Sections
Chapter 1 Filiation 178 – 179
Chapter 2 Filiation by Proof of Maternity or Paternity 184 – 198
Chapter 3 Filiation by Adoption 199 – 214
Chapter 5 Of Parental Authority 216 – 220
Chapter 5 Parental Authority of Married Persons 221 – 235
Chapter 6 Obligations of Children and Parents and Other Ascendants 236 – 245

Terms Used In Louisiana Codes > Civil Code > BOOK I > Title VII - Parent and Child

  • Abortion: means that procedure as defined in La. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
  • Abuse: means any one of the following acts that seriously endanger the physical, mental, or emotional health, welfare, and safety of the child:

                (a) The infliction, attempted infliction, or, as a result of inadequate supervision, the allowance of the infliction or attempted infliction of physical or mental injury upon the child by a parent or any other person. See Louisiana Children's Code 603

  • Abuse: means any of the following acts that seriously endanger the physical, mental, or emotional health, welfare, and safety of the child:

                (a) The infliction or attempted infliction, or, as a result of inadequate supervision, the allowance or toleration of the infliction or attempted infliction of physical or mental injury upon the child by a parent or any other person. See Louisiana Children's Code 1003

  • Acquittal:
    1. Judgement that a criminal defendant has not been proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
    2. A verdict of "not guilty."
     
  • Administrative review body: means a panel of appropriate persons, at least one of whom is not responsible for the case management of or delivery of services to either the child or the parents who are the subject of the review, including the citizen review boards, state hearing examiners, special department reviewers, or department personnel. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
  • Affected court: means any appellate, district, parish, city, municipal, traffic, juvenile, justice of the peace, or family court having jurisdiction over criminal prosecutions and proceedings for which the Louisiana Supreme Court has made a determination that the court shall conduct emergency sessions outside its parish or territorial jurisdiction as provided for by the provisions of this Title. See Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure 942
  • Agency: shall include the Department of Children and Family Services, the corresponding department of any other state, and those private agencies and institutions licensed for the placement of children for adoption by the Department of Children and Family Services or by the corresponding department of any other state. See Louisiana Children's Code 1003
  • Agency: includes the Department of Children and Family Services, the corresponding department of any other state, and those private agencies and institutions licensed for the placement of children for adoption by the Department of Children and Family Services or by the corresponding department of any other state. See Louisiana Children's Code 1103
  • 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.
  • Annuity: A periodic (usually annual) payment of a fixed sum of money for either the life of the recipient or for a fixed number of years. A series of payments under a contract from an insurance company, a trust company, or an individual. Annuity payments are made at regular intervals over a period of more than one full year.
  • Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
  • application for post conviction relief: means a petition filed by a person in custody after sentence following conviction for the commission of an offense seeking to have the conviction and sentence set aside. See Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure 924
  • Appraisal: A determination of property value.
  • 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
  • Arraignment: A proceeding in which an individual who is accused of committing a crime is brought into court, told of the charges, and asked to plead guilty or not guilty.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Birth certificate: means the child's official birth certificate or a true copy of a prefiled version of the birth certificate in the event the official birth certificate has not yet been issued. See Louisiana Children's Code 1103
  • Capital offense: A crime punishable by death.
  • Caretaker: means any person legally obligated to provide or secure adequate care for a child, including a parent, tutor, guardian, legal custodian, foster home parent, an employee or an operator of an early learning center as defined in La. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
  • Caretaker: means any person providing a residence for the child or any person legally obligated to provide or secure adequate care for the child, including a parent, tutor, guardian, or legal custodian. See Louisiana Children's Code 728
  • Case review hearing: means a review hearing by a court or administrative review body for the purpose of determining the continuing necessity for and appropriateness of the child's placement, to determine the extent of compliance with the case plan, to determine the extent of progress which has been made toward alleviating or mitigating the causes necessitating placement, and to project a likely date by which the child may be permanently placed. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
  • Caucus: From the Algonquian Indian language, a caucus meant "to meet together." An informal organization of members of the legislature that exists to discuss issues of mutual concern and possibly to perform legislative research and policy planning for its members. There are regional, political or ideological, ethnic, and economic-based caucuses.
  • Chambers: A judge's office.
  • 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.
  • Chief judge: The judge who has primary responsibility for the administration of a court but also decides cases; chief judges are determined by seniority.
  • Child: means a person under eighteen years of age who, prior to juvenile proceedings, has not been judicially emancipated under Civil Code Article 366 or emancipated by marriage under Civil Code Article 367. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
  • Child: means a person under eighteen years of age who, prior to proceedings under this Title, has not been judicially emancipated or emancipated by marriage. See Louisiana Children's Code 728
  • Child: means any person under the age of twenty-one, including an emancipated minor, who commits a delinquent act before attaining seventeen years of age. See Louisiana Children's Code 804
  • Child: means a person under eighteen years of age and not emancipated by marriage. See Louisiana Children's Code 1103
  • Child care agency: means any public or private agency exercising custody of a child. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
  • Child care institution: means a nonprofit, licensed private or public institution which accommodates no more than twenty-five children and which is not a detention facility, a forestry camp, a training school, or any other facility operated primarily for the detention of children who are determined to be delinquent. See Louisiana Children's Code 804
  • Child in need of care: means a child adjudicated as such under Title VI. See Louisiana Children's Code 1003
  • Child pornography: means visual depiction of a child engaged in actual or simulated sexual intercourse, deviate sexual intercourse, sexual bestiality, masturbation, sadomasochistic abuse, or lewd exhibition of the genitals. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
  • Circumstantial evidence: All evidence except eyewitness testimony.
  • Commercial sexual exploitation: means involvement of the child activity prohibited by the following statutes: La. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
  • Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
  • Concurrent planning: means departmental efforts to preserve and reunify a family, or to place a child for adoption or with a legal guardian which are made simultaneously. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
  • Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
  • Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
  • Court: means any court having jurisdiction over delinquent, neglected, or dependent children. See Louisiana Children's Code 1662
  • Court reporter: A person who makes a word-for-word record of what is said in court and produces a transcript of the proceedings upon request.
  • Crime against the child: shall include the commission of or the attempted commission of any of the following crimes against the child as provided by federal or state statutes:

                (a) Homicide. See Louisiana Children's Code 603

  • Custody: as used in this Title means detention or confinement as a result of or incidental to an instituted or anticipated criminal proceeding. See Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure 351
  • Custody: means detention or confinement, or probation or parole supervision, after sentence following conviction for the commission of an offense. See Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure 924
  • Decedent: A deceased person.
  • Delinquent act: means an act committed by a child of ten years of age or older which if committed by an adult is designated an offense under the statutes or ordinances of this state, or of another state if the offense occurred there, or under federal law, except traffic violations. See Louisiana Children's Code 804
  • Delinquent child: means a child who has committed a delinquent act. See Louisiana Children's Code 804
  • Department: means the Department of Children and Family Services. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
  • Department: means the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services. See Louisiana Children's Code 1003
  • Department: means the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services. See Louisiana Children's Code 1103
  • Department: means the Department of Children and Family Services. See Louisiana Children's Code 725.1
  • 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.
  • Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. Source:
  • DNA testing: means any method of testing and comparing deoxyribonucleic acid that would be admissible under the Louisiana Code of Evidence. See Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure 924
  • Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
  • Donee: The recipient of a gift.
  • Donor: The person who makes a gift.
  • Emergency sessions: means any criminal court proceeding conducted by an affected court as authorized by the provisions of this Title and by order of the Louisiana Supreme Court. See Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure 942
  • En banc: In the bench or "full bench." Refers to court sessions with the entire membership of a court participating rather than the usual quorum. U.S. courts of appeals usually sit in panels of three judges, but may expand to a larger number in certain cases. They are then said to be sitting en banc.
  • Enrolled bill: The final copy of a bill or joint resolution which has passed both chambers in identical form. It is printed on parchment paper, signed by appropriate officials, and submitted to the President/Governor for signature.
  • 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
  • Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
  • Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
  • Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
  • Expunge a record: means to remove a record of arrest or conviction, photographs, fingerprints, disposition, or any other information of any kind from public access pursuant to the provisions of this Title. See Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure 972
  • Extradition: The formal process of delivering an accused or convicted person from authorities in one state to authorities in another state.
  • Fair Credit Reporting Act: A federal law, established in 1971 and revised in 1997, that gives consumers the right to see their credit records and correct any mistakes. Source: OCC
  • 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.
  • Felony-grade delinquent act: means an offense that if committed by an adult, may be punished by death or by imprisonment at hard labor. See Louisiana Children's Code 804
  • Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
  • Firearm: means any pistol, revolver, rifle, shotgun, machine gun, submachine gun, black powder weapon, or assault rifle which is designed to fire or is capable of firing fixed cartridge ammunition or from which a shot or projectile is discharged by an explosive. See Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure 1001
  • 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
  • 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
  • Foster care: means placement in a foster family home, a relative's home, a residential child caring facility, or other living arrangement approved and supervised by the state for provision of substitute care for a child in the department's custody. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
  • Foster parent: means an individual who provides residential foster care with the approval and under the supervision of the department for a child in its custody. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
  • 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.
  • Grand jury: agreement providing that a lender will delay exercising its rights (in the case of a mortgage,
  • 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.
  • Host jurisdiction: means the location or locations in which the Louisiana Supreme Court has ordered the affected court to conduct emergency sessions. See Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure 942
  • 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.
  • In forma pauperis: In the manner of a pauper. Permission given to a person to sue without payment of court fees on claim of indigence or poverty.
  • 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
  • Indictment: The formal charge issued by a grand jury stating that there is enough evidence that the defendant committed the crime to justify having a trial; it is used primarily for felonies.
  • Insanity: means a mental disease or mental illness which renders the child incapable of distinguishing between right and wrong with reference to the conduct in question, as a result of which the child is exempt from criminal responsibility. See Louisiana Children's Code 804
  • Institutional abuse or neglect: means any case of child abuse or neglect that occurs in any public or private facility that provides residential child care, treatment, or education. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
  • Inter vivos: Transfer of property from one living person to another living person.
  • Interim expungement: means to expunge a felony arrest from the criminal history of a person who was convicted of a misdemeanor offense arising out of the original felony arrest. See Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure 972
  • Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
  • Juror: A person who is on the jury.
  • 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.
  • Legacy: A gift of property made by will.
  • Legatee: A beneficiary of a decedent
  • 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.
  • Mandatory reporter: is a ny of the following individuals:

                (a) "Health practitioner" is any individual who provides healthcare services, including a physician, surgeon, physical therapist, dentist, resident, intern, hospital staff member, an outpatient abortion facility staff member, podiatrist, chiropractor, licensed nurse, nursing aide, dental hygienist, any emergency medical technician, a paramedic, optometrist, medical examiner, or coroner, who diagnoses, examines, or treats a child or his family. See Louisiana Children's Code 603

  • Member of the clergy: is a ny priest, rabbi, duly ordained clerical deacon or minister, Christian Science practitioner, or other similarly situated functionary of a religious organization, except that he is not required to report a confidential communication, as defined in Code of Evidence Article 511, from a person to a member of the clergy who, in the course of the discipline or practice of that church, denomination, or organization, is authorized or accustomed to hearing confidential communications, and under the discipline or tenets of the church, denomination, or organization has a duty to keep such communications confidential. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
  • Mental deficiency: means significantly subaverage intellectual functioning existing concurrently with deficits in adaptive behavior, as determined by a psychiatrist or psychologist and manifested during the developmental period. See Louisiana Children's Code 1003
  • Mental illness: means a psychiatric disorder which has substantial adverse effects on the parent's ability to function and which requires care and treatment as determined by a psychiatrist or psychologist. See Louisiana Children's Code 1003
  • Mental incapacity to proceed: means that, as a result of mental illness or developmental disability, a child presently lacks the capacity to understand the nature of the proceedings against him or to assist in his defense. See Louisiana Children's Code 804
  • Misdemeanor-grade delinquent act: means any offense which if committed by an adult is other than a felony and includes the violation of an ordinance providing a penal sanction. See Louisiana Children's Code 804
  • Mistrial: An invalid trial, caused by fundamental error. When a mistrial is declared, the trial must start again from the selection of the jury.
  • National Bank: A bank that is subject to the supervision of the Comptroller of the Currency. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is a bureau of the U.S. Treasury Department. A national bank can be recognized because it must have "national" or "national association" in its name. Source: OCC
  • Neglect: means the refusal or unreasonable failure of a parent or caretaker to supply the child with necessary food, clothing, shelter, care, treatment, or counseling for any injury, illness, or condition of the child, as a result of which the child's physical, mental, or emotional health, welfare, and safety is substantially threatened or impaired. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
  • Neglect: means the refusal or failure of a parent or caretaker to supply the child with necessary food, clothing, shelter, care, treatment, or counseling for any injury, illness, or condition of the child, as a result of which the child's physical, mental, or emotional health, welfare, and safety is substantially threatened or impaired. See Louisiana Children's Code 1003
  • Newborn: means a child who is not more than thirty days old, as determined within a reasonable degree of medical certainty by an examining physician. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
  • 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.
  • nonmetropolitan area: means a parish whose largest city has a population of fifty thousand or less and where the population of the entire parish is less than one hundred thousand. See Louisiana Children's Code 301
  • Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
  • Other law enforcement agency: shall include any local or municipal police force, the constable, and state police. See Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure 1001
  • Other suitable individual: means a person with whom the child enjoys a close, established, significant relationship, yet not a blood relative, including a neighbor, godparent, teacher, or close friend of the parent. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
  • Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
  • Permanency hearing: means a hearing for the purpose of determining the permanent plan for the child. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
  • Permanent placement: means :

                (a) Return of the legal custody of a child to his parent or parents. See Louisiana Children's Code 603

  • Permanent placement: means either placement of the child with a legal guardian or placement of the child with adoptive parents pursuant to a final decree of adoption. See Louisiana Children's Code 1003
  • Person: means any individual, partnership, association, agency, or corporation, and specifically shall include city, parish, or state law enforcement agencies, and a parish or city school board or a person employed by a parish or city school board. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
  • Personal property: All property that is not real property.
  • Petit jury: A group of citizens who hear the evidence presented by both sides at trial and determine the facts in dispute. Federal criminal juries consist of 12 persons. Federal civil juries consist of six persons.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Preliminary hearing: A hearing where the judge decides whether there is enough evidence to make the defendant have a trial.
  • Prenatal neglect: means exposure to chronic or severe use of alcohol or the unlawful use of any controlled dangerous substance, as defined by La. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
  • Pro se: A Latin term meaning "on one's own behalf"; in courts, it refers to persons who present their own cases without lawyers.
  • 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.
  • Probation officers: Screen applicants for pretrial release and monitor convicted offenders released under court supervision.
  • Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
  • Protective capacity: means the cognitive, behavioral, and emotional knowledge, abilities, and practices that prevent or control threats of danger to children. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
  • Public defender: Represent defendants who can't afford an attorney in criminal matters.
  • Putative father registry: means the Louisiana putative father registry established in Part I-C of Chapter 1 of Code Title VII of Code Book I of Title 9 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes of 1950, comprised of La. See Louisiana Children's Code 1103
  • 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.
  • Reasonable efforts: means the exercise of ordinary diligence and care by the department throughout the pendency of a case pursuant to the obligations imposed on the state by federal and state law to provide services and supports designed and intended to prevent or eliminate the need for removing a child from the child's home, to reunite families after separation, and to achieve safe permanency for children. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
  • Recess: A temporary interruption of the legislative business.
  • Records: includes any incident reports, photographs, fingerprints, disposition, or any other such information of any kind in relation to a single arrest event in the possession of the clerk of court, any criminal justice agency, and local and state law enforcement agencies but shall not include DNA records. See Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure 972
  • Recourse: An arrangement in which a bank retains, in form or in substance, any credit risk directly or indirectly associated with an asset it has sold (in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles) that exceeds a pro rata share of the bank's claim on the asset. If a bank has no claim on an asset it has sold, then the retention of any credit risk is recourse. Source: FDIC
  • Relative: means an individual with whom the child has established a significant relationship by blood, adoption, or affinity. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
  • Removal: means placing a child in the custody of the state or with someone other than the parent or caretaker during or after the course of an investigation of abuse and neglect to secure the child's health, welfare, and safety. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
  • 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).
  • 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.
  • Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
  • restrictive care facility: means a public or private licensed or unlicensed child care facility, group home, emergency shelter facility, maternity home, psychiatric hospital, or a psychiatric unit located in a state-owned or state-contracted general hospital. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
  • Rule: means a written statement by the Interstate Commission promulgated pursuant to Article 1666 of this compact that is of general applicability, implements, interprets or prescribes a policy or provision of the compact, or an organizational, procedural, or practice requirement of the commission, and has the force and effect of statutory law in a compacting state, and includes the amendment, repeal, or suspension or an existing rule. See Louisiana Children's Code 1662
  • Runaway: means the continued absence of the child from the home of his caretaker without the caretaker's consent. See Louisiana Children's Code 728
  • Safe house: means a residential facility or a shelter care facility operated by an authorized agency, including a nonprofit agency, with experience in providing services to sexually exploited children and approved by the department to provide shelter for sexually exploited children. See Louisiana Children's Code 725.1
  • Safety plan: means a plan for the purpose of assuring a child's health, welfare, and safety by imposing conditions for the child to safely remain in the home, or, after a child has been removed from the home, for the continued placement of the child with a custodian and terms for contact between the child and the child's parents or other persons. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
  • Sequester: To separate. Sometimes juries are sequestered from outside influences during their deliberations.
  • 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.
  • Sexually exploited child: means any person under the age of eighteen who has been subject to sexual exploitation because the person either:

                (a) Is a victim of trafficking of children for sexual purposes under La. See Louisiana Children's Code 725.1

  • Sheriff: means the sheriff of the jurisdiction in which the order was issued, unless the person resides outside of the jurisdiction in which the order is issued. See Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure 1001
  • Starvation: means mistreatment causing suffering from extreme hunger or malnourishment. See Louisiana Children's Code 1003
  • State: means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia or its designee, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Marianas Islands. See Louisiana Children's Code 1662
  • Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
  • Subpoena duces tecum: A command to a witness to produce documents.
  • Teaching or child care provider: is a ny person who provides or assists in the teaching, training, and supervision of a child, including any public or private teacher, teacher's aide, instructional aide, school principal, school staff member, bus driver, coach, professor, technical or vocational instructor, technical or vocational school staff member, college or university administrator, college or university staff member, social worker, probation officer, foster home parent, group home or other child care institutional staff member, personnel of residential home facilities, a licensed or unlicensed day care provider, or any individual who provides such services to a child in a voluntary or professional capacity. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
  • 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.
  • Testate: To die leaving a will.
  • Testator: A male person who leaves a will at death.
  • Testify: Answer questions in court.
  • 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.
  • Torture: means torment, maiming, mutilation, or ritualistic or malicious acts causing extreme and unjustifiable physical or mental pain or suffering, disfigurement, or injury. See Louisiana Children's Code 1003
  • 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 jury: A group of citizens who hear the evidence presented by both sides at trial and determine the facts in dispute. Federal criminal juries consist of 12 persons. Federal civil juries consist of six persons.
  • Truant: means the repeated or habitual unauthorized absence or tardiness of a child from school pursuant to the provisions of La. See Louisiana Children's Code 728
  • True bill: Another word for indictment.
  • Ungovernable: means the child's habitual disregard of the lawful and reasonable demands of his caretakers and that the child is beyond their control. See Louisiana Children's Code 728
  • Unknown sample: means a biological sample from an unknown donor constituting evidence of the commission of an offense or tending to prove the identity of the perpetrator of an offense. See Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure 924
  • Uphold: The decision of an appellate court not to reverse a lower court decision.
  • Usury: Charging an illegally high interest rate on a loan. Source: OCC
  • Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
  • Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.
  • Victim advocate: work with prosecutors and assist the victims of a crime.
  • Victim Impact Statement: A written or spoken statement by the victim or his or her representative about the physical, emotional, and financial impact of a crime on the victim. The statement is given to the court before sentencing.
  • Voir dire: The process by which judges and lawyers select a petit jury from among those eligible to serve, by questioning them to determine knowledge of the facts of the case and a willingness to decide the case only on the evidence presented in court. "Voir dire" is a phrase meaning "to speak the truth."
  • Vulnerable: means the inability to protect oneself from identified threats of danger. See Louisiana Children's Code 603