Terms Used In Arizona Laws > Title 14 > Chapter 11 > Article 1 - General Provisions

• Action: includes any matter or proceeding in a court, civil or criminal. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Adult: means a person who has attained eighteen years of age. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• 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}
• Beneficiary: means a person who either:

  (a) Has a present or future beneficial interest in a trust, vested or contingent. See Arizona Laws 14-10103

• Charitable trust: means a trust, or portion of a trust, created for a charitable purpose described in section 14-10405, subsection A. See Arizona Laws 14-10103
• Common law: The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on judicial decisions rather than legislative action.
• 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.
• Court: means the superior court. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
• Disability: means cause for a protective order as described in section 14-5401. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
• Distributee: means a person who receives property from a trust other than as a creditor or purchaser. See Arizona Laws 14-10103
• Electronic: means having electrical, digital, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic or similar capabilities. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
• 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.
• Guardian ad litem: includes a person who is appointed pursuant to section 14-1408. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
• including: means not limited to and is not a term of exclusion. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Interested person: includes any trustee, heir, devisee, child, spouse, creditor, beneficiary, person holding a power of appointment and other person who has a property right in or claim against a trust estate or the estate of a decedent, ward or protected person. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
• Interests of the beneficiaries: means the beneficial interests provided in the terms of the trust. See Arizona Laws 14-10103
• Irrevocable trust: A trust arrangement that cannot be revoked, rescinded, or repealed by the grantor.
• 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.
• Minor: means a person who is under eighteen years of age. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
• Organization: means a corporation, limited liability company, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, joint venture, association, government or governmental subdivision or agency or any other legal or commercial entity. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
• 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 an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, government, governmental subdivision, agency or instrumentality, public corporation or any other legal or commercial entity. See Arizona Laws 14-10103
• person with a disability: means an individual who has a disability pursuant to 42 United States Code § 1382c. See Arizona Laws 14-10103
• 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.
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Proceeding: includes action at law and suit in equity. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
• Property: means anything that may be the subject of ownership, whether real or personal, legal or equitable, or any interest in anything that may be the subject of ownership. See Arizona Laws 14-10103
• 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.
• 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.
• Settlor: means a person, including a testator, who creates or contributes property to a trust. See Arizona Laws 14-10103
• Special needs trust: means a trust established for the benefit of one or more persons with disabilities if one of the purposes of the trust, expressed in the trust instrument or implied from the trust instrument, is to allow the person with a disability to qualify or continue to qualify for public, charitable or private benefits that might otherwise be available to the person with a disability. See Arizona Laws 14-10103
• Spendthrift provision: means a term of a trust that restrains either voluntary or involuntary transfer of a beneficiary's interest. See Arizona Laws 14-10103
• State: means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. See Arizona Laws 14-10103
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Terms of a trust: means the manifestation of the settlor's intent regarding a trust's provisions as expressed in the trust instrument or as may be established by other evidence that would be admissible in a judicial proceeding. See Arizona Laws 14-10103
• Trust: includes an express trust, private or charitable, with any additions, wherever and however created. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
• Trust instrument: means an instrument executed by the settlor that contains terms of the trust, including any amendments to that trust. See Arizona Laws 14-10103
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Trustee: includes an original, additional and successor trustee and a cotrustee. See Arizona Laws 14-10103
• United States: includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Will: includes a codicil and any testamentary instrument that merely appoints an executor, revokes or revises another will, nominates a guardian or expressly excludes or limits the right of an individual or class to succeed to property of the decedent passing by intestate succession. See Arizona Laws 14-1201
• Writing: includes printing. See Arizona Laws 1-215