Terms Used In Arizona Laws > Title 8 > Chapter 1 > Article 1 - General Provisions

• Abandoned: means left without provision for reasonable and necessary care or supervision. See Arizona Laws 25-1002
• Abuse: means the infliction or allowing of physical injury, impairment of bodily function or disfigurement or the infliction of or allowing another person to cause serious emotional damage as evidenced by severe anxiety, depression, withdrawal or untoward aggressive behavior and which emotional damage is diagnosed by a medical doctor or psychologist and is caused by the acts or omissions of an individual who has the care, custody and control of a child. See Arizona Laws 8-201
• Action: includes any matter or proceeding in a court, civil or criminal. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• adoption agency: means a person other than the division licensed by the division to place children for adoption, including an attorney or law firm. See Arizona Laws 8-101
• Adult: means a person eighteen years of age or older. See Arizona Laws 8-101
• Adult: means a person who has attained eighteen years of age. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• 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.
• Agency placement adoption: means an adoption proceeding in which one or more of the requisite consents are given to an agency pursuant to section 8-107, subsection D, paragraph 1. See Arizona Laws 8-101
• Allegation: something that someone says happened.
• 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.
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• 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
• Arrearage: means the total unpaid support owed, including child support, past support, spousal maintenance and interest. See Arizona Laws 25-500
• 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.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• 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.
• 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}
• Chambers: A judge's office.
• Child: means an individual, whether over or under the age of majority, who is or is alleged to be owed a duty of support by the individual's parent or who is or is alleged to be the beneficiary of a support order directed to the parent. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
• Child: means any person under eighteen years of age. See Arizona Laws 8-101
• Child support guidelines: means the child support guidelines that are adopted by the state supreme court. See Arizona Laws 25-500
• Child support order: means a support order for a child, including a child who has attained the age of majority under the law of the issuing state or foreign country. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
• Commencement: means the filing of the first pleading in a proceeding. See Arizona Laws 25-1002
• Commercial nuclear generating station: means an electric power generating facility which is owned by a public service corporation, a municipal corporation or a consortium of public service corporations or municipal corporations and which produces electricity by means of a nuclear reactor. See Arizona Laws 26-301
• Commission: means the industrial commission of Arizona. See Arizona Laws 23-1701
• 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.
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Conciliation court: means a court of conciliation provided for in this article. See Arizona Laws 25-381.02
• Concurrent resolution: A legislative measure, designated "S. Con. Res." and numbered consecutively upon introduction, generally employed to address the sentiments of both chambers, to deal with issues or matters affecting both houses, such as a concurrent budget resolution, or to create a temporary joint committee. Concurrent resolutions are not submitted to the President/Governor and thus do not have the force of law.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Convention: means the convention on the international recovery of child support and other forms of family maintenance, concluded at the Hague on November 23, 2007. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
• 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.
• Council: means the state emergency council. See Arizona Laws 26-301
• court: means the juvenile division of the superior court. See Arizona Laws 8-101
• Court: means an entity authorized under the law of a state to establish, enforce or modify a child custody determination. See Arizona Laws 25-1002
• Court or administrative order: means a court or administrative agency ruling that requires a parent to provide support for that parent's child. See Arizona Laws 25-531
• Credit report: A detailed report of an individual's credit history prepared by a credit bureau and used by a lender in determining a loan applicant's creditworthiness. ^{Source: OCC}
• Custody: means a status embodying all of the following rights and responsibilities:

  (a) The right to have the physical possession of the child. See Arizona Laws 8-101

• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• 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.
• Department: means the department of child safety. See Arizona Laws 8-201
• Department: means the department of economic security. See Arizona Laws 25-500
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Deposition: An oral statement made before an officer authorized by law to administer oaths. Such statements are often taken to examine potential witnesses, to obtain discovery, or to be used later in trial.
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• Direct placement adoption: means an adoption proceeding in which one or more of the requisite consents are given to a particular person pursuant to section 8-107, subsection D, paragraph 2. See Arizona Laws 8-101
• Director: means the director of the division. See Arizona Laws 26-301
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Division: means the division of emergency management within the department of emergency and military affairs. See Arizona Laws 26-301
• Division: means the department of child safety. See Arizona Laws 8-101
• Duty of support: means an obligation imposed or imposable by law to provide support for a child, spouse or former spouse, including an unsatisfied obligation to provide support. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
• Emergency functions: includes warning and communications services, relocation of persons from stricken areas, radiological defense, temporary restoration of utilities, plant protection, transportation, welfare, public works and engineering, search or rescue, health and medical services, law enforcement, fire fighting, mass care, resource support, urban search or rescue, hazardous materials, food and energy information and planning and other activities necessary or incidental thereto. See Arizona Laws 26-301
• Emergency management: means the preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation activities necessary to respond to and recover from disasters, emergencies or contingencies. See Arizona Laws 26-301
• Emergency worker: means any person who is registered, whether temporary or permanent, paid or volunteer, with a local or state emergency management organization and certified by the local or state emergency management organization for the purpose of engaging in authorized emergency management activities or performing emergency functions, or who is an officer, agent or employee of this state or a political subdivision of this state and who is called on to perform or support emergency management activities or perform emergency functions. See Arizona Laws 26-301
• Entitlement: A Federal program or provision of law that requires payments to any person or unit of government that meets the eligibility criteria established by law. Entitlements constitute a binding obligation on the part of the Federal Government, and eligible recipients have legal recourse if the obligation is not fulfilled. Social Security and veterans' compensation and pensions are examples of entitlement programs.
• 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.
• Extradition: The formal process of delivering an accused or convicted person from authorities in one state to authorities in another state.
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• 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.
• Foreign country: means a country, including a political subdivision of a country, other than the United States, that authorizes the issuance of support orders and to which any of the following applies:

  (a) It has been declared under the law of the United States to be a foreign reciprocating country. See Arizona Laws 25-1202

• Foreign support order: means a support order of a foreign tribunal. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
• Foreign tribunal: means a court, administrative agency or quasi-judicial entity of a foreign country that is authorized to establish, enforce or modify support orders or to determine parentage of a child. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Fund: means the municipal firefighter cancer reimbursement fund. See Arizona Laws 23-1701
• 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.
• 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.
• Hazardous materials: means :

  (a) Any hazardous material designated pursuant to the hazardous materials transportation act of 1974 (P. See Arizona Laws 26-301

• Health insurance coverage: means fee for service, health maintenance organization, preferred provider organization and other types of coverage under which medical services could be provided to the dependent children of a noncustodial parent. See Arizona Laws 25-531
• Hearsay: Statements by a witness who did not see or hear the incident in question but heard about it from someone else. Hearsay is usually not admissible as evidence in court.
• Home state: means the state or foreign country in which a child lived with a parent or a person acting as parent for at least six consecutive months immediately preceding the time of filing a petition or a comparable pleading for support and, if a child is less than six months old, the state or foreign country in which the child lived from birth with any of them. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
• Home state: means :

  (a) The state in which a child lived with a parent or a person acting as a parent for at least six consecutive months immediately before the commencement of a child custody proceeding, including any period during which that person is temporarily absent from that state. See Arizona Laws 25-1002

• In loco parentis: means a person who has been treated as a parent by a child and who has formed a meaningful parental relationship with a child for a substantial period of time. See Arizona Laws 25-401
• including: means not limited to and is not a term of exclusion. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Income: includes earnings or other periodic entitlements to money from any source and any other property subject to withholding for support under the laws of this state. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
• Income: means any form of payment owed to an individual, regardless of source, including wages, salaries, commissions, bonuses, workers' compensation, disability payments, payments pursuant to a pension or retirement program and interest. See Arizona Laws 25-500
• Income withholding order: means an order or other legal process directed to an obligor's employer, payor or other debtor to withhold support from the income of the obligor. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
• Initial determination: means the first child custody determination concerning a particular child. See Arizona Laws 25-1002
• Initiating tribunal: means the tribunal of a state or foreign country from which a petition or comparable pleading is forwarded or in which a petition or comparable pleading is filed for forwarding to another state or foreign country. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Irrevocable trust: A trust arrangement that cannot be revoked, rescinded, or repealed by the grantor.
• Issuing court: means the court that makes a child custody determination for which enforcement is sought under this chapter. See Arizona Laws 25-1002
• Issuing state: means the state in which a tribunal issues a support order or a judgment determining parentage of a child. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
• Issuing tribunal: means the tribunal of a state or foreign country that issues a support order or a judgment determining parentage of a child. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
• Joint committee: Committees including membership from both houses of teh legislature. Joint committees are usually established with narrow jurisdictions and normally lack authority to report legislation.
• Joint legal decision-making: means both parents share decision-making and neither parent's rights or responsibilities are superior except with respect to specified decisions as set forth by the court or the parents in the final judgment or order. See Arizona Laws 25-401
• Joint tenancy: A form of property ownership in which two or more parties hold an undivided interest in the same property that was conveyed under the same instrument at the same time. A joint tenant can sell his (her) interest but not dispose of it by will. Upon the death of a joint tenant, his (her) undivided interest is distributed among the surviving joint tenants.
• 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.
• Juvenile court: means the juvenile division of the superior court when exercising its jurisdiction over children in any proceeding relating to delinquency, dependency or incorrigibility. See Arizona Laws 8-201
• Law: includes decisional and statutory law and rules and regulations having the force of law. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
• 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}
• Legal decision-making: means the legal right and responsibility to make all nonemergency legal decisions for a child including those regarding education, health care, religious training and personal care decisions. See Arizona Laws 25-401
• Legal parent: means a biological or adoptive parent whose parental rights have not been terminated. See Arizona Laws 25-401
• 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.
• Local emergency: means the existence of conditions of disaster or of extreme peril to the safety of persons or property within the territorial limits of a county, city or town, which conditions are or are likely to be beyond the control of the services, personnel, equipment and facilities of such political subdivision as determined by its governing body and which require the combined efforts of other political subdivisions. See Arizona Laws 26-301
• Magistrate judges: Judicial officers who assist U.S. district judges in getting cases ready for trial, who may decide some criminal and civil trials when both parties agree to have the case heard by a magistrate judge instead of a judge.
• Minor: means a person under eighteen years of age. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Minor children: means persons under eighteen years of age. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Mitigation: means measures taken to reduce the need to respond to a disaster and to reduce the cost of disaster response and recovery. See Arizona Laws 26-301
• Modification: means a child custody determination that changes, replaces, supersedes or is otherwise made after a previous determination concerning the same child, whether or not it is made by the court that made the previous determination. See Arizona Laws 25-1002
• Month: means a calendar month unless otherwise expressed. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
• Municipal payor: means any of the following:

  (a) A workers' compensation insurer used by a city or town. See Arizona Laws 23-1701

• negligently: import a want of such attention to the nature or probable consequence of the act or omission as a prudent man ordinarily bestows in acting in his own concerns. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Oath: includes an affirmation or declaration. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• 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.
• Obligee: means any of the following:

  (a) An individual to whom a duty of support is or is alleged to be owed or in whose favor a support order or a judgment determining parentage of a child has been issued. See Arizona Laws 25-1202

• Obligee: means a person or agency entitled to receive support. See Arizona Laws 25-500
• Obligor: means an individual or the estate of a decedent that meets any of the following conditions:

  (a) Owes or is alleged to owe a duty of support. See Arizona Laws 25-1202

• Obligor: means a person obligated to pay support. See Arizona Laws 25-500
• Outside this state: means a location in another state or a country other than the United States, whether or not the country is a foreign country. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Parenting time: means the schedule of time during which each parent has access to a child at specified times. See Arizona Laws 25-401
• 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.
• Peace officers: means sheriffs of counties, constables, marshals, policemen of cities and towns, commissioned personnel of the department of public safety, personnel who are employed by the state department of corrections and the department of juvenile corrections and who have received a certificate from the Arizona peace officer standards and training board, peace officers who are appointed by a multicounty water conservation district and who have received a certificate from the Arizona peace officer standards and training board, police officers who are appointed by community college district governing boards and who have received a certificate from the Arizona peace officer standards and training board, police officers who are appointed by the Arizona board of regents and who have received a certificate from the Arizona peace officer standards and training board, police officers who are appointed by the governing body of a public airport pursuant to section 28-8426 and who have received a certificate from the Arizona peace officer standards and training board, peace officers who are appointed by a private postsecondary institution pursuant to section 15-1897 and who have received a certificate from the Arizona peace officer standards and training board and special agents from the office of the attorney general, or of a county attorney, and who have received a certificate from the Arizona peace officer standards and training board. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Person: means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, public corporation, government or governmental subdivision, agency or instrumentality, or any other legal or commercial entity. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
• Person: includes a corporation, company, partnership, firm, association or society, as well as a natural person. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Person: means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, government, governmental subdivision, agency or instrumentality, or public corporation or any other legal or commercial entity. See Arizona Laws 25-1002
• Person acting as a parent: means a person, other than a parent, who meets both of the following requirements:

  (a) Has physical custody of the child or has had physical custody for a period of six consecutive months, including any temporary absence, within one year immediately before the commencement of a child custody proceeding. See Arizona Laws 25-1002

• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Personal property: includes money, goods, chattels, things in action and evidences of debt. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Petition: includes a complaint. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
• Petition: means a written statement of the essential facts that allege delinquency, incorrigibility or dependency. See Arizona Laws 8-201
• Petitioner: includes both petitioners under a joint petition. See Arizona Laws 8-101
• Petty offense: A federal misdemeanor punishable by six months or less in prison. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Physical custody: means the physical care and supervision of a child. See Arizona Laws 25-1002
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• 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.
• Plea agreement: An arrangement between the prosecutor, the defense attorney, and the defendant in which the defendant agrees to plead guilty in exchange for special considerations. ^Source:
• 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.
• Population: means the population according to the most recent United States decennial census. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Premarital agreement: means an agreement between prospective spouses that is made in contemplation of marriage and that is effective on marriage. See Arizona Laws 25-201
• Preparedness: means actions taken to develop the response capabilities needed for an emergency. See Arizona Laws 26-301
• Presiding officer: A majority-party Senator who presides over the Senate and is charged with maintaining order and decorum, recognizing Members to speak, and interpreting the Senate's rules, practices and precedents.
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• Process: means a citation, writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Property: means an interest, present or future, legal or equitable, vested or contingent, in real or personal property, including income and earnings. See Arizona Laws 25-201
• Property: includes both real and personal property. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• Qualified young adult: means a former dependent child who is at least eighteen years of age and not over twenty-one years of age, who meets the criteria for an extended foster care program pursuant to Section 8-521. See Arizona Laws 8-201
• 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.
• Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and that is retrievable in perceivable form. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
• Recovery: means short-term activities necessary to return vital systems and facilities to minimum operating standards and long-term activities required to return life to normal or improved levels. See Arizona Laws 26-301
• Referral: means a report that is submitted to the juvenile court and that alleges that a child is dependent or incorrigible or that a juvenile has committed a delinquent or criminal act. See Arizona Laws 8-201
• Register: means to file in a tribunal in this state a support order or judgment that determines parentage of a child and that is issued in another state or a foreign country. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
• Registered mail: includes certified mail. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Registering tribunal: means a tribunal in which a support order or a judgment determining parentage of a child is registered. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
• 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.
• 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.
• Responding state: means a state in which a petition or comparable pleading for support or determination of parentage is filed or to which a petition or comparable pleading is forwarded for filing from another state or a foreign country. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
• Responding tribunal: means the authorized tribunal in a responding state or a foreign country. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
• Response: means activities that are designed to provide emergency assistance, limit the primary effects, reduce the probability of secondary damage and speed recovery operations. See Arizona Laws 26-301
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• 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.
• Sole legal decision-making: means one parent has the legal right and responsibility to make major decisions for a child. See Arizona Laws 25-401
• Spousal support order: means a support order for a spouse or former spouse of the obligor. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
• 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 25-1002
• 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 25-1202
• State of emergency: means the duly proclaimed existence of conditions of disaster or of extreme peril to the safety of persons or property within the state caused by air pollution, fire, flood or floodwater, storm, epidemic, riot, earthquake or other causes, except those resulting in a state of war emergency, which are or are likely to be beyond the control of the services, personnel, equipment and facilities of any single county, city or town, and which require the combined efforts of the state and the political subdivision. See Arizona Laws 26-301
• State of war emergency: means the condition which exists immediately whenever this nation is attacked or upon receipt by this state of a warning from the federal government indicating that such an attack is imminent. See Arizona Laws 26-301
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Statute of limitations: A law that sets the time within which parties must take action to enforce their rights.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Subpoena duces tecum: A command to a witness to produce documents.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Support: means the provision of maintenance or subsistence and includes medical insurance coverage, or cash medical support, and uncovered medical costs for the child, arrearages, interest on arrearages, past support, interest on past support and reimbursement for expended public assistance. See Arizona Laws 25-500
• Support enforcement agency: means a public official, governmental entity or private agency authorized to do any of the following:

  (a) Seek the enforcement of support orders or laws relating to the duty of support. See Arizona Laws 25-1202

• Support order: means a judgment, decree, order, decision or directive, whether temporary, final or subject to modification, issued in a state or foreign country for the benefit of a child, a spouse or a former spouse, that provides for monetary support, health care, arrearages, retroactive support or reimbursement for financial assistance provided to an individual obligee in place of child support. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
• Support payment clearinghouse: means the clearinghouse established pursuant to section 46-441. See Arizona Laws 25-500
• 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.
• Testify: includes every manner of oral statement under oath or affirmation. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• 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.
• 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.
• Tribe: means an Indian tribe or band or Alaskan native village that is recognized by federal law or formally acknowledged by a state. See Arizona Laws 25-1002
• Tribunal: means a court, administrative agency or quasi-judicial entity authorized to establish, enforce or modify support orders or to determine parentage of a child. See Arizona Laws 25-1202
• 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.
• Visitation: means a schedule of time that occurs with a child by someone other than a legal parent. See Arizona Laws 25-401
• Visitation: includes parenting time as defined in section 25-401. See Arizona Laws 25-1002
• Warrant: means an order issued by a court authorizing law enforcement officers to take physical custody of a child. See Arizona Laws 25-1002
• Wilfully: means , with respect to conduct or to a circumstance described by a statute defining an offense, that a person is aware or believes that the person's conduct is of that nature or that the circumstance exists. See Arizona Laws 1-215
• Writing: includes printing. See Arizona Laws 1-215