Terms Used In California Codes > Evidence Code > Division 3 > Chapter 4 > Article 1 - General Provisions

• Action: includes a civil action and a criminal action. See California Evidence Code 105
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Civil action: includes civil proceedings. See California Evidence Code 120
• Conservator: includes a limited conservator. See California Probate Code 30
• County: includes city and county. See California Government Code 19
• Criminal action: includes criminal proceedings. See California Evidence Code 130
• department: means the Department of General Services. See California Government Code 14977
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Evidence: means testimony, writings, material objects, or other things presented to the senses that are offered to prove the existence or nonexistence of a fact. See California Evidence Code 140
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• 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.
• Health care: means any care, treatment, service, or procedure to maintain, diagnose, or otherwise affect a patient's physical or mental condition. See California Probate Code 3200
• Health care decision: means a decision regarding the patient's health care, including the following:

  California Probate Code 3200

• Health care institution: means an institution, facility, or agency licensed, certified, or otherwise authorized or permitted by law to provide health care in the ordinary course of business. See California Probate Code 3200
• hearing: means the hearing at which a question under this code arises, and not some earlier or later hearing. See California Evidence Code 145
• interested person: includes any of the following:

  California Probate Code 48

• Joint tenancy: A form of property ownership in which two or more parties hold an undivided interest in the same property that was conveyed under the same instrument at the same time. A joint tenant can sell his (her) interest but not dispose of it by will. Upon the death of a joint tenant, his (her) undivided interest is distributed among the surviving joint tenants.
• Law: includes constitutional, statutory, and decisional law. See California Evidence Code 160
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• 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.
• Patient: means an adult who does not have a conservator of the person and for whom a health care decision needs to be made. See California Probate Code 3200
• Person: includes any person, firm, association, organization, partnership, limited liability company, business trust, corporation, or company. See California Government Code 17
• Person: means an individual, corporation, government or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, or other entity. See California Probate Code 56
• Person: includes a natural person, firm, association, organization, partnership, business trust, corporation, limited liability company, or public entity. See California Evidence Code 175
• Personal representative: means executor, administrator, administrator with the will annexed, special administrator, successor personal representative, public administrator acting pursuant to Section 7660, or a person who performs substantially the same function under the law of another jurisdiction governing the person's status. See California Probate Code 58
• 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}
• Process: includes a writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings of either a civil or criminal nature. See California Government Code 22
• Public defender: Represent defendants who can't afford an attorney in criminal matters.
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Relevant evidence: means evidence, including evidence relevant to the credibility of a witness or hearsay declarant, having any tendency in reason to prove or disprove any disputed fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action. See California Evidence Code 210
• Spouse: includes domestic partner, as defined in Section 37 of this code, as required by §. See California Probate Code 72
• Spouse: includes "registered domestic partner" as required by §. See California Government Code 12.2
• State: means the State of California, unless applied to the different parts of the United States. See California Government Code 18
• State: includes any state of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and any territory or possession subject to the legislative authority of the United States. See California Probate Code 74
• State: means the State of California, unless applied to the different parts of the United States. See California Evidence Code 220
• state agency: includes every state office, officer, department, division, bureau, board, and commission. See California Government Code 11000
• Subdivision: means a subdivision of the section in which the term occurs unless some other section is expressly mentioned. See California Government Code 10
• Trier of fact: includes (a) the jury and (b) the court when the court is trying an issue of fact other than one relating to the admissibility of evidence. See California Evidence Code 235
• Trust: includes the following:

  California Probate Code 82

• Trust company: means an entity that has qualified to engage in and conduct a trust business in this state. See California Probate Code 83
• Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.
• Will: includes codicil and any testamentary instrument which merely appoints an executor or revokes or revises another will. See California Probate Code 88
• Writing: means handwriting, typewriting, printing, photostating, photographing, photocopying, transmitting by electronic mail or facsimile, and every other means of recording upon any tangible thing, any form of communication or representation, including letters, words, pictures, sounds, or symbols, or combinations thereof, and any record thereby created, regardless of the manner in which the record has been stored. See California Evidence Code 250