealth Project Management Standard developed under § Virginia Code 2.2-2006
• Meat food product: means any product capable of use as human food that is made wholly or in part from any meat or other portion of the carcass of any cattle, sheep, swine, or goats. See Virginia Code 3.2-5400
• meetings: means the meetings including work sessions, when sitting physically, or through electronic communication means pursuant to § Virginia Code 2.2-3701
• Month: means a calendar month and "year" means a calendar year. See Virginia Code 1-223
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Net weight: means the net weight of a commodity, that is, the weight of the commodity exclusive of any wrapper, and any other material or thing weighed or packed with such commodity, and excluding the vehicle or vessel containing the commodity. See Virginia Code 3.2-5600
• 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.
• Official certificate: means any certificate prescribed by regulations of the Board for issuance by an inspector or other person performing official functions under this article. See Virginia Code 3.2-5400
• Official device: means any device prescribed or authorized by the Commissioner for use in applying any official mark. See Virginia Code 3.2-5400
• Official establishment: means any establishment as determined by the Commissioner at which inspection of the slaughter of livestock or poultry or the preparation of livestock products or poultry products is maintained under the authority of this article. See Virginia Code 3.2-5400
• Official inspection legend: means any symbol prescribed by regulations of the Board showing that an article was inspected and passed in accordance with this article. See Virginia Code 3.2-5400
• Official mark: means the official inspection legend or any other symbol prescribed by regulations of the Board to identify the status of any article or livestock or poultry under this article. See Virginia Code 3.2-5400
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• package: means any box, can, tin, cloth, plastic, or other receptacle, wrapper, or cover. See Virginia Code 3.2-5400
• 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.
• 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
• Poultry: means any domesticated bird, whether live or dead. See Virginia Code 3.2-5400
• Poultry product: means any poultry carcass or part thereof; or any product that is made wholly or in part from any poultry carcass or part thereof, excepting products that contain poultry ingredients only in a relatively small proportion or historically have not been considered by consumers as products of the poultry food industry, and that are exempted by the Commissioner from definition as a poultry product under such conditions as he may prescribe to assure that the poultry ingredients in such products are not adulterated and that such products are not represented as poultry products. See Virginia Code 3.2-5400
• Prepared: means slaughtered, canned, salted, stuffed, rendered, boned, cut up, or otherwise manufactured or processed. See Virginia Code 3.2-5400
• Presiding officer: A majority-party Senator who presides over the Senate and is charged with maintaining order and decorum, recognizing Members to speak, and interpreting the Senate's rules, practices and precedents.
• Pro se: A Latin term meaning "on one's own behalf"; in courts, it refers to persons who present their own cases without lawyers.
• 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
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Public body: means any legislative body, authority, board, bureau, commission, district, or agency of the Commonwealth or of any political subdivision of the Commonwealth, including counties, cities, and towns, municipal councils, governing bodies of counties, school boards, and planning commissions; governing boards of public institutions of higher education; and other organizations, corporations, or agencies in the Commonwealth supported wholly or principally by public funds. See Virginia Code 2.2-3701
• public business: means any activity a public body has undertaken or proposes to undertake on behalf of the people it represents. See Virginia Code 2.2-3701
• public meeting: means a meeting at which the public may be present. See Virginia Code 2.2-3701
• Public records: means all writings and recordings that consist of letters, words, or numbers, or their equivalent, set down by handwriting, typewriting, printing, photostatting, photography, magnetic impulse, optical or magneto-optical form, mechanical or electronic recording, or other form of data compilation, however stored, and regardless of physical form or characteristics, prepared or owned by, or in the possession of a public body or its officers, employees, or agents in the transaction of public business. See Virginia Code 2.2-3701
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• 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.
• Recess: A temporary interruption of the legislative business.
• Regional public body: means a unit of government organized as provided by law within defined boundaries, as determined by the General Assembly, which unit includes two or more localities. See Virginia Code 2.2-3701
• Registrant: means any person who has registered with the Department as a transporter of waste kitchen grease. See Virginia Code 3.2-5508
• 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.
• Remote participation: means participation by an individual member of a public body by electronic communication means in a public meeting where a quorum of the public body is otherwise physically assembled. See Virginia Code 2.2-3701
• Render: means any person engaged in the business of rendering livestock or poultry carcasses, or parts of products of such carcasses, except rendering conducted under inspection or exemption under this article. See Virginia Code 3.2-5400
• Renderer: means any person who commercially cooks carcasses, or parts or products of carcasses, of cattle, swine, poultry, and other animals and other waste animal by-products and waste kitchen grease into usable products. See Virginia Code 3.2-5508
• sale: includes barter and exchange. See Virginia Code 3.2-5600
• Scholastic records: means those records containing information directly related to a student or an applicant for admission and maintained by a public body that is an educational agency or institution or by a person acting for such agency or institution. See Virginia Code 2.2-3701
• Sealer: means an inspector of weights and measures of a city, a county, or a joint city-county jurisdiction. See Virginia Code 3.2-5600
• Secretary: means the Secretary of Administration. See Virginia Code 2.2-2006
• 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.
• Sponsor: means either an individual employer, a group of employers, or an association or organization operating an apprenticeship program and in whose name the program is registered. See Virginia Code 2.2-2043
• 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
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Supreme Court: means the Supreme Court of Virginia. See Virginia Code 1-249
• sworn: means "affirm" or "affirmed. See Virginia Code 1-250
• Tare weight: means the weight of any wrapper, and any other vehicle, vessel, material or thing that is weighed with, but not an actual part of, a commodity sold by weight; thus, tare weight may include, in the case of a packaged commodity, a wrapper, container, packaging material, binding material, preservative, or the like, or in the case of bulk commodity, a vehicle, box, can, jar, or the like. See Virginia Code 3.2-5600
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Tort: A civil wrong or breach of a duty to another person, as outlined by law. A very common tort is negligent operation of a motor vehicle that results in property damage and personal injury in an automobile accident.
• 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
• Trade secret: means the same as that term is defined in the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (§ Virginia Code 2.2-3701
• transportation: means the movement of waste kitchen grease in a motor vehicle on public roads. See Virginia Code 3.2-5508
• Trap grease: means waste kitchen grease that is removed from a grease trap and is principally derived from food preparation and processing. See Virginia Code 3.2-5508
• 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.
• Uniform Commercial Code: A set of statutes enacted by the various states to provide consistency among the states' commercial laws. It includes negotiable instruments, sales, stock transfers, trust and warehouse receipts, and bills of lading. ^{Source: OCC}
• 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
• Usable products: means a product resulting from the processing of waste kitchen grease and shall include biofuels, lubricants, and animal feed, provided that such animal feed uses are allowed by the U. See Virginia Code 3.2-5508
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Virginia Longitudinal Data System: means the multiagency partnership administered by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia pursuant to subdivision 9 of § Virginia Code 2.2-2036
• Virginia Workforce Data Trust: means a workforce database maintained by the Department in an encrypted state in compliance with § Virginia Code 2.2-2036
• Waste kitchen grease: means animal fats or vegetable oils that have been used, and will not be reused, for cooking in a food establishment, including trap grease. See Virginia Code 3.2-5508
• Weight: means the net weight when used in connection with this chapter. See Virginia Code 3.2-5600
• Weights and measures: means all weights and measures of every kind, including instruments and devices for weighing and measuring, and any appliances and accessories associated with any or all such instruments and devices. See Virginia Code 3.2-5600
• Workforce development program: means a publicly funded education, training, and support services program designed and administered to prepare and enable participants to enter into and advance in careers. See Virginia Code 2.2-2036
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.