Terms Used In Iowa Code > Chapter 321A - Motor Vehicle Financial Responsibility

• 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.
• 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.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• 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.
• clerk: means clerk of the court in which the action or proceeding is brought or is pending; and the words "clerk's office" mean the office of that clerk. See Iowa Code 4.1
• Condition: means a general problem that may be attributable to a defect in more than one part. See Iowa Code 322G.2
• Consumer: means the purchaser or lessee, other than for purposes of lease or resale, of a new or previously untitled motor vehicle, or any other person entitled by the terms of the warranty to enforce the obligations of the warranty during the duration of the lemon law rights period. See Iowa Code 322G.2
• 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.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Days: means calendar days. See Iowa Code 322G.2
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the state department of transportation. See Iowa Code 321A.1
• Director: means the director of the department. See Iowa Code 321I.1
• Driver: means a person who operates a motor vehicle for the transportation of railroad workers in the motor vehicle on behalf of a railroad worker transportation company, whether the person is employed by the company for wages or drives for the company as an independent contractor. See Iowa Code 327F.39
• 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.
• following: when used by way of reference to a chapter or other part of a statute mean the next preceding or next following chapter or other part. See Iowa Code 4.1
• Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. ^{Source: OCC}
• highway: means the entire width between property lines of every way or place of whatever nature when any part thereof is open to the use of the public, as a matter of right, for purposes of vehicular travel, except in public areas in which the boundary shall be thirty-three feet each side of the center line of the roadway. See Iowa Code 321I.1
• Judgment: means a judgment which has become final by expiration without appeal during the time within which an appeal might have been perfected, or a judgment if an appeal from the judgment has been perfected, which has not been stayed by the execution, filing, and approval of a bond as provided in rule of Iowa Code 321A.1
• 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.
• Lessee: means any consumer who leases a motor vehicle for one year or more pursuant to a written lease agreement which provides that the lessee is responsible for repairs to the motor vehicle. See Iowa Code 322G.2
• Lessor: means a person who holds the title to a motor vehicle leased to a lessee under a written lease agreement or who holds the lessor's rights under the agreement. See Iowa Code 322G.2
• License: means a driver's license as defined in section 321. See Iowa Code 321A.1
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Motor vehicle: means every vehicle which is self-propelled, but not including vehicles known as trackless trolleys which are propelled by electric power obtained from overhead trolley wires and not operated upon rails. See Iowa Code 321A.1
• Nonresident: means every person who is not a resident of this state. See Iowa Code 321A.1
• 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.
• Operate: means to ride in or on, other than as a passenger, use, or control the operation of an all-terrain vehicle in any manner, whether or not the all-terrain vehicle is moving. See Iowa Code 321I.1
• Operator: means a person who is in actual physical control of a motor vehicle whether or not that person has a driver's license as required under the laws of this state. See Iowa Code 321A.1
• Owner: means a person who holds the legal title of a motor vehicle; however, if the motor vehicle is the subject of a security agreement with a right of possession in the debtor, the debtor shall be deemed the owner for purposes of this chapter or if the motor vehicle is leased as defined in section 321. See Iowa Code 321A.1
• 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 every natural person, firm, partnership, association, or corporation. See Iowa Code 321A.1
• 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}
• Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
• Proof of financial responsibility: means proof of ability to respond in damages for liability, on account of accidents occurring subsequent to the effective date of the proof, arising out of the ownership, maintenance, or use of a motor vehicle, in the amount of twenty thousand dollars because of bodily injury to or death of one person in any one accident, and, subject to the limit for one person, the amount of forty thousand dollars because of bodily injury to or death of two or more persons in any one accident, and the amount of fifteen thousand dollars because of injury to or destruction of property of others in any one accident. See Iowa Code 321A.1
• property: includes personal and real property. See Iowa Code 4.1
• Registration: means a registration certificate or certificates and registration plates issued under the laws of this state pertaining to the registration of motor vehicles. See Iowa Code 321A.1
• 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.
• Resident: means as defined in section 483A. See Iowa Code 321I.1
• road: include public bridges, and may be held equivalent to the words "county way" "county road" "common road" and "state road". See Iowa Code 4.1
• Rule: includes "regulation". See Iowa Code 4.1
• 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.
• Special mobile equipment: means every vehicle not designed or used primarily for the transportation of persons or property and incidentally operated or moved over the highways, including road construction or maintenance machinery, ditch-digging apparatus, and implements of husbandry as defined in section 321. See Iowa Code 321A.1
• State: means any state, territory, or possession of the United States, the District of Columbia, or any province of the Dominion of Canada. See Iowa Code 321A.1
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• United States: includes all the states. See Iowa Code 4.1
• Vehicle: means any vehicle as defined in chapter 321. See Iowa Code 321H.2
• year: means twelve consecutive months. See Iowa Code 4.1