Terms Used In Oregon Statutes > Chapter 238 > Contributions

• 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.
• Amortization: Paying off a loan by regular installments.
• 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.
• Any other state: includes any state and the District of Columbia. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
• 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.
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Articles of organization: means the document described in ORS § 63. See Oregon Statutes 63.001
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• 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.
• Child: means an individual, whether over or under the age of majority, who is or is alleged to be owed a duty of support by the individual's parent or who is or is alleged to be the beneficiary of a support order directed to the parent. See Oregon Statutes 110.503
• Child support order: means a support order for a child, including a child who has attained the age of majority under the law of the issuing state or foreign country. See Oregon Statutes 110.503
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• 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.
• Court: means the juvenile court. See Oregon Statutes 419A.004
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the Department of Human Services. See Oregon Statutes 419A.004
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• 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:
• Duty of support: means an obligation imposed or imposable by law to provide support for a child, spouse or former spouse, including an unsatisfied obligation to provide support. See Oregon Statutes 110.503
• 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}
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Foreign country: means a country, or a political subdivision of a country, other than the United States, that authorizes the issuance of support orders and:

  (a) That has been declared under the law of the United States to be a foreign reciprocating country;

  (b) That has established a reciprocal arrangement for child support with this state as provided in ORS § 110. See Oregon Statutes 110.503

• Foreign support order: means a support order of a foreign tribunal. See Oregon Statutes 110.503
• Foreign tribunal: includes a competent authority under the Convention. See Oregon Statutes 110.503
• 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.
• Hearsay: Statements by a witness who did not see or hear the incident in question but heard about it from someone else. Hearsay is usually not admissible as evidence in court.
• Home state: means the state or foreign country in which a child lived with a parent or a person acting as parent for at least six consecutive months immediately preceding the time of filing of a petition or comparable pleading for support and, if a child is less than six months old, the state or foreign country in which the child lived from birth with the parent or person acting as parent. See Oregon Statutes 110.503
• Income: includes earnings or other periodic entitlements to money from any source and any other property subject to withholding for support under the law of this state. See Oregon Statutes 110.503
• Income withholding order: means an order or other legal process directed to an obligor's employer or other debtor issued pursuant to ORS § 25. See Oregon Statutes 110.503
• 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.
• Initiating tribunal: means the tribunal of a state or foreign country from which a petition or comparable pleading is forwarded or in which a petition or comparable pleading is filed for forwarding to another state or foreign country. See Oregon Statutes 110.503
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Issuing tribunal: means the tribunal of a state or foreign country that issues a support order or a judgment determining parentage of a child. See Oregon Statutes 110.503
• 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
• 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.
• Juvenile court: means the court having jurisdiction of juvenile matters in the several counties of this state. See Oregon Statutes 419A.004
• Law: includes decisional and statutory law and rules and regulations having the force of law. See Oregon Statutes 110.503
• 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.
• Manager: means a person, not necessarily a member, that the members of a manager-managed limited liability company designate to manage the limited liability company's business and affairs. See Oregon Statutes 63.001
• Member: means a person with both an ownership interest in a limited liability company and all the rights and obligations of a member specified under this chapter. See Oregon Statutes 63.001
• 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.
• Obligor: means an individual, or the estate of a decedent, that:

  (a) Owes or is alleged to owe a duty of support;

  (b) Is alleged but has not been adjudicated to be a parent of a child;

  (c) Is liable under a support order; or

  (d) Is a debtor in a proceeding under ORS § 110. See Oregon Statutes 110.503

• Operating agreement: means any valid agreement, written or oral, of the member or members as to the affairs of a limited liability company and the conduct of the limited liability company's business. See Oregon Statutes 63.001
• Outside this state: means a location in another state or a country other than the United States, whether or not the country is a foreign country. See Oregon Statutes 110.503
• Person: means an individual or entity. See Oregon Statutes 63.001
• Person: includes individuals, corporations, associations, firms, partnerships, limited liability companies and joint stock companies. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
• Person: means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, public corporation, government, governmental subdivision, agency, instrumentality or any other legal or commercial entity. See Oregon Statutes 110.503
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• 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 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 limited liability company are located and designated in the annual report or in the application for authority to transact business in this state. See Oregon Statutes 63.001
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Proceeding: means any threatened, pending or completed action, suit or proceeding whether civil, criminal, administrative or investigatory and whether formal or informal. See Oregon Statutes 63.001
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form. See Oregon Statutes 110.503
• Records: means any information in written form, pictures, photographs, charts, graphs, recordings or documents pertaining to a case. See Oregon Statutes 419A.004
• Register: means to file in a tribunal of this state a support order or judgment determining parentage of a child issued in another state or a foreign country. See Oregon Statutes 110.503
• Registering tribunal: means a tribunal in which a support order or judgment determining parentage of a child is registered. See Oregon Statutes 110.503
• 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.
• Responding state: means a state in which a petition or comparable pleading for support or to determine parentage of a child is filed or to which a petition or comparable pleading is forwarded for filing from another state or a foreign country. See Oregon Statutes 110.503
• Responding tribunal: means the authorized tribunal in a responding state or foreign country. See Oregon Statutes 110.503
• 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.
• Spousal support order: means a support order for a spouse or former spouse of the obligor. See Oregon Statutes 110.503
• State: means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, any territory or insular possession under the jurisdiction of the United States or an Indian nation or tribe. See Oregon Statutes 110.503
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Support enforcement agency: means a public official, governmental entity or private agency authorized to:

  (a) Seek enforcement of support orders or laws relating to the duty of support;

  (b) Seek establishment or modification of child support;

  (c) Request determination of parentage of a child;

  (d) Attempt to locate obligors or their assets; or

  (e) Request determination of the controlling child support order. See Oregon Statutes 110.503

• Support order: means a judgment, decree, order, decision or directive, whether temporary, final or subject to modification, issued in a state or foreign country for the benefit of a child, a spouse or a former spouse, that provides for monetary support, health care, arrearages, retroactive support or reimbursement for financial assistance provided to an individual obligee in place of child support. See Oregon Statutes 110.503
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Tribunal: means a court, administrative agency or quasi-judicial entity authorized to establish, enforce or modify support orders or to determine parentage of a child. See Oregon Statutes 110.503
• United States: includes territories, outlying possessions and the District of Columbia. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
• wife: means spouses or a spouse in a marriage. See Oregon Statutes 174.100
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.