Terms Used In West Virginia Code > Chapter 7 > Article 12A - Maintenance Associations

• Affirmed: In the practice of the appellate courts, the decree or order is declared valid and will stand as rendered in the lower court.
• 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.
• Child: means an individual, whether over or under the age of majority, who is or is alleged to be owed a duty of support by the individual'. See West Virginia Code 48-16-102
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Duty of support: means an obligation imposed or imposable by law to provide support for a child, spouse or former spouse, including an unsatisfied obligation to provide support. See West Virginia Code 48-16-102
• 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.
• Foreign country: means a country, including a political subdivision thereof, other than the United States, that authorizes the issuance of support orders and:

  (A) Which has been declared under the law of the United States to be a foreign reciprocating country. See West Virginia Code 48-16-102

• in writing: includes any representation of words, letters, or figures, whether by printing, engraving, writing, or otherwise. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
• Income: includes earnings or other periodic entitlements to money from any source and any other property subject to withholding for support under the law of this state. See West Virginia Code 48-16-102
• Income withholding order: means an order or other legal process directed to an obligor'. See West Virginia Code 48-16-102
• Issuing tribunal: means the tribunal of a state or foreign country that issues a support order or a judgment determining parentage of a child. See West Virginia Code 48-16-102
• Judgment: includes decrees and orders for the payment of money, or the conveyance or delivery of land or personal property, or some interest therein, or any undertaking, bond or recognizance which has the legal effect of a judgment. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
• 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.
• Law: includes decisional and statutory law and rules and regulations having the force of law. See West Virginia Code 48-16-102
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Obligee: means :

  (A) An individual to whom a duty of support is or is alleged to be owed or in whose favor a support order or a judgment determining parentage of a child has been issued. See West Virginia Code 48-16-102

• Obligor: means an individual or the estate of a decedent that:

  (A) Owes or is alleged to owe a duty of support. See West Virginia Code 48-16-102

• Outside this state: means a location in another state or a country other than the United States, whether or not the country is a foreign country. See West Virginia Code 48-16-102
• Person: means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, public corporation, government or governmental subdivision, agency or instrumentality or any other legal or commercial entity. See West Virginia Code 48-16-102
• 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 West Virginia Code 48-16-102
• Responding tribunal: means the authorized tribunal in a responding state or foreign country. See West Virginia Code 48-16-102
• 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 West Virginia Code 48-16-102
• Support enforcement agency: means a public official or governmental entity, or private agency authorized to:

  (A) Seek enforcement of support orders or laws relating to the duty of support. See West Virginia Code 48-16-102

• Support order: means a judgment, decree, order, decision or directive, whether temporary, final or subject to modification, issued in a state or foreign country for the benefit of a child, a spouse or a former spouse which provides for monetary support, health care, arrearages, retroactive support or reimbursement for financial assistance provided to an individual obligee in place of child support. See West Virginia Code 48-16-102
• Tribunal: means a court, administrative agency or quasi-judicial entity authorized to establish, enforce or modify support orders or to determine parentage of a child. See West Virginia Code 48-16-102