Terms Used In Montana Code > Title 5 > Chapter 12 - Legislative Finance and Data Analytics Act

• Adjourn: A motion to adjourn a legislative chamber or a committee, if passed, ends that day's session.
• Adoptee: means an adopted person or a person who is the subject of adoption proceedings that are intended to result in the adoptee becoming the legal child of another person. See Montana Code 42-1-103
• Adoption: means the act of creating the legal relationship between parent and child when it does not exist genetically. See Montana Code 42-1-103
• Adoptive parent: means an adult who has become the mother or father of a child through the legal process of adoption. See Montana Code 42-1-103
• 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.
• Affidavit: means a sworn written declaration made before an officer authorized to administer oaths or an unsworn written declaration made under penalty of perjury as provided in 1-6-105. See Montana Code 1-1-203
• Agency: means an office, position, commission, committee, board, department, council, division, bureau, section, or any other entity or instrumentality of the executive branch of state government. See Montana Code 2-15-102
• Agency: means a child placement agency licensed by the state of Montana pursuant to Title 52, chapter 8, that is expressly empowered to place children preliminary to a possible adoption. See Montana Code 42-1-103
• 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.
• 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.
• Attendant care: means the direct supervision of youth by a trained attendant in a physically unrestricting setting. See Montana Code 41-5-1901
• 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.
• Birth parent: means the woman who gave birth to the child or the father of genetic origin of the child. See Montana Code 42-1-103
• Board: means the board of crime control provided for in 2-15-2008. See Montana Code 41-5-1901
• Chambers: A judge's office.
• Child: includes an unborn child. See Montana Code 42-2-201
• Child: means any person under 18 years of age. See Montana Code 42-1-103
• Committee on committees: Committees formed in each party conference and responsible for nominating the party's Senators to committee membership and committee leadership positions. Nominations are subject to approval by the full party conference and to a formal vote of the Senate.
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Confidential intermediary: means a person certified by the department and under contract with or employed by a nonprofit entity with expertise in adoption. See Montana Code 42-1-103
• County: means a county, city-county consolidated government, or a youth detention region created pursuant to 41-5-1805. See Montana Code 41-5-1901
• Court: means a court of record in a competent jurisdiction and in Montana means a district court or a tribal court. See Montana Code 42-1-103
• Customary: means according to usage. See Montana Code 1-1-206
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Defense attorney: Represent defendants in criminal matters.
• Department: means a principal functional and administrative entity that:

  (a)is created by this chapter within the executive branch of state government;

  (b)is one of the 20 principal departments permitted under the constitution; and

  (c)includes its units. See Montana Code 2-15-102

• Department: means the department of public health and human services, provided for in 2-15-2201. See Montana Code 42-1-103
• Department head: means a director, commission, board, commissioner, or constitutional officer in charge of a department created by this chapter. See Montana Code 2-15-102
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Direct parental placement adoption: means an adoption in which the parent of the child places the child with a prospective adoptive parent personally known and selected by the parent independent of an agency. See Montana Code 42-1-103
• Director: means a department head specifically referred to as a director in this chapter and does not mean a commission, board, commissioner, or constitutional officer. See Montana Code 2-15-102
• 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:
• 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}
• 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.
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• 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.
• 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.
• Home detention: means the use of a youth's home for the purpose of ensuring the continued custody of the youth pending adjudication or final disposition of the youth's case. See Montana Code 41-5-1901
• 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.
• Joint committee: Committees including membership from both houses of teh legislature. Joint committees are usually established with narrow jurisdictions and normally lack authority to report legislation.
• Knowingly: means only a knowledge that the facts exist which bring the act or omission within the provisions of this code. See Montana Code 1-1-204
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Majority leader: see Floor Leaders
• Majority leader: means the leader of the majority party, elected by the caucus as provided in 5-2-221. See Montana Code 1-1-208
• Majority party: means the party with the most members in a house of the legislature, subject to subsection (2). See Montana Code 1-1-208
• Minority leader: See Floor Leaders
• Minority leader: means the leader of the minority party, elected by the caucus as provided in 5-2-221. See Montana Code 1-1-208
• Minority party: means the party with the second most members in a house of the legislature, subject to subsection (2). See Montana Code 1-1-208
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Parent: means the birth or adoptive mother or the birth, adoptive, or legal father whose parental rights have not been terminated. See Montana Code 42-1-103
• Plan: means a county plan for providing youth detention services as required in 41-5-1903. See Montana Code 41-5-1901
• Preplacement evaluation: means the home study process conducted by the department or a licensed child-placing agency that:

  (a)assists a prospective adoptive parent or family to assess its own readiness to adopt; and

  (b)assesses whether the prospective adoptive parent or family and home meet applicable standards. See Montana Code 42-1-103

• Presiding officer: A majority-party Senator who presides over the Senate and is charged with maintaining order and decorum, recognizing Members to speak, and interpreting the Senate's rules, practices and precedents.
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• Process: means a writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings. See Montana Code 1-1-202
• Public defender: Represent defendants who can't afford an attorney in criminal matters.
• Putative father: means an individual who may be a child's birth father but who:

  (i)is not married to the child's mother on or before the date that the child is born; or

  (ii)has not established paternity of the child prior to the filing of a petition for termination of parental rights to the child for purposes of adoption. See Montana Code 42-2-201

• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Records: means all documents, exhibits, and data pertaining to an adoption. See Montana Code 42-1-103
• Registry: means the putative father registry established under 42-2-202. See Montana Code 42-2-201
• Relinquishment: means the informed and voluntary release in writing of all parental rights with respect to a child by a parent to an agency or individual. See Montana Code 42-1-103
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• Secure detention: means the detention of youth in a physically restricting facility designed to prevent a youth from departing at will. See Montana Code 41-5-1901
• 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.
• Sex: means the organization of the body parts and gametes for reproduction in human beings and other organisms. See Montana Code 1-1-201
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• 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: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Usual: means according to usage. See Montana Code 1-1-206
• Willfully: when applied to the intent with which an act is done or omitted, means a purpose or willingness to commit the act or make the omission referred to. See Montana Code 1-1-204
• Writing: includes printing. See Montana Code 1-1-203