Terms Used In Delaware Code > Title 11 > Chapter 24 > Subchapter I - Electronic Surveillance and Interception of Communications

• Aggrieved person: means a person who was a party to any intercepted wire, oral or electronic communication or a person against whom the interception was directed. See Delaware Code Title 11 Sec. 2401
• 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.
• Aural transfer: means a transfer containing the human voice at any point between and including the point of origin and the point of reception. See Delaware Code Title 11 Sec. 2401
• Communication common carrier: means any person engaged as a common carrier for hire in the transmission of wire or electronic communications. See Delaware Code Title 11 Sec. 2401
• Contents: when used with respect to any wire, oral or electronic communication, includes any information concerning the identity of the parties to the communication or the existence or substance of that communication. See Delaware Code Title 11 Sec. 2401
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• 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.
• Electronic communication: means any transfer of signs, signals, writing, images, sounds, data or intelligence of any electromagnetic, photoelectronic or photooptical system. See Delaware Code Title 11 Sec. 2401
• Electronic communication service: means any service that provides to users of the service the ability to send or receive wire, oral or electronic communications. See Delaware Code Title 11 Sec. 2401
• Electronic communications system: means any wire, oral, radio, electromagnetic, photooptical or photoelectronic facilities for the transmission of wire, oral or electronic communications, and any computer facilities or related electronic equipment for the wire, oral or electronic storage of electronic communications. See Delaware Code Title 11 Sec. 2401
• Electronic storage: includes any storage of a wire, oral or electronic communication by an electronic communication service for purposes of backup protection of the communication. See Delaware Code Title 11 Sec. 2401
• Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Grand jury: agreement providing that a lender will delay exercising its rights (in the case of a mortgage,
• 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.
• Infant: means a person who has not reached the age of 18 years. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Intercept: means the aural or other acquisition of the contents of any wire, oral or electronic communication through the use of any electronic, mechanical or other device. See Delaware Code Title 11 Sec. 2401
• Investigative or law-enforcement officer: means any officer of this State or a political subdivision of this State, who is empowered by law to conduct investigations or to make arrests for offenses enumerated in this title, any sworn law-enforcement officer of the federal government or of any other state or a political subdivision of another state working with and under the direction of an investigative or law-enforcement officer of this State or a political subdivision of this State, or any attorney authorized by law to prosecute or participate in the prosecution of such offenses. See Delaware Code Title 11 Sec. 2401
• 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.
• Legatee: A beneficiary of a decedent
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Oath: includes affirmation in all cases where an affirmation may be substituted for an oath, and "sworn" includes affirmed; and the forms shall be varied accordingly. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• Oral communication: means any oral communication uttered by a person made while exhibiting an expectation that such communication is not subject to interception and under circumstances justifying such expectation, but such term does not include any electronic communication. See Delaware Code Title 11 Sec. 2401
• 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.
• Pen register: means a device that records and decodes electronic or other impulses that identify the numbers dialed or otherwise transmitted on the telephone line to which the device is attached. See Delaware Code Title 11 Sec. 2401
• Person: means any employee or agent of this State or a political subdivision thereof, or any individual, partnership, association, joint stock company, trust or corporation. See Delaware Code Title 11 Sec. 2401
• Person with a mental condition: includes every person with an emotional or psychiatric disorder or disability. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Readily accessible to the general public: means , with respect to a radio communication, that the communication is not:

  a. See Delaware Code Title 11 Sec. 2401

• State: means the State of Delaware; and when applied to different parts of the United States, it includes the District of Columbia and the several territories and possessions of the United States. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Trap and trace device: means a device that captures the incoming electronic or other impulses that identify the originating number of an instrument or device from which a wire or electronic communication was transmitted. See Delaware Code Title 11 Sec. 2401
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• United States: includes its territories and possessions and the District of Columbia. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
• User: means any person or entity that uses an electronic communication service and is duly authorized by the provider of the service to engage in that use. See Delaware Code Title 11 Sec. 2401
• Wire communication: means any aural transfer made in whole or in part through the use of facilities for the transmission of communications by the aid of wire, cable or other like connection between the point of origin and the point of reception (including the use of a connection in a switching station) furnished or operated by any person licensed to engage in providing or operating such facilities for the transmission of communications. See Delaware Code Title 11 Sec. 2401