Terms Used In Louisiana Revised Statutes > Title 40 > Chapter 5-D > Subchapter E > Part I - Medical Malpractice

• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• Agency: means any of the following state departments:

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

• Allegation: something that someone says happened.
• Ambulance service: means an entity under circumstances in which the provisions of La. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1231.1
• 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.
• 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.
• Appointing authority: means any official, officer, board, commission, council or person having the power to make appointments to positions in the municipal, parish or fire protection district fire service. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 33:2533
• Appointment: means the designation of a person, by due authority, to become an employee in a position, and his induction into employment in the position. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 33:2533
• 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
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• 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
• Board: means the municipal, parish, or fire protection district fire and police civil service board. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 33:2533
• 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
• class of position: means a definitely recognized kind of employment in the classified service, designated to embrace positions that are so nearly alike in the essential character of their duties, responsibilities and consequent qualification requirements that they may fairly and equitably be treated alike under like conditions for all personnel purposes. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 33:2533
• Classification plan: means all the classes of positions established for the classified service. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 33:2533
• Classified service: means every appointive office and position of trust or employment in the municipal government, parish government, or fire protection district government which has as its primary duty one of the functions specifically set forth to be included in the classified service by the provisions of this Part; and excludes all elective and appointive offices and positions of trust or employment which have a primary duty specifically set forth to be included in the unclassified service by the provisions of this Part. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 33:2533
• 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.
• Community blood center: means any independent nonprofit nonhospital based facility which collects blood and blood products from donors primarily to supply blood and blood components to other health care facilities. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1231.1
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Demotion: means a change of an employee in the classified service from a position of one class to a position of a lower class which generally involves less responsibility and provides less pay. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 33:2533
• 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
• 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.
• 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:
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Eligible: means a person whose name is on a list. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 33:2533
• Employee: means a person legally occupying a position. 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.
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• 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.
• 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
• Hospital: means any hospital as defined in La. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1231.1
• 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.
• 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
• Interest rate: The amount paid by a borrower to a lender in exchange for the use of the lender's money for a certain period of time. Interest is paid on loans or on debt instruments, such as notes or bonds, either at regular intervals or as part of a lump sum payment when the issue matures. ^{Source: OCC}
• Interrogatories: Written questions asked by one party of an opposing party, who must answer them in writing under oath; a discovery device in a lawsuit.
• 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.
• 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.
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• lists: means a reinstatement employment list, a promotional employment list, a competitive employment list and a re-employment list. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 33:2533
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• 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
• Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• Offshore health service provider: means any individual or entity which provides any health care service rendered by an emergency medical technician-basic, or at the intermediate or paramedic levels, or one who is a registered nurse, when such medical care is rendered on a fixed platform in Louisiana territorial waters or on the Outer Continental Shelf, adjacent to Louisiana territorial waters, or any instance on the Outer Continental Shelf where the applicable law, under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, 43 U. 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
• person: includes a body of persons, whether incorporated or not. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 1:10
• 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.
• Position: means any office or employment in the municipal, parish or fire protection district, fire or police service, the duties of which call for services to be rendered by one person. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 33:2533
• Program: means any of the following:

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

• Promotion: means a change of an employee in the classified service from a position of one class to a position of a higher class which generally involves increased responsibilities and provides increased pay. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 33:2533
• 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.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Tissue bank: means any independent nonprofit facility procuring and processing human organs or tissues for transplantation, medical education, research, or therapy. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 40:1231.1
• 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.
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.