Terms Used In Louisiana Codes > Civil Code > BOOK II > Title I - Things

• Allegation: something that someone says happened.
• Applicable payee: means the spouse, the tutor or custodian of the child, the court-approved fiduciary of the spouse or child, or the department in a FITAP case or in a non-FITAP case in which the department is rendering services as designated by the court to be the payee. See Louisiana Children's Code 1351
• 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
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• 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.
• 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}
• Birth certificate: means official documentation of the child's record of birth acceptable to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services and, if the document is not in English, a certified translation of the document. See Louisiana Children's Code 1281.3
• 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
• 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
• 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 and not emancipated by marriage. See Louisiana Children's Code 1169
• Child: means a person under the age of eighteen or an eighteen year old who is a full-time student in a secondary school and who is dependent on either parent. See Louisiana Children's Code 1351
• Child care agency: means any public or private agency exercising custody of a child. See Louisiana Children's Code 603
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• 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.
• Criminal neglect of family: means the desertion or intentional nonsupport by a spouse of his or her spouse who is in destitute or necessitous circumstances or by either parent of his minor child who is in destitute or necessitous circumstances. See Louisiana Children's Code 1351
• Cross examine: Questioning of a witness by the attorney for the other side.
• 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
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Dangerous to others: means the condition of a person whose behavior or significant threats support a reasonable expectation that there is a substantial risk that he will inflict physical harm upon another person in the near future. See Louisiana Children's Code 1404
• Dangerous to self: means the condition of a person whose behavior, significant threats, or inaction supports a reasonable expectation that there is a substantial risk that he will inflict physical or severe emotional harm upon his own person. See Louisiana Children's Code 1404
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• 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 1169
• Department: means the Department of Children and Family Services. See Louisiana Children's Code 1351
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Donee: The recipient of a gift.
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• 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.
• Family psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner: means an individual who maintains the credentials as such and meets the requirements of a "psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner" as provided in La. See Louisiana Children's Code 1404
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• FITAP: means the Family Independence Temporary Assistance Program. See Louisiana Children's Code 1351
• 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
• 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.
• Inter vivos: Transfer of property from one living person to another living person.
• Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
• Jurisprudence: The study of law and the structure of the legal system.
• Juror: A person who is on the jury.
• Legacy: A gift of property made by will.
• Legatee: A beneficiary of a decedent
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• 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
• 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

• 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
• Person with mental illness: means any person with a psychiatric disorder which has substantial adverse effects on his ability to function and who requires care and treatment. See Louisiana Children's Code 1404
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Psychologist: means an individual licensed to practice psychology in Louisiana in accordance with La. See Louisiana Children's Code 1404
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• 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
• 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
• 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.
• 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).
• Respondent: means a person alleged to be mentally ill or suffering from substance abuse and for whom an application for commitment to a treatment facility has been filed. See Louisiana Children's Code 1404
• Restraint: means the partial or total immobilization of any or all of the extremities or the torso by mechanical means for psychiatric indications. See Louisiana Children's Code 1404
• 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
• Seclusion: means the involuntary confinement of a patient alone in a room, which the patient is physically prevented from leaving, for any period of time, except that seclusion does not include the placement of a patient alone in a room or other area for no more than thirty minutes at a time and no more than three hours in any twenty-four hour time period pursuant to behavior-shaping techniques such as "time-out". See Louisiana Children's Code 1404
• 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.
• Spouse: shall mean a husband or wife. See Louisiana Children's Code 1351
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Testator: A male person who leaves a will at death.
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• True bill: Another word for indictment.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.
• 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."
• Voluntary transfer of custody: is a parent's knowing and voluntary relinquishment of legal custody to an agency, institution, or individual, subject to residual parental rights retained by the parent and under such terms and conditions that enable the child to receive adequate care and treatment. See Louisiana Children's Code 1511