Terms Used In Virginia Code > Title 8.01 > Chapter 2 - Parties

• Adult: means an individual who is at least 18 years of age. See Virginia Code 64.2-900
• 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.
• Attorney-at-law: A person who is legally qualified and licensed to practice law, and to represent and act for clients in legal proceedings.
• 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
• Chief judge: The judge who has primary responsibility for the administration of a court but also decides cases; chief judges are determined by seniority.
• Circumstantial evidence: All evidence except eyewitness testimony.
• 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
• Constitutional officer: means an officer provided for pursuant to Article VII, § 4 of the Constitution. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Council: means the governing body of a city or town. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Court: means a circuit court of the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 64.2-900
• 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
• Donee: The recipient of a gift.
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Fiduciary: includes a guardian, committee, trustee, executor, conservator, or personal representative. See Virginia Code 64.2-100
• Fiduciary: shall include any one or more of the following:

  a. See Virginia Code 8.01-2

• Forbearance: A means of handling a delinquent loan. A
• Governing instrument: means a deed, will, trust, insurance or annuity policy, account with POD designation, security registered in beneficiary form (TOD), or pension, profit-sharing, retirement, or similar benefit plan; instrument creating or exercising a power of appointment or a power of attorney; or a donative, appointive, or nominative instrument of any other type. See Virginia Code 64.2-2200
• 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
• incorporated towns: as used in this article means only those incorporated towns which have held municipal elections in the ten years preceding the date of the filing of a petition for a referendum pursuant to § Virginia Code 15.2-3520
• Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
• Legal representative: means a personal representative or conservator. See Virginia Code 64.2-900
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• local government: shall be construed to mean a county, city, or town as the context may require. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• 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 under a disability: shall include :

  a. See Virginia Code 8.01-2

• 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
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• 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}
• Public corporation: means the Commonwealth of Virginia or any political subdivision thereof or any incorporated municipality therein or any public agency of the Commonwealth or of any political subdivision thereof or of any municipality therein. See Virginia Code 1-219.1
• Right of survivorship: The ownership rights that result in the acquisition of title to property by reason of having survived other co-owners.
• 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
• Statute of limitations: A law that sets the time within which parties must take action to enforce their rights.
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Tier-city: means an incorporated community within a consolidated county that (i) has within defined boundaries a population of 5,000 or more, (ii) has been designated as a tier-city by the General Assembly, and (iii) has both the powers of a town and such additional powers as may be granted tier-cities by the General Assembly. See Virginia Code 1-252
• Transferor: means a person who creates a custodial trust by transfer or declaration. See Virginia Code 64.2-900
• Trust company: means a financial institution, corporation, or other legal entity authorized to exercise general trust powers. See Virginia Code 64.2-900
• Trustee: means a trustee under a probated will or an inter vivos trust instrument. See Virginia Code 64.2-100
• Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.
• Voter: means a qualified voter as defined in § Virginia Code 15.2-102