Terms Used In Connecticut General Statutes > Chapter 17 - Legislative Commissioners' Office

• adaptive behavior: means the effectiveness or degree with which an individual meets the standards of personal independence and social responsibility expected for the individual's age and cultural group as measured by tests that are individualized, standardized and clinically and culturally appropriate to the individual. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1g
• Advice and consent: Under the Constitution, presidential nominations for executive and judicial posts take effect only when confirmed by the Senate, and international treaties become effective only when the Senate approves them by a two-thirds vote.
• 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.
• Affiliate: means a person, entity or organization controlling, controlled by or under common control with another person, entity or organization. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-630
• AIDS: means acquired immune deficiency syndrome, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control of the United States Public Health Service. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-581
• 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.
• another: may extend and be applied to communities, companies, corporations, public or private, limited liability companies, societies and associations. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• Apartment: means a room or suite of rooms occupied or designed to be occupied as a family domicile. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-355
• 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.
• Applicant: means any person or health care facility that applies for a certificate of need pursuant to §. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-630
• Appraisal: A determination of property value.
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Assembly: means a company of persons gathered together at any location at any single time for any purpose. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-435
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Assisted living services agency: means an agency that provides, among other things, nursing services and assistance with activities of daily living to a population that is chronic and stable and may have a dementia special care unit or program as defined in §. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-490
• 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.
• banks: shall include all incorporated banks. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• 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.
• Basement: means a story partly, but not more than one-half, below the level of the grade. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-355
• Bed capacity: means the total number of inpatient beds in a facility licensed by the Department of Public Health under sections 19a-490 to 19a-503, inclusive. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-630
• Behavioral health facility: means any facility that provides mental health services to persons eighteen years of age or older or substance use disorder services to persons of any age in an outpatient treatment or residential setting to ameliorate mental, emotional, behavioral or substance use disorder issues. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-490
• 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}
• Bequest: Property gifted by will.
• boarding house: means any house or building or portion thereof, in which six or more persons are harbored, received or lodged for hire, or any building or part thereof, which is used as a sleeping place or lodging for six or more persons not members of the family residing therein. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-355
• Capital expenditure: means an expenditure that under generally accepted accounting principles consistently applied is not properly chargeable as an expense of operation or maintenance and includes acquisition by purchase, transfer, lease or comparable arrangement, or through donation, if the expenditure would have been considered a capital expenditure had the acquisition been by purchase. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-630
• Cellar: means a story more than one-half below the level of the grade. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-355
• Certificate of need: means a certificate issued by the unit. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-630
• Charity: An agency, institution, or organization in existence and operating for the benefit of an indefinite number of persons and conducted for educational, religious, scientific, medical, or other beneficent purposes.
• Chronic disease hospital: means a long-term hospital having facilities, medical staff and all necessary personnel for the diagnosis, care and treatment of chronic diseases. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-490
• Clinical laboratory: means any facility or other area used for microbiological, serological, chemical, hematological, immunohematological, biophysical, cytological, pathological or other examinations of human body fluids, secretions, excretions or excised or exfoliated tissues for the purpose of providing information for the (1) diagnosis, prevention or treatment of any human disease or impairment, (2) assessment of human health, or (3) assessment of the presence of drugs, poisons or other toxicological substances. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-490
• Commissioner: means the Commissioner of Early Childhood. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-420
• Commissioner: means the Commissioner of Public Health or the commissioner's designee. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-490
• Commissioner: means the Commissioner of Public Health. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-581
• Committee membership: Legislators are assigned to specific committees by their party. Seniority, regional balance, and political philosophy are the most prominent factors in the committee assignment process.
• 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.
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• 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.
• Court: means an open, unoccupied space, other than a yard, on the same lot with a tenement house. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-355
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Day camp: means any youth camp which is established, conducted or maintained on any parcel or parcels of land on which there are located dwelling units or buildings intended to accommodate five or more children who are at least three years of age and under sixteen years of age during daylight hours for at least three days a week with the campers eating and sleeping at home, except for one meal per day, but does not include programs operated by a municipal agency. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-420
• Days: means calendar days. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-630
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the Department of Public Health. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-581
• 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.
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Electronic funds transfer: The transfer of money between accounts by consumer electronic systems-such as automated teller machines (ATMs) and electronic payment of bills-rather than by check or cash. (Wire transfers, checks, drafts, and paper instruments do not fall into this category.) ^{Source: OCC}
• Embezzlement: In most states, embezzlement is defined as theft/larceny of assets (money or property) by a person in a position of trust or responsibility over those assets. Embezzlement typically occurs in the employment and corporate settings. ^{Source: OCC}
• 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.
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• Executive director: means the executive director of the Office of Health Strategy. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-630
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• Exposure evaluation group: means at least three impartial health care providers, at least one of whom shall be a physician, designated by the chief administrator of a health facility, correctional facility or other institution to determine if a health care or other worker has been involved in a significant exposure. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-581
• Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
• farm: includes farm buildings, and accessory buildings thereto, nurseries, orchards, ranges, greenhouses, hoophouses and other temporary structures or other structures used primarily for the raising and, as an incident to ordinary farming operations, the sale of agricultural or horticultural commodities. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• farming: include cultivation of the soil, dairying, forestry, raising or harvesting any agricultural or horticultural commodity, including the raising, shearing, feeding, caring for, training and management of livestock, including horses, bees, the production of honey, poultry, fur-bearing animals and wildlife, and the raising or harvesting of oysters, clams, mussels, other molluscan shellfish or fish. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• 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.
• 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}
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Freedom of Information Act: A federal law that mandates that all the records created and kept by federal agencies in the executive branch of government must be open for public inspection and copying. The only exceptions are those records that fall into one of nine exempted categories listed in the statute. ^{Source: OCC}
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Guarantor: A party who agrees to be responsible for the payment of another party's debts should that party default. ^{Source: OCC}
• 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.
• Habeas corpus: A writ that is usually used to bring a prisoner before the court to determine the legality of his imprisonment. It may also be used to bring a person in custody before the court to give testimony, or to be prosecuted.
• Health care facility: includes any parent company, subsidiary, affiliate or joint venture, or any combination thereof, of any such facility. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-630
• Health care provider: means any physician, physician assistant, dentist, nurse, provider of services for persons with psychiatric disabilities or persons with intellectual disability or other person involved in providing medical, nursing, counseling, or other health care, substance abuse or mental health service, including such services associated with, or under contract to, a health maintenance organization or medical services plan. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-581
• Health facility: means an institution, as defined in §. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-581
• HIV infection: means infection with the human immunodeficiency virus or any other related virus identified as a probable causative agent of AIDS. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-581
• HIV-related illness: means any illness that may result from or may be associated with HIV infection. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-581
• HIV-related test: means any laboratory test or series of tests for any virus, antibody, antigen or etiologic agent whatsoever thought to cause or indicate the presence of HIV infection. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-581
• Home health agency: means an agency licensed as a home health care agency or a home health aide agency. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-490
• Home health aide agency: means a public or private organization, except a home health care agency, which provides in the patient's home or a substantially equivalent environment supportive services which may include, but are not limited to, assistance with personal hygiene, dressing, feeding and incidental household tasks essential to achieving adequate household and family management. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-490
• Home health care agency: means a public or private organization, or a subdivision thereof, engaged in providing professional nursing services and the following services, available twenty-four hours per day, in the patient's home or a substantially equivalent environment: Home health aide services as defined in this section, physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy or medical social services. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-490
• Hospice agency: means a public or private organization that provides home care and hospice services to terminally ill patients. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-490
• Hospital: means an establishment for the lodging, care and treatment of persons suffering from disease or other abnormal physical or mental conditions and includes inpatient psychiatric services in general hospitals. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-490
• Indemnification: In general, a collateral contract or assurance under which one person agrees to secure another person against either anticipated financial losses or potential adverse legal consequences. ^{Source: FDIC}
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Institution: means a hospital, short-term hospital special hospice, hospice inpatient facility, residential care home, nursing home facility, home health care agency, home health aide agency, behavioral health facility, assisted living services agency, substance abuse treatment facility, outpatient surgical facility, outpatient clinic, clinical laboratory, an infirmary operated by an educational institution for the care of students enrolled in, and faculty and employees of, such institution. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-490
• intellectual disability: means a significant limitation in intellectual functioning existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior that originated during the developmental period before eighteen years of age. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1g
• Inter vivos: Transfer of property from one living person to another living person.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Large group practice: means eight or more full-time equivalent physicians, legally organized in a partnership, professional corporation, limited liability company formed to render professional services, medical foundation, not-for-profit corporation, faculty practice plan or other similar entity (A) in which each physician who is a member of the group provides substantially the full range of services that the physician routinely provides, including, but not limited to, medical care, consultation, diagnosis or treatment, through the joint use of shared office space, facilities, equipment or personnel. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-630
• 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}
• Legacy: A gift of property made by will.
• legislative body: means : (1) As applied to unconsolidated towns, the town meeting. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• 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.
• Lineal descendant: Direct descendant of the same ancestors.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Majority leader: see Floor Leaders
• Minority leader: See Floor Leaders
• month: means a calendar month, and the word "year" means a calendar year, unless otherwise expressed. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Multicare institution: means a hospital that provides outpatient behavioral health services or other health care services, psychiatric outpatient clinic for adults, free-standing facility for the care or treatment of substance abusive or dependent persons, hospital for psychiatric disabilities, as defined in §. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-490
• 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.
• Nonhospital based: means located at a site other than the main campus of the hospital. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-630
• nursing home facility: means (1) any chronic and convalescent nursing home or any rest home with nursing supervision that provides nursing supervision under a medical director twenty-four hours per day, or (2) any chronic and convalescent nursing home that provides skilled nursing care under medical supervision and direction to carry out nonsurgical treatment and dietary procedures for chronic diseases, convalescent stages, acute diseases or injuries. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-490
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• oath: shall include affirmations in cases where by law an affirmation may be used for an oath, and, in like cases, the word "swear" shall include the word "affirm". See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• 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.
• Office: means the Office of Early Childhood. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-420
• Office: means the Office of Health Strategy. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-630
• Ordinance: means an enactment under the provisions of §. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• Outpatient clinic: means an organization operated by a municipality or a corporation, other than a hospital, that provides (1) ambulatory medical care, including preventive and health promotion services, (2) dental care, or (3) mental health services in conjunction with medical or dental care for the purpose of diagnosing or treating a health condition that does not require the patient's overnight care. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-490
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Partner: means an identified spouse or sex partner of the protected individual or a person identified as having shared hypodermic needles or syringes with the protected individual. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-581
• 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 the state or any municipal agency, individual, partnership, association, organization, limited liability company or corporation. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-420
• Person: means any individual, partnership, corporation, limited liability company, firm, company, association, society or group. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-435
• Person: means any individual, firm, partnership, corporation, limited liability company or association. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-490
• Person: means any individual, partnership, corporation, limited liability company, association, governmental subdivision, agency or public or private organization of any character, but does not include the agency conducting the proceeding. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-630
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• 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.
• Power of attorney: A written instrument which authorizes one person to act as another's agent or attorney. The power of attorney may be for a definite, specific act, or it may be general in nature. The terms of the written power of attorney may specify when it will expire. If not, the power of attorney usually expires when the person granting it dies. ^{Source: OCC}
• President pro tempore: A constitutionally recognized officer of the Senate who presides over the chamber in the absence of the Vice President. The President Pro Tempore (or, "president for a time") is elected by the Senate and is, by custom, the Senator of the majority party with the longest record of continuous service.
• 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.
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Protected individual: means a person who has been counseled regarding HIV infection, is the subject of an HIV-related test or who has been diagnosed as having HIV infection, AIDS or HIV-related illness. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-581
• Psychiatric residential treatment facility: means a nonhospital facility with a provider agreement with the Department of Social Services to provide inpatient services to Medicaid-eligible individuals under the age of twenty-one. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-490
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• 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).
• rest home: means a community residence that furnishes, in single or multiple facilities, food and shelter to two or more persons unrelated to the proprietor and, in addition, provides services that meet a need beyond the basic provisions of food, shelter and laundry and may qualify as a setting that allows residents to receive home and community-based services funded by state and federal programs. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-490
• satellite unit: means a location where a segregated unit of services is provided by the multicare institution. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-490
• 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.
• Significant exposure: means a parenteral exposure such as a needlestick or cut, or mucous membrane exposure such as a splash to the eye or mouth, to blood or a cutaneous exposure involving large amounts of blood or prolonged contact with blood, especially when the exposed skin is chapped, abraded, or afflicted with dermatitis. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-581
• significant limitation in intellectual functioning: means an intelligence quotient more than two standard deviations below the mean as measured by tests of general intellectual functioning that are individualized, standardized and clinically and culturally appropriate to the individual. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1g
• Significant risk of transmission: means the transfer of one person's blood, semen, vaginal or cervical secretions to another person through sexual activity or sharing of needles during injection drug use. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-581
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• succeeding: when used by way of reference to any section or sections, mean the section or sections next preceding, next following or next succeeding, unless some other section is expressly designated in such reference. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Tenement house: means any house or building, or portion thereof, which is rented, leased, let or hired out to be occupied, or is arranged or designed to be occupied, or is occupied, as the home or residence of three or more families, living independently of each other, and doing their cooking upon the premises, and having a common right in the halls, stairways or yards. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-355
• Termination of services: means the cessation of any services for a period greater than one hundred eighty days. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-630
• Testator: A male person who leaves a will at death.
• 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.
• Transfer of ownership: means a transfer that impacts or changes the governance or controlling body of a health care facility, institution or large group practice, including, but not limited to, all affiliations, mergers or any sale or transfer of net assets of a health care facility. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-630
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Trust account: A general term that covers all types of accounts in a trust department, such as estates, guardianships, and agencies. ^{Source: OCC}
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Unit: means the Health Systems Planning Unit. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-630
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.
• Yard: means an open, unoccupied space, on the same lot with a tenement, lodging or boarding house, between the rear line of such house and the rear line of the lot. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-355
• Youth camp: means any regularly scheduled program or organized group activity advertised as a camp or operated only during school vacations or on weekends by a person, partnership, corporation, association, the state or a municipal agency for recreational or educational purposes and accommodating for profit or under philanthropic or charitable auspices five or more children, who are at least three years of age and under sixteen years of age, who are (A) not bona fide personal guests in the private home of an individual, and (B) living apart from their relatives, parents or legal guardian, for a period of three days or more per week or portions of three or more days per week, provided any such relative, parent or guardian who is an employee of such camp shall not be considered to be in the position of loco parentis to such employee's child for the purposes of this chapter, but does not include (i) classroom-based summer instructional programs operated by any person, provided no activities that may pose a health risk or hazard to participating children are conducted at such programs, (ii) public schools, or private schools in compliance with §. See Connecticut General Statutes 19a-420