Terms Used In Louisiana Revised Statutes > Title 49 > Chapter 21 - Reports

• Agency: means any of the following state departments:

              (a) Department of Children and Family Services. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 49:1402

• 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.
• 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
• 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.
• Board: means the Patient's Compensation Fund Oversight Board created in La. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1231.1
• Claimant: means a patient or representative or any person, including a decedent's estate, seeking or who has sought recovery of damages or future medical care and related benefits under this Part. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1231.1
• Claims manager: means the claims manager appointed and employed by the board pursuant to La. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1231.1
• Clerk of court: An officer appointed by the court to work with the chief judge in overseeing the court's administration, especially to assist in managing the flow of cases through the court and to maintain court records.
• 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.
• Court: means a court of competent jurisdiction and proper venue over the parties. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1231.1
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department service: means employment in the public service offered and performed separately by the fire or police department of the municipality, parish or fire protection district. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 33:2533
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Dismissal: The dropping of a case by the judge without further consideration or hearing. ^Source:
• Eligible: means a person whose name is on a list. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 33:2533
• 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.
• Executive director: means the executive director of the board, appointed and employed pursuant to La. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1231.1
• 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.
• Health care: means any act or treatment performed or furnished, or which should have been performed or furnished, by any health care provider for, to, or on behalf of a patient during the patient's medical care, treatment, or confinement, or during or relating to or in connection with the procurement of human blood or blood components. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1231.1
• Health care provider: means a person, partnership, limited liability partnership, limited liability company, corporation, facility, or institution licensed or certified by this state to provide health care or professional services as a physician, hospital, nursing home, community blood center, tissue bank, dentist, a licensed dietician or licensed nutritionist employed by, referred by, or performing work under contract for, a health care provider or other person already covered by this Part, registered or licensed practical nurse or certified nurse assistant, offshore health service provider, ambulance service under circumstances in which the provisions of La. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1231.1
• Insurer: means the authority or the entity chosen to manage the authority or an insurer writing policies of malpractice insurance. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1231.1
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Malpractice: means any unintentional tort or any breach of contract based on health care or professional services rendered, or which should have been rendered, by a health care provider, to a patient, including failure to render services timely and the handling of a patient, including loading and unloading of a patient, and also includes all legal responsibility of a health care provider arising from acts or omissions during the procurement of blood or blood components, in the training or supervision of health care providers, or from defects in blood, tissue, transplants, drugs, and medicines, or from defects in or failures of prosthetic devices implanted in or used on or in the person of a patient. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1231.1
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• 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.
• Patient: means a natural person, including a donor of human blood, a donor or prospective donor of an organ or tissue, or blood components and a nursing home resident who receives or should have received health care from a licensed health care provider, under contract, expressed or implied. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1231.1
• permanent employee: means an employee who has been appointed to a position in the classified service in accordance with this Part after completing his working test period. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 33:2533
• Physician: means a person with an unlimited license to practice medicine in this state. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1231.1
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Program: means any of the following:

              (a) Medicaid. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 49:1402

• Promotional seniority: means the total cumulative employment in a class of positions of the next lower class from which a promotion is to be made. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 33:2533
• Re-employment list: means an employment list for the entrance or lowest ranking class in the classified service, or any group of classes that may be grouped in the classification plan, containing names of regular employees who have been laid off under the "lay off" provisions of this Part. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 33:2533
• reinstatement list: means an employment list containing names of persons eligible for reinstatement in positions of a class from which they have been demoted for reasons other than disciplinary action. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 33:2533
• Representative: means the spouse, parent, guardian, trustee, attorney or other legal agent of the patient. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1231.1
• Risk: means any health care provider which shall apply for malpractice liability insurance coverage under the provisions of La. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1231.1
• Risk manager: means an insurance company with no less than an "A" rating according to the then current annual edition of Best's Insurance Reports or a domestic insurance company with assets in excess of ten million dollars chosen by the commissioner according to the public bid laws of the state, to manage the authority. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1231.1
• Seniority: means the following:

              (a) "Departmental seniority" means the total employment computed for an employee beginning with the last date on which he was regularly and permanently appointed and has worked continuously, to and including the date of computation. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 33:2533

• 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.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.