Terms Used In Tennessee Code > Title 17 > Chapter 2 > Part 1 - Special Judges

• Advertisement: means a commercial message in any medium that aids, promotes, or assists directly or indirectly a rental-purchase agreement. See Tennessee Code 47-18-603
• 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.
• 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.
• Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
• Ascertainable loss: means an identifiable deprivation, detriment or injury arising from the identity theft or from any unfair, misleading or deceptive act or practice even when the precise amount of the loss is not known. See Tennessee Code 47-18-2102
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Attorney general: means the office of the Tennessee attorney general and reporter. See Tennessee Code 47-18-2102
• Attorney general: means the attorney general and reporter, or the attorney general and reporter's designee. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• Attorney general: means the attorney general and reporter, or the attorney general and reporter's designee. See Tennessee Code 47-18-501
• Attorney general: means the attorney general and reporter, or the attorney general and reporter's designee. See Tennessee Code 47-18-603
• Automatic renewal: means a plan or arrangement in which a paid subscription or purchasing agreement is automatically renewed at the end of a definite term for a subsequent term. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• Automatic renewal offer terms: means the following clear and conspicuous disclosures:
  (A) That the subscription or purchasing agreement will continue until the consumer cancels. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• 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}
• Business day: means any day other than a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday. See Tennessee Code 47-18-501
• Buyer: means a purchaser under a health club agreement. See Tennessee Code 47-18-301
• Cash price: means the price at which the lessor would have sold the property to the consumer for cash on the date of the rental-purchase agreement. See Tennessee Code 47-18-603
• Clear and conspicuous: means in larger type than the surrounding text, or in contrasting type, font, or color to the surrounding text of the same size, or set off from the surrounding text of the same size by symbols or other marks, in a manner that clearly calls attention to the language. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• clearly and conspicuously: means in a volume and cadence sufficient to be readily audible and understandable. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• club: means any person, corporation, partnership, unincorporated association, or other business enterprise operating for profit within the state of Tennessee, the primary purpose of which is to provide benefits to members from the cooperative purchase of services or merchandise. See Tennessee Code 47-18-501
• Code: includes the Tennessee Code and all amendments and revisions to the code and all additions and supplements to the code. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Consumer: means any natural person who resides, is present or is domiciled in this state, or who is or may become a plaintiff or complainant in a dispute in this state. See Tennessee Code 47-16-102
• Consumer: means any natural person who seeks or acquires by purchase, rent, lease, assignment, award by chance, or other disposition, any goods, services, or property, tangible or intangible, real, personal or mixed, and any other article, commodity, or thing of value wherever situated or any person who purchases or to whom is offered for sale a franchise or distributorship agreement or any similar type of business opportunity. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• Consumer: means a natural person who rents personal property under a rental-purchase agreement. See Tennessee Code 47-18-603
• consumer transaction: means the advertising, offering for sale, lease or rental, or distribution of any goods, services, or property, tangible or intangible, real, personal, or mixed, and other articles, commodities, or things of value wherever situated. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• Consummation: means the time a consumer becomes contractually obligated on a rental-purchase agreement. See Tennessee Code 47-18-603
• Continuous service: means a plan or arrangement in which a subscription or purchasing agreement continues until the consumer cancels the service. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• Contract: means any oral or written agreement by which one becomes a member of a club. See Tennessee Code 47-18-501
• Contract for home improvement services: means a contractual agreement, written or oral, between a person performing home improvement services and a residential owner, and includes all labor, services and materials to be furnished and performed under such agreement. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Counterclaim: A claim that a defendant makes against a plaintiff.
• Covered file-sharing program: means a computer program, application, or software that enables the computer on which such program, application, or software is installed to designate files as available for searching by and copying to one (1) or more other computers, to transmit such designated files directly to one (1) or more other computers, and to request the transmission of such designated files directly from one (1) or more other computers. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• 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.
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Documentary material: means the original or copy of any book, record, memorandum, paper, communication, tabulation, map, chart, photograph, mechanical transcription, or other tangible document or recording, wherever situated. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• 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.
• Finance charge: The total cost of credit a customer must pay on a consumer loan, including interest. The Truth in Lending Act requires disclosure of the finance charge. ^{Source: OCC}
• 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}
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Garnishment: Generally, garnishment is a court proceeding in which a creditor asks a court to order a third party who owes money to the debtor or otherwise holds assets belonging to the debtor to turn over to the creditor any of the debtor
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Goods: means any tangible chattels leased, bought, or otherwise obtained for use by an individual primarily for personal, family, or household purposes or a franchise, distributorship agreement, or similar business opportunity. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• Governmental entity: means :
  (A) The state and each of its departments, agencies, divisions, boards, commissions, and other instrumentalities. See Tennessee Code 47-17-103
• Grace period: The number of days you'll have to pay your bill for purchases in full without triggering a finance charge. ^{Source: Federal Reserve}
• Health club: means any enterprise, however styled, which offers on a regular, full-time basis, and pursuant to a health club agreement, services or facilities for the development or preservation of physical fitness through exercise, weight control or athletics. See Tennessee Code 47-18-301
• Health club agreement: means an agreement whereby a buyer purchases, or is obligated to purchase, any right to use health club facilities or services. See Tennessee Code 47-18-301
• Home improvement services: means the repair, replacement, remodeling, alteration, conversion, modernization, improvement, or addition to any residential property, and includes but is not limited to, the repair, replacement, remodeling, alteration, conversion, modernization, improvement, or addition to driveways, swimming pools, porches, garages, landscaping, fences, fall-out shelters, and roofing. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• Home improvement services provider: means any person or entity, whether or not licensed pursuant to title 62, chapter 6, who undertakes to, attempts to, or submits a price or bid or offers to construct, supervise, superintend, oversee, schedule, direct, or in any manner assume charge of the home improvement service for a fee. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• knowing: means actual awareness of the falsity or deception, but actual awareness may be inferred where objective manifestations indicate that a reasonable person would have known or would have had reason to know of the falsity or deception. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• 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.
• Lessor: means a person who, in the ordinary course of business, regularly leases, offers to lease, or arranges for the leasing of property under a rental-purchase agreement. See Tennessee Code 47-18-603
• 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.
• Litigation financier: means a person, entity or partnership engaged in the business of litigation financing. See Tennessee Code 47-16-102
• Local telephone directory: includes :
  (A) A classified advertising directory, commonly referred to as the yellow pages. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• Markup: The process by which congressional committees and subcommittees debate, amend, and rewrite proposed legislation.
• member: means any status by which any natural person is entitled to any of the benefits of a discount buying organization. See Tennessee Code 47-18-501
• National Bank: A bank that is subject to the supervision of the Comptroller of the Currency. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is a bureau of the U.S. Treasury Department. A national bank can be recognized because it must have "national" or "national association" in its name. ^{Source: OCC}
• National Credit Union Administration: The federal regulatory agency that charters and supervises federal credit unions. (NCUA also administers the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund, which insures the deposits of federal credit unions.) ^{Source: OCC}
• Oath: includes affirmation. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• Operator: means any person, firm, corporation, or business entity which operates a health club. See Tennessee Code 47-18-301
• Person: means a natural person, consumer, individual, governmental agency, partnership, corporation, trust, estate, incorporated or unincorporated association, and any other legal or commercial entity however organized. See Tennessee Code 47-18-2102
• Person: means a natural person, individual, governmental agency, partnership, corporation, trust, estate, incorporated or unincorporated association, and any other legal or commercial entity however organized. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• Personal property: includes money, goods, chattels, things in action, and evidences of debt. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Physical address: means the mailing address, including a zip code, which details the actual location of a person or entity, but does not include a post office box. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Possession: means actual care, custody, control, or management of residential property, but shall not include occupancy of residential property through a lease or rental agreement. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• Prepayment: means any payment greater than fifty dollars ($50. See Tennessee Code 47-18-501
• Probate: Proving a will
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• real property: include lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all rights thereto and interests therein, equitable as well as legal. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Released claims: means the causes of action and other claims that are released in a statewide opioid settlement agreement or as set forth in a declaration of such an agreement by the attorney general and reporter, including matters identified as released claims as that term or a comparable term is defined in a statewide opioid settlement agreement. See Tennessee Code 47-17-103
• Released entities: means the entities released in a statewide opioid settlement agreement and pursuant to a declaration of a statewide settlement agreement by the attorney general and reporter, including those identified as released entities as that term or a comparable term is defined in a statewide opioid settlement agreement. See Tennessee Code 47-17-103
• Rental-purchase agreement: means an agreement for the use of personal property by a natural person primarily for personal, family, or household purposes, for an initial period of four (4) months or less (whether or not there is any obligation beyond the initial period) that is automatically renewable with each payment and that permits the consumer to become the owner of the property. See Tennessee Code 47-18-603
• Representative: when applied to those who represent a decedent, includes executors and administrators, unless the context implies heirs and distributees. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Rescission: The cancellation of budget authority previously provided by Congress. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 specifies that the President may propose to Congress that funds be rescinded. If both Houses have not approved a rescission proposal (by passing legislation) within 45 days of continuous session, any funds being withheld must be made available for obligation.
• Residential owner: means a person who has possession of residential real property, including any person authorized by such residential owner to act on the residential owner's behalf. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• Residential property: means the building structure where a person abides, lodges, resides or establishes a living accommodation or where a residential owner intends to abide, lodge, reside or establish a living accommodation following the completion of home improvement services made pursuant to a contract for home improvement services and includes the land on or adjacent to such building structure. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• Right of rescission: Right to cancel, within three business days, a contract that uses the home of a person as collateral, except in the case of a first mortgage loan. There is no fee to the borrower, who receives a full refund of all fees paid. The right of rescission is guaranteed by the Truth in Lending Act (TILA). ^{Source: OCC}
• Road: includes public bridges and may be held equivalent to the words "county way" "county road" or "state road". See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• Services: means any work, labor, or services including services furnished in connection with the sale or repair of goods or real property or improvements thereto. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• signed: includes a mark, the name being written near the mark and witnessed, or any other symbol or methodology executed or adopted by a party with intention to authenticate a writing or record, regardless of being witnessed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• State-subdivision opioid abatement agreement: means an agreement entered into by the state and one (1) or more subdivisions of the state that addresses the allocation of funds dedicated to opioid abatement. See Tennessee Code 47-17-103
• Statewide opioid settlement agreement: means a settlement agreement entered into by the state and one (1) or more entities involved in activities related to the manufacture, marketing, distribution, dispensing, or sale of opioids in which subdivision claims are addressed. See Tennessee Code 47-17-103
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Subscription: includes a mark, the name being written near the mark and witnessed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• switch: means advertising items to lure consumers, then inducing the consumers to buy different and more expensive items by failing to make available the goods or services advertised, or by disparaging the less expensive product. See Tennessee Code 47-18-103
• Temporary restraining order: Prohibits a person from an action that is likely to cause irreparable harm. This differs from an injunction in that it may be granted immediately, without notice to the opposing party, and without a hearing. It is intended to last only until a hearing can be held.
• Tennessee Consumer Protection Act: means the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act of 1977, as amended, compiled in part 1 of this chapter and related statutes. See Tennessee Code 47-18-2102
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Tort: A civil wrong or breach of a duty to another person, as outlined by law. A very common tort is negligent operation of a motor vehicle that results in property damage and personal injury in an automobile accident.
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Trust account: A general term that covers all types of accounts in a trust department, such as estates, guardianships, and agencies. ^{Source: OCC}
• Truth in Lending Act: The Truth in Lending Act is a federal law that requires lenders to provide standardized information so that borrowers can compare loan terms. In general, lenders must provide information on ^{Source: OCC}
• Uniform Commercial Code: A set of statutes enacted by the various states to provide consistency among the states' commercial laws. It includes negotiable instruments, sales, stock transfers, trust and warehouse receipts, and bills of lading. ^{Source: OCC}
• United States: includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.