As used in this chapter, unless the context or subject matter otherwise requires:

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Terms Used In North Dakota Code 54-23.4-01

  • 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
  • Dependent: A person dependent for support upon 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.
  • Person: means an individual, organization, government, political subdivision, or government agency or instrumentality. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
  • Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
  • United States: includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49

1.    “Bodily injury” means any harm that requires medical treatment and results in economic loss and includes pregnancy and nervous shock.

2.    “Claimant” means a victim, a dependent of a deceased victim, or a representative of either, who claims compensation under this chapter.

3.    “Collateral source” means a source of benefits or advantages for economic loss otherwise reparable under this chapter which the claimant has received, or which is readily available to the claimant. The first twenty-five thousand dollars of a life insurance policy are not a collateral source if they are payable to a dependent beneficiary or to a parent, legal guardian, or conservator of a dependent victim.

4.    “Criminally injurious conduct” means conduct that results in bodily injury or death, and is punishable by fine, imprisonment, or death, or would be so punishable but for the fact that the person engaging in the conduct was a minor or lacked capacity to commit the crime. The term includes an act of terrorism, as defined under Public Law No. 102-572 [106 Stat. 4506; 18 U.S.C. § 2331], committed outside of the United States against a resident of this state. The term does not include conduct arising out of the ownership, maintenance, or use of a motor vehicle except when intended to cause personal injury or death or when the division determines that the conduct was in violation of section 12.1-16-02, 12.1-16-03, 39-08-01, 39-08-03, 39-08-04, or 39-08-06.

5.    “Dependent” means a natural person wholly or partially dependent upon a victim for care or support and includes a child of a victim born after the victim’s death.

6.    “Division” means the division of adult services of the department of corrections and rehabilitation.

7.    “Economic loss” means economic detriment consisting only of allowable expense, work loss, replacement services loss, and, if injury causes death, dependent’s economic loss and dependent’s replacement services loss. Noneconomic detriment is not loss. The term includes economic detriment caused by pain and suffering or physical impairment.

a.    “Allowable expense” means reasonable charges incurred for reasonably needed products, services, and accommodations required due to the injury, including those for medical care, rehabilitation, rehabilitative occupational training, and other remedial treatment and care. The term includes a total charge not in excess of five thousand dollars for expenses in any way related to funeral, cremation, and burial. The term does not include that portion of a charge for a room in a hospital, clinic, convalescent or nursing home, or any other institution engaged in providing nursing care and related services, in excess of a reasonable and customary charge for semiprivate accommodations, unless the excess represents costs of other accommodations that are medically required.

b.    “Dependent’s economic loss” means loss after a victim’s death of contributions of things of economic value to a victim’s dependent, not including services the dependent would have received from the victim if the victim had not suffered the fatal injury, less expenses of the dependent avoided by reason of the victim’s death.

c.    “Dependent’s replacement services loss” means loss reasonably incurred by a dependent after a victim’s death in obtaining ordinary and necessary services in lieu of those the victim would have performed for the dependent’s benefit if the victim had not suffered the fatal injury, less expenses of the dependent avoided by reason of the victim’s death and not subtracted in calculating the dependent’s economic loss.

d.    “Noneconomic detriment” means pain, suffering, inconvenience, physical impairment, and other nonpecuniary damage.

e.    “Replacement services loss” means expenses reasonably incurred in obtaining ordinary and necessary services in lieu of those the victim would have performed, not for income but for the benefit of the victim or the victim’s family, if the victim had not been injured.

f.    “Work loss” means loss of income from work the victim would have performed if the victim had not been injured, and expenses reasonably incurred by the victim in obtaining services in lieu of those the victim would have performed for income, reduced by any income from substitute work actually performed by the victim or by income the victim would have earned in available appropriate substitute work the victim was capable of performing but unreasonably failed to undertake.

8.    “Victim” means a person who suffers bodily injury or death as a result of criminally injurious conduct, the good-faith effort of any person to prevent criminally injurious conduct, or the good-faith effort of any person to apprehend a person suspected of engaging in criminally injurious conduct. The term includes a resident of this state who is injured or killed by an act of terrorism, as defined under Public Law No. 102-572 [106 Stat. 4506; 18 U.S.C. § 2331], committed outside of the United States. The term does not mean a person who suffers bodily injury or death as a result of operating a motor vehicle, when, at the time of the injury or death, the person was not in compliance with applicable state laws and rules concerning motor vehicle insurance coverage and the person was at least partially at fault for causing the accident.