Terms Used In Oregon Statutes > Chapter 181A > Public Safety Standards and Training

• Actuarially sound: means funding and insurance sufficient to pay those losses and their related costs which are known or are projected by the Oregon Department of Administrative Services from analyses of claims, loss experience and risk factors. See Oregon Statutes 278.005
• Adjourn: A motion to adjourn a legislative chamber or a committee, if passed, ends that day's session.
• 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.
• Affirmed: In the practice of the appellate courts, the decree or order is declared valid and will stand as rendered in the lower court.
• agency: means each state branch, institution, department, board, commission or activity of whatever nature. See Oregon Statutes 278.005
• Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
• Any other state: includes any state and the District of Columbia. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
• Appellate: About appeals; an appellate court has the power to review the judgement of another lower court or tribunal.
• Appraisal: A determination of property value.
• 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
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Articles of incorporation: means the articles described in ORS § 60. See Oregon Statutes 60.001
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Attorney-in-fact: A person who, acting as an agent, is given written authorization by another person to transact business for him (her) out of court.
• 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.
• 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.
• Baseline: Projection of the receipts, outlays, and other budget amounts that would ensue in the future without any change in existing policy. Baseline projections are used to gauge the extent to which proposed legislation, if enacted into law, would alter current spending and revenue levels.
• 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}
• Board: means the State Land Board. See Oregon Statutes 273.006
• Board: means the board of education of a community college district. See Oregon Statutes 341.005
• Chambers: A judge's office.
• City: includes any incorporated village or town. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
• Common law: The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on judicial decisions rather than legislative action.
• community college: means a public institution operated by a community college district for the purposes of providing courses of study limited to not more than two years' full-time attendance and designed to meet the needs of a geographical area by providing educational services, including but not limited to career and technical education programs or lower division collegiate programs. See Oregon Statutes 341.005
• Community college district: includes a community college service district. See Oregon Statutes 341.005
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• 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.
• county court: includes board of county commissioners. See Oregon Statutes 202.010
• County court: includes board of county commissioners. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
• Data: means information previously converted to language or symbols in a form which can be directly read by the information processing equipment. See Oregon Statutes 278.005
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the Department of State Lands. See Oregon Statutes 273.006
• Department: means the Department of State Lands. See Oregon Statutes 274.005
• Department: means the Oregon Department of Administrative Services. See Oregon Statutes 276.001
• Department: means the Oregon Department of Administrative Services. See Oregon Statutes 278.005
• Director: means the Director of the Department of State Lands. See Oregon Statutes 273.006
• Director: means the Director of the Department of State Lands. See Oregon Statutes 274.005
• Director: means the Director of the Oregon Department of Administrative Services. See Oregon Statutes 276.001
• Director: means the Director of the Office of Community Colleges and Workforce Development appointed under ORS § 350. See Oregon Statutes 341.005
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• district: means a district formed under this chapter to operate one or more community colleges or to secure educational services available at a community college. See Oregon Statutes 341.005
• Donee: The recipient of a gift.
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Electronic transmission: means a form or process of communication that does not directly involve physically transferring paper or another tangible medium and that enables a recipient to retain, retrieve and reproduce information by means of an automated process that is used in conventional commercial practice, except as provided in ORS § 60. See Oregon Statutes 60.001
• Engineering specifications: means those records which provide detailed documentation of the construction, wiring, arrangement and related engineering details of the information processing equipment. See Oregon Statutes 278.005
• Entity: means a corporation, foreign corporation, nonprofit corporation, profit or nonprofit unincorporated association, business trust, partnership, two or more persons that have a joint or common economic interest, any state, the United States, a federally recognized Native American or American Indian tribal government and any foreign government. See Oregon Statutes 60.001
• 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}
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• executive department: means all statewide elected officers other than judges, and all boards, commissions, departments, divisions and other entities, without regard to the designation given to those entities, that are within the executive branch of government as described in Article III, section 1, of the Oregon Constitution, and that are not:

  (a) In the judicial department or the legislative department;

  (b) Local governments; or

  (c) Special government bodies. See Oregon Statutes 174.112

• Executive session: A portion of the Senate's daily session in which it considers executive business.
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• Extradition: The formal process of delivering an accused or convicted person from authorities in one state to authorities in another state.
• Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. ^{Source: OCC}
• Foreign corporation: means a corporation for profit that is incorporated under laws other than the laws of the state. See Oregon Statutes 60.001
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Gender identity: means an individual's gender-related identity, appearance, expression or behavior, regardless of whether the identity, appearance, expression or behavior differs from that associated with the gender assigned to the individual at birth. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Grand jury: agreement providing that a lender will delay exercising its rights (in the case of a mortgage,
• Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
• Indemnification: In general, a collateral contract or assurance under which one person agrees to secure another person against either anticipated financial losses or potential adverse legal consequences. ^{Source: FDIC}
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• 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.
• Joint resolution: A legislative measure which requires the approval of both chambers.
• Joint tenancy: A form of property ownership in which two or more parties hold an undivided interest in the same property that was conveyed under the same instrument at the same time. A joint tenant can sell his (her) interest but not dispose of it by will. Upon the death of a joint tenant, his (her) undivided interest is distributed among the surviving joint tenants.
• judicial department: means the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, the Oregon Tax Court, the circuit courts and all administrative divisions of those courts, whether denominated as boards, commissions, committees or departments or by any other designation. See Oregon Statutes 174.113
• Land: includes water, water rights, easements of every nature and all appurtenances to land. See Oregon Statutes 273.006
• Land: includes water, water rights, easements of every nature and all appurtenances to land. See Oregon Statutes 274.005
• 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}
• legislative department: means the Legislative Assembly, the committees of the Legislative Assembly and all administrative divisions of the Legislative Assembly and its committees, whether denominated as boards, commissions or departments or by any other designation. See Oregon Statutes 174.114
• Legislative session: That part of a chamber's daily session in which it considers legislative business (bills, resolutions, and actions related thereto).
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Life estate: A property interest limited in duration to the life of the individual holding the interest (life tenant).
• Line of ordinary high water: means the line on the bank or shore to which the high water ordinarily rises annually in season. See Oregon Statutes 274.005
• Line of ordinary low water: means the line on the bank or shore to which the low water ordinarily recedes annually in season. See Oregon Statutes 274.005
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Material: includes gravel, rock, sand and silt, but does not include hard minerals subject to ORS § 274. See Oregon Statutes 273.006
• Material: includes gravel, rock, sand and silt, but does not include hard minerals subject to ORS § 274. See Oregon Statutes 274.005
• Media: means all active information processing material including all forms of data, program material and related engineering specifications employed in the agency's information processing operation except property which the agency elects not to cover. See Oregon Statutes 278.005
• Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
• Nolo contendere: No contest-has the same effect as a plea of guilty, as far as the criminal sentence is concerned, but may not be considered as an admission of guilt for any other purpose.
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• Oral argument: An opportunity for lawyers to summarize their position before the court and also to answer the judges' questions.
• 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.
• Person: means an individual or entity. See Oregon Statutes 60.001
• person with a disability: means any person who:

  (a) Has a physical or mental impairment which substantially limits one or more major life activities;

  (b) Has a record of such an impairment; or

  (c) Is regarded as having such an impairment. See Oregon Statutes 174.107

• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Personal property: means tangible personal property owned, leased, controlled or possessed by a state agency and includes all chattels and movables, such as merchandise, furniture, goods, livestock, vehicles, aircraft, movable machinery, movable tools, movable equipment, general operating supplies and media. See Oregon Statutes 278.005
• Plea: In a criminal case, the defendant's statement pleading "guilty" or "not guilty" in answer to the charges, a declaration made in open court.
• Pleadings: Written statements of the parties in a civil case of their positions. In the federal courts, the principal pleadings are the complaint and the answer.
• Principal county: means the county in which the chief administrative officer of the community college district maintains the administrative office. See Oregon Statutes 341.005
• Principal office: means the physical street address of an office, in or out of this state, where the principal executive offices of a domestic or foreign corporation are located and designated in the annual report or in the application for authority to transact business in this state. See Oregon Statutes 60.001
• 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.
• Probation officers: Screen applicants for pretrial release and monitor convicted offenders released under court supervision.
• Proceeding: means a civil, criminal, administrative or investigatory action. See Oregon Statutes 60.001
• Program material: means stored data used to direct the information processing equipment as to which input or memory to use, how to use it, and the type of results to obtain, including any diagrams or other records which can be used to reproduce such instructions. See Oregon Statutes 278.005
• Property: means real and personal property as defined in this section, and any other property under the control of the state in which the state has an insurable interest as determined by the department. See Oregon Statutes 278.005
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• public body: means state government bodies, local government bodies and special government bodies. See Oregon Statutes 174.109
• Public land: means any land or improvements thereon owned by the State of Oregon or any agency thereof. See Oregon Statutes 273.006
• public notice: means any legal publication which requires an affidavit of publication as required in ORS § 193. See Oregon Statutes 174.104
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Record date: means the date established under this chapter on which a corporation determines the identity of the corporation's shareholders and their shareholdings for purposes of this chapter. See Oregon Statutes 60.001
• 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.
• Remand: When an appellate court sends a case back to a lower court for further proceedings.
• Rescission: The cancellation of budget authority previously provided by Congress. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 specifies that the President may propose to Congress that funds be rescinded. If both Houses have not approved a rescission proposal (by passing legislation) within 45 days of continuous session, any funds being withheld must be made available for obligation.
• Right of rescission: Right to cancel, within three business days, a contract that uses the home of a person as collateral, except in the case of a first mortgage loan. There is no fee to the borrower, who receives a full refund of all fees paid. The right of rescission is guaranteed by the Truth in Lending Act (TILA). ^{Source: OCC}
• Right of survivorship: The ownership rights that result in the acquisition of title to property by reason of having survived other co-owners.
• 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.
• Sexual orientation: means an individual's actual or perceived heterosexuality, homosexuality or bisexuality. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
• Share: means a unit into which the proprietary interest in a corporation is divided. See Oregon Statutes 60.001
• Shareholder: means a person in whose name a share is registered in the records of a corporation or the beneficial owner of a share to the extent of the rights granted by a nominee certificate on file with a corporation. See Oregon Statutes 60.001
• Sign: means to indicate a present intent to authenticate or adopt a document by:

  (a) Affixing a symbol to the document;

  (b) Inscribing or affixing a manual, facsimile or conformed signature on the document; or

  (c) Attaching to, or logically associating with, an electronic transmission any electronic sound, symbol or process, including an electronic signature. See Oregon Statutes 60.001

• Signature: means any embodiment of a person's intent to sign a document. See Oregon Statutes 60.001
• special government body: means any of the following:

  (a) A public corporation created under a statute of this state and specifically designated as a public corporation. See Oregon Statutes 174.117

• state government: means the executive department, the judicial department and the legislative department. See Oregon Statutes 174.111
• State land: means public land controlled by the Department of State Lands. See Oregon Statutes 273.006
• State Treasury: includes those financial assets the lawful custody of which are vested in the State Treasurer and the office of the State Treasurer relating to the custody of those financial assets. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Statute of limitations: A law that sets the time within which parties must take action to enforce their rights.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Tenancy by the entirety: A type of joint tenancy between husband and wife that is recognized in some States. Neither party can sever the joint tenancy relationship; when a spouse dies, the survivor acquires full title to the property.
• Tenancy in common: A type of property ownership in which two or more individuals have an undivided interest in property. At the death of one tenant in common, his (her) fractional percentage of ownership in the property passes to the decedent
• Testator: A male person who leaves a will at death.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Tort: A civil wrong or breach of a duty to another person, as outlined by law. A very common tort is negligent operation of a motor vehicle that results in property damage and personal injury in an automobile accident.
• 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.
• Uniform Commercial Code: A set of statutes enacted by the various states to provide consistency among the states' commercial laws. It includes negotiable instruments, sales, stock transfers, trust and warehouse receipts, and bills of lading. ^{Source: OCC}
• User fees: Fees charged to users of goods or services provided by the government. In levying or authorizing these fees, the legislature determines whether the revenue should go into the treasury or should be available to the agency providing the goods or services.
• Vessel: means a boat, ship, craft or structure made to float or travel upon the water which may or may not be powered by a marine engine. See Oregon Statutes 278.005
• Violate: includes failure to comply. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
• Voting group: means all shares of one or more classes or series that under the articles of incorporation or this chapter are entitled to vote and be counted together collectively on a matter at a meeting of shareholders. See Oregon Statutes 60.001
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.
• Written: means embodied as a document. See Oregon Statutes 60.001