Terms Used In New York Laws > Family Court > Article 6 > Part 4 - Guardianship

• Advice and consent: Under the Constitution, presidential nominations for executive and judicial posts take effect only when confirmed by the Senate, and international treaties become effective only when the Senate approves them by a two-thirds vote.
• 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.
• Amortization: Paying off a loan by regular installments.
• 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.
• Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Baseline: Projection of the receipts, outlays, and other budget amounts that would ensue in the future without any change in existing policy. Baseline projections are used to gauge the extent to which proposed legislation, if enacted into law, would alter current spending and revenue levels.
• Construction: includes construction of new buildings, acquisition of existing buildings, and expansion, remodeling, alteration, and renovation of existing buildings, and initial equipment of such new, newly acquired, expanded, remodeled, altered or renovated buildings;
  N.Y. Education Law 1002
• 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.
• 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.
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• 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}
• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• 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.
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Gainful occupation: includes any employment for which a compensation is paid either in goods and/or in services; practice of a profession; self-employment; homemaking, farm or family work (including work for which payment is in kind rather than in cash); sheltered employment; and home industries or other gainful homebound work. See N.Y. Education Law 1002
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
• 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.
• Handicapped person: means any person who in the judgment of the department is under a physical or mental disability which constitutes a substantial handicap to employment but which is of such a nature that vocational rehabilitation services may reasonably be expected to render him fit to engage in gainful employment, and also any person under a physical or mental disability which constitutes a substantial handicap to employment and for whom vocational rehabilitation services are necessary to ascertain his rehabilitation potential. See N.Y. Education Law 1002
• health professionals: means persons duly licensed or otherwise authorized to practice a health profession pursuant to applicable law, including, but not limited to, physicians, registered professional nurses, nurse practitioners, physicians assistants, optometrists, dentists, dental hygienists, dietitians and nutritionists, and audiologists. See N.Y. Education Law 902
• Individuals with severe disabilities: means persons for whom competitive employment has either not traditionally occurred or has been interrupted or intermittent as a result of having a permanent and substantially disabling physical, sensory, or mental condition. See N.Y. Education Law 1002
• Interest rate: The amount paid by a borrower to a lender in exchange for the use of the lender's money for a certain period of time. Interest is paid on loans or on debt instruments, such as notes or bonds, either at regular intervals or as part of a lump sum payment when the issue matures. ^{Source: OCC}
• Judgement: The official decision of a court finally determining the respective rights and claims of the parties to a suit.
• 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.
• Lawsuit: A legal action started by a plaintiff against a defendant based on a complaint that the defendant failed to perform a legal duty, resulting in harm to the plaintiff.
• 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.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Minority leader: See Floor Leaders
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• 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.
• Outlays: Outlays are payments made (generally through the issuance of checks or disbursement of cash) to liquidate obligations. Outlays during a fiscal year may be for payment of obligations incurred in prior years or in the same year.
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• 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.
• Plea: In a criminal case, the defendant's statement pleading "guilty" or "not guilty" in answer to the charges, a declaration made in open court.
• 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}
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• Pupil: means a child for whom transportation aid is paid and who lives more than one and one-half miles from the school which he or she attends, measured by the nearest available road to such school, or a child who lives more than one mile from an approved route, measured by the nearest available road to such route, and also lives more than one and one-half miles from the school which he or she attends. See N.Y. Education Law 3621
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Recess: A temporary interruption of the legislative business.
• Regional or joint transportation system: means a transportation system in which a school district participates pursuant to a contract executed in accordance with paragraph h of subdivision twenty-five of section seventeen hundred nine of this chapter. See N.Y. Education Law 3621
• Rehabilitation facility: means a facility, operated for the principal purpose of assisting in the rehabilitation of handicapped persons and
  N.Y. Education Law 1002
• 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.
• Route: means a highway or highways over and upon which a school bus regularly travels in accordance with a schedule maintained for the transportation of pupils from their homes to school. See N.Y. Education Law 3621
• School bus: means any vehicle or other means of conveyance used for the purpose of transporting pupils. See N.Y. Education Law 3621
• School district: means common school districts, to the extent that they provide transportation of students in grades seven through twelve to a school outside the district, consolidated school districts, central school districts, central high school districts, union free school districts, except special act school districts as defined in section four thousand one of this chapter, and city school districts. See N.Y. Education Law 3621
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• 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.
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Storage: means any school bus garage facilities or sites which may be approved by the commissioner. See N.Y. Education Law 3621
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Substantial handicap to employment: means that a physical or mental disability (in the light of attendant medical, psychological, vocational, educational, cultural, social or environmental factors) impedes an individual's occupational performance, by preventing his obtaining, retaining, or preparing for a gainful occupation consistent with his capacities and abilities. See N.Y. Education Law 1002
• Supported employment: means paid competitive work performed by individuals with severe disabilities who require intensive support services to obtain such employment and extended support to sustain such employment, and which is performed in an integrated setting which provides regular interactions with individuals who do not have disabilities, other than paid caregivers. See N.Y. Education Law 1002
• Supported employment services: means support services needed by individuals with severe disabilities to obtain and sustain supported employment. See N.Y. Education Law 1002
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Transcript: A written, word-for-word record of what was said, either in a proceeding such as a trial or during some other conversation, as in a transcript of a hearing or oral deposition.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Uphold: The decision of an appellate court not to reverse a lower court decision.
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.
• Vocational rehabilitation services: means :
  N.Y. Education Law 1002
• Workshop: means a place where any manufacture or handiwork is carried on and which is operated for the principle purpose of providing gainful employment to severely handicapped persons (a) as an interim step in the rehabilitation process for those who cannot be absorbed in the competitive labor market; or (b) during such time as employment opportunities for them in the competitive labor market do not exist. See N.Y. Education Law 1002