Terms Used In Virginia Code > Title 49 > Chapter 2 - Bonds Taken by Courts and Officers

• 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.
• 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.
• Annuity: A periodic (usually annual) payment of a fixed sum of money for either the life of the recipient or for a fixed number of years. A series of payments under a contract from an insurance company, a trust company, or an individual. Annuity payments are made at regular intervals over a period of more than one full year.
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Ascertainable standard: means a standard relating to an individual's health, education, support, or maintenance within the meaning of § 2041(b)(1)(A) or 2514(c)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and any applicable regulations. See Virginia Code 64.2-701
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• 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.
• Authorized fiduciary: means (i) a trustee or other fiduciary, other than a settlor, that has discretion to distribute or direct a trustee to distribute part or all of the income or principal of the first trust to one or more current beneficiaries and that is not (a) a current beneficiary of the first trust or a beneficiary to which the net income or principal of the first trust would be distributed if the first trust were terminated, (b) a trustee of the first trust that may be removed and replaced by a current beneficiary who has the power to remove the existing trustee of the first trust and designate as successor trustee a person that may be a related or subordinate party, as defined in Virginia Code 64.2-701
• 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.
• Bail: means the pretrial release of a person from custody upon those terms and conditions specified by order of an appropriate judicial officer. See Virginia Code 19.2-119
• 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: means an individual for whom property has been transferred to or held under a declaration of trust by a custodial trustee for the individual's use and benefit under this chapter. See Virginia Code 64.2-900
• Beneficiary: means a person that (i) has a present or future, vested or contingent, beneficial interest in a trust; (ii) holds a power of appointment over trust property; or (iii) is an identified charitable organization that will or may receive distributions under the terms of the trust. See Virginia Code 64.2-701
• Board of supervisors: means the governing body of a county. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Bona fide purchaser: means a purchaser of property for value who has acted in the transaction in good faith. See Virginia Code 64.2-100
• Bond: means the posting by a person or his surety of a written promise to pay a specific sum, secured or unsecured, ordered by an appropriate judicial officer as a condition of bail to assure performance of the terms and conditions contained in the recognizance. See Virginia Code 19.2-119
• Bond with surety: includes the payment in cash of the full amount of the required bond and, in such case, no surety shall be required. See Virginia Code 1-205
• Breach of trust: includes a violation by a trust director or trustee of a duty imposed on that trust director or trustee by the terms of the trust, this article, or law of the Commonwealth other than this article pertaining to trusts. See Virginia Code 64.2-779.26
• Charitable interest: means an interest in a trust that (i) is held by an identified charitable organization and makes the organization a qualified beneficiary; (ii) benefits only charitable organizations and, if the interest were held by an identified charitable organization, would make the organization a qualified beneficiary; or (iii) is held solely for charitable purposes and, if the interest were held by an identified charitable organization, would make the organization a qualified beneficiary. See Virginia Code 64.2-701
• Charitable organization: means (i) a person, other than an individual, organized and operated exclusively for charitable purposes or (ii) a government or governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, to the extent that it holds funds exclusively for a charitable purpose. See Virginia Code 64.2-701
• Charitable purpose: means the relief of poverty, the advancement of education or religion, the promotion of health, a municipal or other governmental purpose, or another purpose the achievement of which is beneficial to the community. See Virginia Code 64.2-701
• Charitable trust: means a trust, or portion of a trust, created for a charitable purpose described in § Virginia Code 64.2-701
• 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.
• Common law: The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on judicial decisions rather than legislative action.
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Conservator: means a person appointed or qualified by a court to manage the estate of an individual or a person legally authorized to perform substantially the same functions. See Virginia Code 64.2-900
• Conservator: means a person appointed by the court to administer the estate of an adult individual. See Virginia Code 64.2-701
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Controlling document: means the will, agreement, power of attorney, court order, or other instrument creating the fiduciary powers. See Virginia Code 64.2-780
• 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.
• Council: means the governing body of a city or town. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• 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 a circuit court of the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 64.2-900
• Court: means the court of the Commonwealth having jurisdiction in matters related to trusts. See Virginia Code 64.2-701
• Criminal history: means records and data collected by criminal justice agencies or persons consisting of identifiable descriptions and notations of arrests, detentions, indictments, informations or other formal charges, and any deposition arising therefrom. See Virginia Code 19.2-119
• Current beneficiary: includes the holder of a presently exercisable general power of appointment but does not include a person that is a beneficiary only because the person holds any other power of appointment. See Virginia Code 64.2-701
• Custodial trust property: means an interest in property transferred to or held under a declaration of trust by a custodial trustee under this chapter and the income from and proceeds of that interest. See Virginia Code 64.2-900
• Custodial trustee: means a person designated as trustee of a custodial trust under this chapter or a substitute or successor to the person designated. See Virginia Code 64.2-900
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Decanting power: means the power of an authorized fiduciary under the Uniform Trust Decanting Act (§ Virginia Code 64.2-701
• 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.
• 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.
• Directed trust: means a trust for which the terms of the trust grant a power of direction. See Virginia Code 64.2-779.26
• Directed trustee: means a trustee that is subject to a trust director's power of direction. See Virginia Code 64.2-701
• Environmental law: means a federal, state, or local law, rule, regulation, or ordinance relating to protection of the environment. See Virginia Code 64.2-701
• 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
• Expanded distributive discretion: means a discretionary power of distribution that is not limited to an ascertainable standard or a reasonably definite standard. See Virginia Code 64.2-701
• Extradition: The formal process of delivering an accused or convicted person from authorities in one state to authorities in another state.
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Fiduciary: includes a guardian, committee, trustee, executor, conservator, or personal representative. See Virginia Code 64.2-100
• First trust: means a trust over which an authorized fiduciary may exercise the decanting power. See Virginia Code 64.2-701
• First-trust instrument: means the trust instrument for a first trust. See Virginia Code 64.2-701
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• General power of appointment: means a power of appointment exercisable in favor of a powerholder, the powerholder's estate, a creditor of the powerholder, or a creditor of the powerholder's estate. See Virginia Code 64.2-701
• 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
• Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
• Guarantor: A party who agrees to be responsible for the payment of another party's debts should that party default. ^{Source: OCC}
• 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.
• Guardian: means a person appointed or qualified by a court as a guardian of a person, including a limited guardian, but not a person who is only a guardian ad litem. See Virginia Code 64.2-900
• Guardian: means a person appointed by the court to make decisions regarding the support, care, education, health, and welfare of a minor or adult individual. See Virginia Code 64.2-701
• 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.
• 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
• Incapacitated: means lacking the ability to manage property and business affairs effectively by reason of mental illness, mental deficiency, physical illness or disability, chronic use of drugs, chronic intoxication, confinement, detention by a foreign power, disappearance, minority, or other disabling cause. See Virginia Code 64.2-900
• 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}
• Indictment: The formal charge issued by a grand jury stating that there is enough evidence that the defendant committed the crime to justify having a trial; it is used primarily for felonies.
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Interests of the beneficiaries: means the beneficial interests provided in the terms of the trust. See Virginia Code 64.2-701
• Irrevocable trust: A trust arrangement that cannot be revoked, rescinded, or repealed by the grantor.
• Judge: means any judge, associate judge or substitute judge of any court or any magistrate. See Virginia Code 19.2-5
• Judicial officer: means , unless otherwise indicated, any magistrate serving the jurisdiction, any judge of a district court and the clerk or deputy clerk of any district court or circuit court within their respective cities and counties, any judge of a circuit court, any judge of the Court of Appeals and any justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia. See Virginia Code 19.2-119
• 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.
• Juror: A person who is on the jury.
• 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.
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• local government: shall be construed to mean a county, city, or town as the context may require. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Locality: means a county, city, or town as the context may require. See Virginia Code 1-221
• 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.
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• 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.
• 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: means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, joint venture, association, or any other legal or commercial entity. See Virginia Code 64.2-900
• Person: means any accused, or any juvenile taken into custody pursuant to § Virginia Code 19.2-119
• person: means any individual, partnership, corporation or association. See Virginia Code 18.2-506
• Person: means an individual; estate; business or nonprofit entity; government; governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality; public corporation; or other legal entity. See Virginia Code 64.2-701
• 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: means an executor, administrator, or special administrator of a decedent's estate, a person legally authorized to perform substantially the same functions, or a successor to any of them. See Virginia Code 64.2-900
• Personal representative: includes the executor under 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 64.2-100
• 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 64.2-701
• 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}
• Power of direction: means a power over a trust granted to a person by the terms of the trust to the extent the power is exercisable while the person is not serving as a trustee. See Virginia Code 64.2-701
• Power of withdrawal: means a presently exercisable general power of appointment other than a power exercisable by a trustee that is limited by an ascertainable standard, or that is exercisable by another person only upon consent of the trustee or a person holding an adverse interest. See Virginia Code 64.2-701
• Powerholder: means a person in which a donor creates a power of appointment. See Virginia Code 64.2-701
• Presently exercisable power of appointment: includes a power of appointment exercisable only after the occurrence of a specified event, the satisfaction of an ascertainable standard, or the passage of a specified time, only after (i) the occurrence of the specified event, (ii) the satisfaction of the ascertainable standard, or (iii) the passage of the specified time. See Virginia Code 64.2-701
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• Process: includes subpoenas, the summons and complaint in a civil action, and process in statutory actions. See Virginia Code 1-237
• Property: means anything that may be the subject of ownership, whether real or personal, legal or equitable, or any interest therein. See Virginia Code 64.2-701
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Qualified beneficiary: means a beneficiary who, on the date the beneficiary's qualification is determined, (i) is a distributee or permissible distributee of trust income or principal; (ii) would be a distributee or permissible distributee of trust income or principal if the interests of the distributees described in clause (i) terminated on that date without causing the trust to terminate; or (iii) would be a distributee or permissible distributee of trust income or principal if the trust terminated on that date. See Virginia Code 64.2-701
• 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.
• Reasonably definite standard: means a clearly measurable standard under which a holder of a power of distribution is legally accountable within the meaning of § 674(b)(5)(A) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and any applicable regulations. See Virginia Code 64.2-701
• Recognizance: means a signed commitment by a person to appear in court as directed and to adhere to any other terms ordered by an appropriate judicial officer as a condition of bail. See Virginia Code 19.2-119
• 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 64.2-701
• 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.
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• Revocable trust: A trust agreement that can be canceled, rescinded, revoked, or repealed by the grantor (person who establishes the trust).
• Second trust: means (i) a first trust after modification, including a restatement of the first trust, under the Uniform Trust Decanting Act (§ Virginia Code 64.2-701
• Second-trust instrument: means the trust instrument for a second trust. See Virginia Code 64.2-701
• 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.
• Settlor: except as otherwise provided in § Virginia Code 64.2-701
• Sign: means , with present intent to authenticate or adopt a record, (i) to execute or adopt a tangible symbol or (ii) to attach to or logically associate with the record an electronic symbol, sound, or process. See Virginia Code 64.2-701
• State: means a state, territory, or possession of the United States, the District of Columbia, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. See Virginia Code 64.2-900
• State: means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. See Virginia Code 64.2-701
• 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.
• 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
• Terms of a trust: means :

  1. See Virginia Code 64.2-701

• 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
• Transferor: means a person who creates a custodial trust by transfer or declaration. See Virginia Code 64.2-900
• 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 the assets under the control or management of the trustee. See Virginia Code 64.2-780
• Trust director: means a person that is granted a power of direction by the terms of a trust to the extent the power is exercisable while the person is not serving as a trustee. See Virginia Code 64.2-701
• Trust instrument: means a record executed by the settlor to create a trust or by any person to create a second trust that contains some or all of the terms of the trust, including any amendments. See Virginia Code 64.2-701
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Trustee: means a trustee under a probated will or an inter vivos trust instrument. See Virginia Code 64.2-100
• Trustee: includes an original, additional, and successor trustee and a cotrustee. See Virginia Code 64.2-701
• Trustee: includes any fiduciary as defined in § Virginia Code 64.2-780
• 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
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.