Terms Used In Virginia Code > Title 16.1 > Chapter 4.1 > Article 6 - Retention and Disposition of District Court Records

• Administrative records: shall mean all other court papers and records not otherwise defined. See Virginia Code 16.1-69.53
• Adult: means a person 18 years of age or more. See Virginia Code 1-203
• 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.
• Board: means the Commonwealth Transportation Board. See Virginia Code 33.2-100
• Case records: shall mean all documents, dockets and indices. See Virginia Code 16.1-69.53
• certificate: means the part of, or attachment to, a notarized document that is completed by the notary public, bears the notary public's signature, title, commission expiration date, notary registration number, and other required information concerning the date and place of the notarization and states the facts attested to or certified by the notary public in a particular notarization. See Virginia Code 47.1-2
• Chief judge: The judge who has primary responsibility for the administration of a court but also decides cases; chief judges are determined by seniority.
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Court records: shall include case records, financial records and administrative records as defined in this section. See Virginia Code 16.1-69.53
• Credible witness: means an honest, reliable, and impartial person who personally knows an individual appearing before a notary and takes an oath or affirmation from the notary to confirm that individual's identity. See Virginia Code 47.1-2
• 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.
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Document: 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, including a record as defined in the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (§ 59. See Virginia Code 47.1-2
• Documents: shall mean all motions for judgment, bills of complaint, answers, bills of particulars, other pleadings, interrogatories, motions in writing, warrants, summonses, petitions, proof of service, witness summonses and subpoenas, documents received in evidence, transcripts, orders, judgments, writs, and any other similar case-related records and papers in the possession of the district courts and filed with the pleadings in the case. See Virginia Code 16.1-69.53
• Electronic: means relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic, or similar capabilities. See Virginia Code 47.1-2
• Electronic document: means information that is created, generated, sent, communicated, received, or stored by electronic means. See Virginia Code 47.1-2
• Electronic notarial certificate: means the portion of a notarized electronic document that is completed by the notary public, bears the notary public's signature, title, commission expiration date, and other required information concerning the date and place of the electronic notarization, and states the facts attested to or certified by the notary public in a particular notarization. See Virginia Code 47.1-2
• electronic notarization: means an official act by a notary under § 47. See Virginia Code 47.1-2
• electronic notary: means a notary public who has been commissioned by the Secretary of the Commonwealth with the capability of performing electronic notarial acts under § 47. See Virginia Code 47.1-2
• electronic seal: means information within a notarized electronic document that confirms the notary's name, jurisdiction, and commission expiration date and generally corresponds to data in notary seals used on paper documents. See Virginia Code 47.1-2
• Electronic signature: means an electronic sound, symbol, or process attached to or logically associated with an electronic document and executed or adopted by a person with the intent to sign the document. See Virginia Code 47.1-2
• 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.
• Financial records: shall mean all papers and records related to the receipt and disbursement of money by the district court. See Virginia Code 16.1-69.53
• Grand jury: agreement providing that a lender will delay exercising its rights (in the case of a mortgage,
• 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.
• Highway: means the entire width between the boundary lines of every way or place open to the use of the public for purposes of vehicular travel in the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 33.2-100
• in writing: include any representation of words, letters, symbols, numbers, or figures, whether (i) printed or inscribed on a tangible medium or (ii) stored in an electronic or other medium and retrievable in a perceivable form and whether an electronic signature authorized by Chapter 42. See Virginia Code 1-257
• Includes: means includes, but not limited to. See Virginia Code 1-218
• Interrogatories: Written questions asked by one party of an opposing party, who must answer them in writing under oath; a discovery device in a lawsuit.
• 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.
• notarization: means any official act performed by a notary under § 47. See Virginia Code 47.1-2
• notary: means any person commissioned to perform official acts under the title, and includes an electronic notary except where expressly provided otherwise. See Virginia Code 47.1-2
• Person: includes any individual, corporation, partnership, association, cooperative, limited liability company, trust, joint venture, government, political subdivision, or any other legal or commercial entity and any successor, representative, agent, agency, or instrumentality thereof. See Virginia Code 1-230
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Pleadings: Written statements of the parties in a civil case of their positions. In the federal courts, the principal pleadings are the complaint and the answer.
• Principal: means (i) a person whose signature is notarized or (ii) a person, other than a credible witness, taking an oath or affirmation from the notary. See Virginia Code 47.1-2
• Process: includes subpoenas, the summons and complaint in a civil action, and process in statutory actions. See Virginia Code 1-237
• real estate: includes lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all rights and appurtenances thereto and interests therein, other than a chattel interest. See Virginia Code 1-219
• Record of notarial acts: means a device for creating and preserving a chronological record of notarizations performed by a notary. See Virginia Code 47.1-2
• Satisfactory evidence of identity: means identification of an individual based on (i) examination of one or more of the following unexpired documents bearing a photographic image of the individual's face and signature: a United States Passport Book, a United States Passport Card, a certificate of United States citizenship, a certificate of naturalization, a foreign passport, an alien registration card with photograph, a state issued driver's license or a state issued identification card or a United States military card or (ii) the oath or affirmation of one credible witness unaffected by the document or transaction who is personally known to the notary and who personally knows the individual or of two credible witnesses unaffected by the document or transaction who each personally knows the individual and shows to the notary documentary identification as described in clause (i). See Virginia Code 47.1-2
• Seal: means a device for affixing on a paper document an image containing the notary's name and other information related to the notary's commission. See Virginia Code 47.1-2
• Secretary: means the Secretary of the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 47.1-2
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• State: includes any state, territory, or possession of the United States. See Virginia Code 47.1-2
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Supreme Court: means the Supreme Court of Virginia. See Virginia Code 1-249
• sworn: means "affirm" or "affirmed. See Virginia Code 1-250
• 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.
• 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 the 50 states, the District of Columbia the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-255
• Verification of fact: means a notarial act in which a notary reviews public or vital records to (i) ascertain or confirm facts regarding a person's identity, identifying attributes, or authorization to access a building, database, document, network, or physical site or (ii) validate an identity credential on which satisfactory evidence of identity may be based. See Virginia Code 47.1-2