Terms Used In Iowa Code > Chapter 808B - Interception of Communications

• Aggrieved person: means a person who was a party to an intercepted wire, oral, or electronic communication or a person against whom the interception was directed. See Iowa Code 808B.1
• 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.
• Contents: when used with respect to a wire, oral, or electronic communication, includes any information concerning the identity of the parties to the communication or the existence, substance, purpose, or meaning of that communication. See Iowa Code 808B.1
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• Court: means a district court in this state. See Iowa Code 808B.1
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Electronic communication: means any transfer of signals, signs, writing, images, sounds, data, or intelligence of any nature transmitted in whole or in part by a wire, radio, electromagnetic, photoelectronic or photooptical system that affects intrastate, interstate, or foreign commerce, but excludes the following:
   a. See Iowa Code 808B.1
• 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.
• following: when used by way of reference to a chapter or other part of a statute mean the next preceding or next following chapter or other part. See Iowa Code 4.1
• Grand jury: agreement providing that a lender will delay exercising its rights (in the case of a mortgage,
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• interception: means the aural acquisition of the contents of a wire, oral, or electronic communication through the use of an electronic, mechanical, or other device. See Iowa Code 808B.1
• Investigative or law enforcement officer: means a peace officer of this state or one of its political subdivisions or of the United States who is empowered by law to conduct investigations of or to make arrests for criminal offenses, the attorney general, or a county attorney authorized by law to prosecute or participate in the prosecution of criminal offenses. See Iowa Code 808B.1
• Judicial officer: means a supreme court justice, a judge of the court of appeals, a district judge, a district associate judge, an associate juvenile judge, an associate probate judge, or a magistrate. See Iowa Code 4.1
• 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.
• 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 in like cases the word "swear" includes "affirm". See Iowa Code 4.1
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• Oral communication: means an oral communication uttered by a person exhibiting an expectation that the communication is not subject to interception, under circumstances justifying that expectation. See Iowa Code 808B.1
• Pen register: means a device or process which records or decodes dialing, routing, addressing, or signaling information, but not the contents of the communication, transmitted by an instrument or facility from which a wire or electronic communication is transmitted. See Iowa Code 808B.1
• person: means individual, corporation, limited liability company, government or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership or association, or any other legal entity. See Iowa Code 4.1
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• property: includes personal and real property. See Iowa Code 4.1
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• real property: include lands, tenements, hereditaments, and all rights thereto and interests therein, equitable as well as legal. See Iowa Code 4.1
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• seal: shall include an impression upon the paper alone, or upon wax, a wafer affixed to the paper, or an official stamp of a notarial officer as provided in chapter 9B. See Iowa Code 4.1
• Special state agent: means a sworn peace officer member of the department of public safety. See Iowa Code 808B.1
• state: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories, and the words "United States" may include the said district and territories. See Iowa Code 4.1
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Trap and trace device: means a device or process which captures the incoming electronic or other impulses which identify the originating number or other dialing, routing, addressing, and signaling information reasonably likely to identify the source of a wire or electronic communication, but does not capture the contents of any communication. See Iowa Code 808B.1
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• United States: includes all the states. See Iowa Code 4.1
• 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 such connection in a switching station, furnished or operated by any person engaged in providing or operating such facilities for the transmission of interstate or foreign communications or communications affecting interstate or foreign commerce. See Iowa Code 808B.1
• year: means twelve consecutive months. See Iowa Code 4.1