Terms Used In New York Laws > County > Article 24

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
• 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.
• capital costs: means the costs of a local government, a voluntary agency, or the facilities development corporation with respect to the acquisition of real property estates, interests, and cooperative interests in realty, their design, construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation and improvement, original furnishings and equipment, site development, and appurtenances of a local facility. See N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law 41.03
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• director: means the director of community services, who is the chief executive officer of a local governmental unit, by whatever title known. See N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law 41.03
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• 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.
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• 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.
• Habeas corpus: A writ that is usually used to bring a prisoner before the court to determine the legality of his imprisonment. It may also be used to bring a person in custody before the court to give testimony, or to be prosecuted.
• 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.
• Juror: A person who is on the jury.
• 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.
• local facility: means a facility offering local services and includes a community mental health and developmental disabilities facility as defined in section three of the facilities development corporation act and, for the purposes of this article, a mental hygiene facility, as defined in said section, to be made available for use in providing local services under lease, sublease, license or permit from the facilities development corporation to one or more local governmental units or to a voluntary agency at the request of a commissioner of an office in the department. See N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law 41.03
• local government: means a county, except a county within the city of New York, and the city of New York. See N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law 41.03
• local governmental unit: means the unit of local government given authority in accordance with this chapter by local government to provide local services. See N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law 41.03
• local services: includes services for individuals with mental illness or developmental disabilities whose conditions, including but not limited to cerebral palsy and epilepsy, are associated with mental disabilities, and those suffering from alcoholism, alcohol abuse, substance abuse or substance dependence, which are provided by a local government or by a voluntary agency pursuant to a contract with a local governmental unit or the office of mental health. See N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law 41.03
• local services plan: means the plan of local services which is submitted by a local governmental unit and approved by the commissioner pursuant to section 41. See N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law 41.03
• Misdemeanor: Usually a petty offense, a less serious crime than a felony, punishable by less than a year of confinement.
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• net operating costs: means operating costs from which have been deducted the following:

  (a) revenues for operating costs received from other state agencies or another local government pursuant to an agreement to purchase local services. See N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law 41.03

• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• 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.
• operating costs: means expenditures, excluding capital costs, incurred in the operation and maintenance of the community mental health, developmental disabilities, and alcoholism services board and of local facilities in accordance with this article and the regulations of the commissioner, by a local government or by a voluntary agency pursuant to a contract with a local governmental unit. See N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law 41.03
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• 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.
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• 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.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.
• voluntary agency: means a corporation organized or existing pursuant to the not-for-profit corporation law for the purpose of providing local services. See N.Y. Mental Hygiene Law 41.03
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.