Terms Used In California Codes > Family Code > Division 9 > Part 1 > Chapter 6 - Modification,Termination, or Set Aside of Support Orders

• Access: means a personal inspection and review of a record or an accurate copy of a record, or an oral description or communication of a record or an accurate copy of a record, and a request to release a copy of any record. See California Education Code 76210
• Action: means a judicial proceeding or arbitration in which a payment in money may be awarded or enforced with respect to a foreign-money claim. See California Code of Civil Procedure 676.1
• 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.
• 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.
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Asbestos: as used in this chapter , has the same meaning as defined in §. See California Health and Safety Code 25918
• Asbestos-containing construction material: as used in this chapter , means any manufactured construction material, including structural, mechanical and building material, which contains more than one-tenth of 1 percent asbestos by weight. See California Health and Safety Code 25919
• 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.
• Bail: Security given for the release of a criminal defendant or witness from legal custody (usually in the form of money) to secure his/her appearance on the day and time appointed.
• Bank-offered spot rate: means the spot rate of exchange at which a bank will sell foreign money at a spot rate. See California Code of Civil Procedure 676.1
• 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.
• Baseline: Projection of the receipts, outlays, and other budget amounts that would ensue in the future without any change in existing policy. Baseline projections are used to gauge the extent to which proposed legislation, if enacted into law, would alter current spending and revenue levels.
• Bequest: Property gifted by will.
• board: as used in this chapter means the Medical Board of California. See California Business and Professions Code 2002
• Building: as used in this chapter , means all or part of any "public and commercial building" as defined in Section 2642 of Title 15 of the United States Code, as that section reads on January 1, 1989, except that "building" shall not mean residential dwellings. See California Health and Safety Code 25919.2
• certificate: as used in this chapter are deemed to be synonomous. See California Business and Professions Code 2040
• City: includes "city and county" and "incorporated town" but does not include "unincorporated town" or "village. See California Government Code 20
• Commission: means the California Gambling Control Commission. See California Business and Professions Code 19805
• compensation: means the remuneration paid out of funds controlled by the employer in payment for the member's services performed during normal working hours or for time during which the member is excused from work because of any of the following:

  California Government Code 20630

• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• Conversion date: means the banking day next preceding the date on which money, in accordance with this title, is (i) paid to a claimant in an action or distribution proceeding, (ii) paid to the official designated by law to enforce a judgment or award on behalf of a claimant, or (iii) used to recoup, setoff, or counterclaim in different moneys in an action or distribution proceeding. See California Code of Civil Procedure 676.1
• 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.
• Counterclaim: A claim that a defendant makes against a plaintiff.
• County: includes city and county. See California Health and Safety Code 14
• County: includes "city and county. See California Code of Civil Procedure 17
• County: includes "city and county. See California Public Resources Code 14
• County: includes city and county. See California Food and Agricultural Code 29
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the Department of Parks and Recreation. See California Public Resources Code 80002
• Department: means the Department of Parks and Recreation. See California Public Resources Code 5078
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Directory information: means one or more of the following items: a student's name, address, telephone number, date and place of birth, major field of study, participation in officially recognized activities and sports, weight and height of members of athletic teams, dates of attendance, degrees and awards received, the most recent previous public or private school attended by the student, and any other information authorized in writing by the student. See California Education Code 76210
• Disadvantaged community: means a community with a median household income less than 80 percent of the statewide average. See California Public Resources Code 80002
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Distribution proceeding: means a judicial or nonjudicial proceeding for the distribution of a fund in which one or more foreign-money claims is asserted and includes an accounting, an assignment for the benefit of creditors, a foreclosure, the liquidation or rehabilitation of a corporation or other entity, and the distribution of an estate, trust, or other fund. See California Code of Civil Procedure 676.1
• Division of Licensing: shall be deemed to refer to the board. See California Business and Professions Code 2002
• Election: means any election including a primary that is provided for under this code. See California Elections Code 318
• Elections official: means any of the following:

  California Elections Code 320

• Elector: means a person who is a United States citizen 18 years of age or older and, except as specified in subdivision (b), is a resident of an election precinct in this state on or before the day of an election. See California Elections Code 321
• Employee: as used in this chapter , means every person who is required or directed by any employer, to engage in any employment, and who performs that employment other than on a casual or incidental basis in any building subject to this chapter, or any person contracting with an owner who is required or directed to perform services, other than on a casual or incidental basis, in any building subject to this chapter. See California Health and Safety Code 25919.3
• 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}
• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• 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.
• Forbearance: A means of handling a delinquent loan. A
• 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}
• Foreign money: means money other than money of the United States of America. See California Code of Civil Procedure 676.1
• Foreign-money claim: means a claim upon an obligation to pay, or a claim for recovery of a loss, expressed in or measured by a foreign money. See California Code of Civil Procedure 676.1
• Forgery: The fraudulent signing or alteration of another's name to an instrument such as a deed, mortgage, or check. The intent of the forgery is to deceive or defraud. ^{Source: OCC}
• franchise: means a contract or agreement, either expressed or implied, whether oral or written, between two or more persons by which:

  California Business and Professions Code 20001

• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Fund: means the California Drought, Water, Parks, Climate, Coastal Protection, and Outdoor Access For All Fund, created by Section 80032. See California Public Resources Code 80002
• Fund: means the Heritage Network Decal Fund created pursuant to §. See California Public Resources Code 5078
• Gambling: means to deal, operate, carry on, conduct, maintain, or expose for play a controlled game. See California Business and Professions Code 19805
• 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
• 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.
• Impeachment: (1) The process of calling something into question, as in "impeaching the testimony of a witness." (2) The constitutional process whereby the House of Representatives may "impeach" (accuse of misconduct) high officers of the federal government for trial in the Senate.
• Income and expense declaration: means the form for an income and expense declaration in family law matters adopted by the Judicial Council. See California Family Code 95
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
• Landlord: includes a tenant who is a sublandlord under a sublease. See California Civil Code 1995.020
• language assistance: means oral interpretation or written translation into English of a language other than English or of English into another language for a party or witness who cannot speak or understand English or who can do so only with difficulty. See California Government Code 11435.05
• 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.
• Lease: means a lease or sublease of real property for other than residential purposes, and includes modifications and other agreements affecting a lease. See California Civil Code 1995.020
• 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}
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Licensee: means any person authorized by a license, certificate, registration, or other means to engage in a business or profession regulated by this code or referred to in Sections 1000 and 3600. See California Business and Professions Code 23.8
• licensee: as used in this chapter means the holder of a physician's and surgeon's certificate or doctor of podiatric medicine's certificate, as the case may be, who is engaged in the professional practice authorized by the certificate under the jurisdiction of the appropriate board. See California Business and Professions Code 2041
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Money: means a medium of exchange for the payment of obligations or a store of value authorized or adopted by a government or by intergovernmental agreement. See California Code of Civil Procedure 676.1
• Money of the claim: means the money determined as proper pursuant to Section 676. See California Code of Civil Procedure 676.1
• month: means a calendar month, unless otherwise expressed. See California Civil Code 14
• 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}
• Nolo contendere: No contest-has the same effect as a plea of guilty, as far as the criminal sentence is concerned, but may not be considered as an admission of guilt for any other purpose.
• 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.
• Oral argument: An opportunity for lawyers to summarize their position before the court and also to answer the judges' questions.
• order: include a decree, as appropriate under the circumstances. See California Family Code 100
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Owner: as used in this chapter , means an owner, lessee, sublessee, or agent of the owner of a building or part of a building, including, but not limited to, the state or another public entity. See California Health and Safety Code 25919.5
• Owner licensee: means an owner of a gambling enterprise who holds a state gambling license. See California Business and Professions Code 19805
• 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 person, firm, association, organization, partnership, limited liability company, business trust, corporation, or company. See California Government Code 17
• Person: means any person, firm, association, organization, partnership, business trust, corporation, limited liability company, or company. See California Health and Safety Code 19
• Person: means an individual, a corporation, government or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, joint venture, partnership, association, two or more persons having a joint or common interest, or any other legal or commercial entity. See California Code of Civil Procedure 676.1
• Person: includes a corporation as well as a natural person. See California Code of Civil Procedure 17
• Person: includes a natural person, firm, association, organization, partnership, business trust, corporation, limited liability company, or public entity. See California Family Code 105
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• 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.
• podiatric medicine: means the diagnosis, medical, surgical, mechanical, manipulative, and electrical treatment of the human foot, including the ankle and tendons that insert into the foot and the nonsurgical treatment of the muscles and tendons of the leg governing the functions of the foot. See California Business and Professions Code 2472
• 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.
• Precinct: means a geographical area within a county that is made up of voters and is formed pursuant to Chapter 3 (commencing with Section 12200) of Division 12. See California Elections Code 338.6
• Preservation: means rehabilitation, stabilization, restoration, conservation, development, and reconstruction, or any combination of those activities. See California Public Resources Code 80002
• 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.
• Probate: Proving a will
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• Proceeding: includes an action. See California Family Code 110
• Process: includes a writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings of either a civil or criminal nature. See California Government Code 22
• Process: signifies a writ or summons issued in the course of a judicial proceeding. See California Code of Civil Procedure 17
• Program: means the State Heritage Network Plan and Grants Program. See California Public Resources Code 5078
• property: includes property real and personal. See California Civil Code 14
• Property: includes both personal and real property. See California Code of Civil Procedure 17
• Property: includes real and personal property and any interest therein. See California Family Code 113
• Protection: means those actions necessary to prevent harm or damage to persons, property, or natural, cultural, and historic resources, actions to improve access to public open-space areas, or actions to allow the continued use and enjoyment of property or natural, cultural, and historic resources, and includes site monitoring, acquisition, development, restoration, preservation, and interpretation. See California Public Resources Code 80002
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• Rate of exchange: means the rate at which money of one country may be converted into money of another country in a free financial market convenient to or reasonably usable by a person obligated to pay or to state a rate of conversion. See California Code of Civil Procedure 676.1
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Rebuttable presumption: shall be deemed a presumption which affects the burden of producing evidence. See California Elections Code 346
• 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.
• Reporter: Makes a record of court proceedings and prepares a transcript, and also publishes the court's opinions or decisions (in the courts of appeals).
• Restoration: means the improvement of physical structures or facilities and, in the case of natural systems and landscape features, includes, but is not limited to, projects for the control of erosion, stormwater capture and storage or to otherwise reduce stormwater pollution, the control and elimination of invasive species, the planting of native species, the removal of waste and debris, prescribed burning, fuel hazard reduction, fencing out threats to existing or restored natural resources, road elimination, improving instream, riparian, or managed wetland habitat conditions, and other plant and wildlife habitat improvement to increase the natural system value of the property or coastal or ocean resource. See California Public Resources Code 80002
• Restriction on transfer: means a provision in a lease that restricts the right of transfer of the tenant's interest in the lease. See California Civil Code 1995.020
• 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.
• Sheriff: includes marshal. See California Code of Civil Procedure 17
• Signature: includes either of the following:

  California Elections Code 354.5

• Spot rate: means the rate of exchange at which foreign money is sold by a bank or other dealer in foreign exchange for immediate or next day availability or for settlement by immediate payment in cash or equivalent, by charge to an account, or by an agreed delayed settlement not exceeding two days. See California Code of Civil Procedure 676.1
• Spousal support: means support of the spouse of the obligor. See California Family Code 142
• Spouse: includes "registered domestic partner" as required by §. See California Business and Professions Code 14.2
• Spouse: includes "registered domestic partner" as required by §. See California Elections Code 356.5
• State: means the State of California, unless applied to the different parts of the United States. See California Government Code 18
• State: means a State of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or a territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. See California Code of Civil Procedure 676.1
• State: includes the District of Columbia and the territories when applied to the different parts of the United States, and the words "United States" may include the district and territories. See California Code of Civil Procedure 17
• state agency: includes every state office, officer, department, division, bureau, board, and commission. See California Government Code 11000
• Student record: means any item of information directly related to an identifiable student, other than directory information, which is maintained by a community college or required to be maintained by any employee in the performance of his or her duties, whether recorded by handwriting, print, tapes, film, microfilm or other means. See California Education Code 76210
• Subdivision: means a subdivision of the section in which the term occurs unless some other section is expressly mentioned. See California Government Code 10
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Subpoena duces tecum: A command to a witness to produce documents.
• subscription: includes mark when the signer or subscriber can not write, such signer's or subscriber's name being written near the mark by a witness who writes his own name near the signer's or subscriber's name. See California Government Code 16
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Support: refers to a support obligation owing on behalf of a child, spouse, or family, or an amount owing pursuant to Section 17402. See California Family Code 150
• support order: means a child, family, or spousal support order. See California Family Code 3650
• Tenant: includes a subtenant or assignee. See California Civil Code 1995.020
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• 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.
• Trust: means a State Heritage Network Trust organized pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section 5078. See California Public Resources Code 5078
• Trust account: A general term that covers all types of accounts in a trust department, such as estates, guardianships, and agencies. ^{Source: OCC}
• Voter: means any elector who is registered under this code. See California Elections Code 359
• will: includes codicil. See California Civil Code 14
• Will: includes codicil. See California Code of Civil Procedure 17
• Writing: includes printing and typewriting. See California Code of Civil Procedure 17