Terms Used In Virginia Code > Title 29.1 > Chapter 8 > Article 2 - Application, Issuance, Fees, Renewal, Revocation

• 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.
• Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
• City: means an independent incorporated community which became a city as provided by law before noon on July 1, 1971, or which has within defined boundaries a population of 5,000 or more and which has become a city as provided by law. See Virginia Code 1-208
• Claimant agency: means any administrative unit of state, county, city or town government, including department, institution, commission, authority, or the office of Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court, any circuit or district court and the Internal Revenue Service. See Virginia Code 58.1-520
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the 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.
• Debtor: means any individual having a delinquent debt or account with any claimant agency which obligation has not been satisfied by court order, set aside by court order, or discharged in bankruptcy. See Virginia Code 58.1-520
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Decedent: means a deceased person. See Virginia Code 58.1-901
• Delinquent debt: means any liquidated sum due and owing any claimant agency, or any restitution ordered paid to a clerk of the court pursuant to Title 19. See Virginia Code 58.1-520
• 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.
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• Federal credit: means the maximum amount of the credit for state death taxes allowable by § 2011 of the United States Internal Revenue Code of 1954, as amended or renumbered, or successor provision, in respect to a decedent's taxable estate. See Virginia Code 58.1-901
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Gross estate: The total fair market value of all property and property interests, real and personal, tangible and intangible, of which a decedent had beneficial ownership at the time of death before subtractions for deductions, debts, administrative expenses, and casualty losses suffered during estate administration.
• Gross estate: means "gross estate" as defined in § 2031 of the United States Internal Revenue Code of 1954, as amended or renumbered, or the successor provision of the laws of the United States. See Virginia Code 58.1-901
• Includes: means includes, but not limited to. See Virginia Code 1-218
• Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
• 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.
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Locality: means a county, city, or town as the context may require. See Virginia Code 1-221
• maximum amount: shall be construed as to take full advantage of such credit as the laws of the United States may allow. See Virginia Code 58.1-901
• Month: means a calendar month and "year" means a calendar year. See Virginia Code 1-223
• Nonresident: means a decedent who was domiciled outside of the Commonwealth of Virginia at his death. See Virginia Code 58.1-901
• 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.
• 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: 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
• Personal estate: includes chattels real and such other estate as, upon the death of the owner intestate, would devolve upon his personal representative. See Virginia Code 1-233
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Personal representative: means the personal representative of the estate of the decedent, appointed, qualified and acting within the Commonwealth, or, if there is no personal representative appointed, qualified and acting within the Commonwealth, then any person in actual or constructive possession of the Virginia gross estate of the decedent. See Virginia Code 58.1-901
• Probate: Proving a will
• 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
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Resident: means a decedent who was domiciled in the Commonwealth of Virginia at his death. See Virginia Code 58.1-901
• State: when applied to a part of the United States, includes any of 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 1-245
• State: means any state, territory or possession of the United States and the District of Columbia. See Virginia Code 58.1-901
• Taxable estate: means "taxable estate" as defined in § 2051 of the United States Internal Revenue Code of 1954, as amended or renumbered, or the successor provision of the laws of the United States. See Virginia Code 58.1-901
• Taxpayer: includes every person, corporation, partnership, organization, trust or estate subject to taxation under the laws of this Commonwealth, or under the ordinances, resolutions or orders of any county, city, town or other political subdivision of this Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 58.1-1
• Testate: To die leaving a will.
• Town: means any existing town or an incorporated community within one or more counties which became a town before noon, July 1, 1971, as provided by law or which has within defined boundaries a population of 1,000 or more and which has become a town as provided by law. See Virginia Code 1-254
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• 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
• Value: means "value" as finally determined for federal estate tax purposes under the laws of the United States relating to federal estate taxes. See Virginia Code 58.1-901