Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws > Chapter 2-18.1 - Rhode Island Nursery Law

• Account: means any deposit or credit account with a bank, including a demand, time, savings, passbook, share draft, or like account, other than an account evidenced by a certificate of deposit;

  (2)  "Afternoon" means the period of a day between noon and midnight;

  (3)  "Banking day" means the part of a day on which a bank is open to the public for carrying on substantially all of its banking functions;

  (4)  "Clearing house" means an association of banks or other payors regularly clearing items;

  (5)  "Customer" means a person having an account with a bank or for whom a bank has agreed to collect items, including a bank that maintains an account at another bank;

  (6)  "Documentary draft" means a draft to be presented for acceptance or payment if specified documents, certificated securities (§ 6A-8-102) or instructions for uncertificated securities (§ 6A-8-102), or other certificates, statements, or the like are to be received by the drawee or other payor before acceptance or payment of the draft;

  (7)  "Draft" means a draft as defined in § 6A-3-104 or an item, other than an instrument, that is an order;

  (8)  "Drawee" means a person ordered in a draft to make payment;

  (9)  "Item" means an instrument or a promise or order to pay money handled by a bank for collection or payment. See Rhode Island General Laws 6A-4-104

• Adjourn: A motion to adjourn a legislative chamber or a committee, if passed, ends that day's session.
• Advice and consent: Under the Constitution, presidential nominations for executive and judicial posts take effect only when confirmed by the Senate, and international treaties become effective only when the Senate approves them by a two-thirds vote.
• 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.
• Agent: means any person under the partial or full control of a nursery worker, dealer or other agent, who sells or solicits orders for nursery stock, not from a supply at hand, at a place other than a nursery worker's or a dealer's place of business. See Rhode Island General Laws 2-18.1-2
• Agent: means an individual, other than a broker-dealer, who represents a broker-dealer in effecting or attempting to effect purchases or sales of securities or represents an issuer in effecting or attempting to effect purchases or sales of the issuer's securities; provided, that a partner, officer, or director of a broker-dealer or issuer, or an individual having a similar status or performing similar functions, is an agent only if the individual otherwise comes within the term. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-11.2-2
• 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.
• 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.
• 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
• Arraignment: A proceeding in which an individual who is accused of committing a crime is brought into court, told of the charges, and asked to plead guilty or not guilty.
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Articles of organization: means documents filed under § 7-16-5 for the purpose of forming a limited-liability company. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-16-2
• Asset forfeiture: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• 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.
• 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.
• Authorized person: means a person, whether or not a member, who or that is authorized by the articles of organization, by an operating agreement, or otherwise, to act on behalf of a limited-liability company or foreign limited-liability company as an officer, manager or otherwise. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-16-2
• 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.
• Bankruptcy: means a proceeding under the United States Bankruptcy Code or under state insolvency or receivership law. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-16-2
• 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}
• Beneficiary form: means a registration of a security that indicates the present owner of the security and the intention of the owner regarding the person who becomes the owner of the security upon the death of the owner. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-11.1-2
• Broker-dealer: means a person engaged in the business of effecting transactions in securities for the account of others or for the person's own account. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-11.2-2
• Business: means any trade, occupation or other commercial activity engaged in for gain, profit or livelihood for which a corporation can be organized under chapter 1. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-16-2
• Capital contribution: means any cash, property, services rendered, or a promissory note or other binding obligation to contribute cash or property or to perform services that a member contributes to a limited-liability company in his or her capacity as a member. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-16-2
• Capital offense: A crime punishable by death.
• Capital value: means the fair market value in each case as of the date contributed of a member's capital contributions, including a contribution of services previously performed or a contribution of a binding obligation to perform services, reduced by distributions made to the member. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-16-2
• Chambers: A judge's office.
• Chief judge: The judge who has primary responsibility for the administration of a court but also decides cases; chief judges are determined by seniority.
• Civil forfeiture: The loss of ownership of property used to conduct illegal activity.
• Clerk of court: An officer appointed by the court to work with the chief judge in overseeing the court's administration, especially to assist in managing the flow of cases through the court and to maintain court records.
• Cohabitants: means emancipated minors or persons eighteen (18) years of age or older, not related by blood or marriage, who together are not the legal parents of one or more children, and who have resided together within the preceding three (3) years or who are residing in the same living quarters. See Rhode Island General Laws 8-8.1-1
• Collected plants: means plants and plant parts defined as nursery stock, which are dug or otherwise removed from fields, woodlots, or forest lands for sale or distribution which have not been grown under cultivation in a nursery for one year. See Rhode Island General Laws 2-18.1-2
• 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.
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Constituent entity: means each limited-liability company, limited partnership or corporation that is a party to a plan of merger or consolidation. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-16-2
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Corporation: means a business corporation formed under chapter 1. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-16-2
• 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.
• Course of conduct: means a pattern of conduct composed of a series of acts over a period of time, evidencing a continuity of purpose. See Rhode Island General Laws 8-8.1-1
• Court: includes every court and judge having jurisdiction in the case. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-16-2
• Court: means the superior court in the county in which the respondent resides. See Rhode Island General Laws 8-8.3-1
• Court reporter: A person who makes a word-for-word record of what is said in court and produces a transcript of the proceedings upon request.
• Cross examine: Questioning of a witness by the attorney for the other side.
• Cyberstalking: means transmitting any communication by computer to any person or causing any person to be contacted for the sole purpose of harassing that person or his or her family. See Rhode Island General Laws 8-8.1-1
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Dealer: means any person, not a grower or an original producer of nursery stock in this state, and who is independent of the control of any nursery worker or other dealer, who sells, offers to sell, solicits orders for or otherwise traffics in nursery stock from a supply at hand or which is obtained from a nursery or another dealer. See Rhode Island General Laws 2-18.1-2
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the department of environmental management of the state of Rhode Island. See Rhode Island General Laws 2-18.1-2
• 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.
• Descendent: One who is directly descended from another such as a child, grandchild, or great grandchild.
• Director: means the director of environmental management of the state of Rhode Island, and his or her authorized agents. See Rhode Island General Laws 2-18.1-2
• 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:
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Domestic abuse: means the occurrence of one or more of the following acts between cohabitants or the occurrence of one or more of the following acts between persons who are or have been in a substantive dating or engagement relationship within the past one year; "domestic abuse" shall be determined by the court's consideration of the following factors:

  (i)  The length of time of the relationship;

  (ii)  The type of the relationship;

  (iii)  The frequency of the interaction between the parties;

  (iv)  Attempting to cause or causing physical harm;

  (v)  Placing another in fear of imminent serious physical harm;

  (vi)  Causing another to engage involuntarily in sexual relations by force, threat of force, or duress; or

  (vii)  Stalking or cyberstalking. See Rhode Island General Laws 8-8.1-1

• domestic limited-liability company: means an entity that is organized and existing under the laws of this state pursuant to this chapter. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-16-2
• Dower: A widow
• Electronic transmission: means any form of communication, not directly involving the physical transmission of paper, that creates a record that may be retained, retrieved, and reviewed by a recipient thereof, and that may be directly reproduced in paper form by such a recipient through an automated process. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-16-2
• Embezzlement: In most states, embezzlement is defined as theft/larceny of assets (money or property) by a person in a position of trust or responsibility over those assets. Embezzlement typically occurs in the employment and corporate settings. ^{Source: OCC}
• 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}
• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• 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.
• Executed: means an original signature, facsimile, or an electronically transmitted signature submitted through a medium provided and authorized by the secretary of state. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-16-2
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• Extreme risk protection order: means either a temporary order or a one-year order granted under this chapter. See Rhode Island General Laws 8-8.3-1
• 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.
• Filing: means delivered to the secretary of state in either paper format or electronic transmission through a medium provided and authorized by the secretary of state. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-16-2
• Financial exploitation: means the wrongful or unauthorized taking, withholding, appropriation, or use of money, real property, or personal property of a qualified adult. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-11.2-2
• Firearm: means and includes any machine gun, pistol, rifle, air rifle, air pistol, "blank gun" "BB gun" or other instrument from which steel or metal projectiles are propelled, or that may readily be converted to expel a projectile, except crossbows, recurve, compound, or longbows, and except instruments propelling projectiles that are designed or normally used for a primary purpose other than as a weapon. See Rhode Island General Laws 8-8.3-1
• 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.
• 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 business corporation formed under the laws of any state other than this state or any foreign country. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-16-2
• Foreign limited partnership: means a limited partnership formed under the laws of any state other than this state or any foreign country. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-16-2
• Foreign limited-liability company: means a limited-liability company formed under the laws of any state other than this state or any foreign country. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-16-2
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Garnishment: Generally, garnishment is a court proceeding in which a creditor asks a court to order a third party who owes money to the debtor or otherwise holds assets belonging to the debtor to turn over to the creditor any of the debtor
• 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.
• Guarantor: A party who agrees to be responsible for the payment of another party's debts should that party default. ^{Source: OCC}
• 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.
• Harassing: means following a knowing and willful course of conduct directed at a specific person with the intent to seriously alarm, annoy, or bother the person, and which serves no legitimate purpose. See Rhode Island General Laws 8-8.1-1
• Hardy: means the ability to withstand heat or cold to the extent of surviving the normal out of door summer and winter temperatures of this state. See Rhode Island General Laws 2-18.1-2
• Heirs: means those persons, including the surviving spouse, who are entitled under the statutes of intestate succession to the property of a descendent. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-11.1-2
• Immediate family member: means a spouse, child, parent, or sibling of a qualified adult. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-11.2-2
• in writing: include printing, engraving, lithographing, and photo-lithographing, and all other representations of words in letters of the usual form. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-16
• 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}
• 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.
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Insect: means invertebrate animals belonging to the arthropod class, Insecta (Hexapoda), and also members of other arthropod classes, mollusca, nematodes, and other invertebrate animals, in any state of development. See Rhode Island General Laws 2-18.1-2
• Intangible property: Property that has no intrinsic value, but is merely the evidence of value such as stock certificates, bonds, and promissory notes.
• interest: means a member's rights in the limited-liability company, collectively, including the member's share of the profits and losses of the limited-liability company, the right to receive distributions of the limited-liability company's assets, and any right to vote or participate in management of the limited-liability company. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-16-2
• Interrogatories: Written questions asked by one party of an opposing party, who must answer them in writing under oath; a discovery device in a lawsuit.
• Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
• 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.
• justice of the peace: include warden of the peace and the words "district court" include warden's court. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-14
• Law enforcement agency: means the police department of any city or town, and the division of the Rhode Island state police established pursuant to chapter 28 of Title 42. See Rhode Island General Laws 8-8.3-1
• Law enforcement officer: means a sworn member of a law enforcement agency as defined herein. See Rhode Island General Laws 8-8.3-1
• 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.
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Limited partnership: means a limited partnership formed under the laws of this state or a foreign limited partnership. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-16-2
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• low-profit limited-liability company: means a limited-liability company that is organized and existing under the laws of this state under this chapter and that satisfies the requirements of § 7-16-76. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-16-2
• magistrate: may be construed to mean a justice, or a clerk acting as a justice, of a district court. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-16
• Managers: means a person or persons designated by the members of a limited-liability company to manage the limited-liability company. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-16-2
• Member: means a person with an ownership interest in a limited-liability company with the rights and obligations specified under this chapter. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-16-2
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• New entity: means the entity into which constituent entities consolidate, as identified in the articles of consolidation provided for in § 7-16-62. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-16-2
• 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.
• Nursery: means any grounds or premises on or in which nursery stock is propagated, grown, or cultivated, or from which nursery stock is collected for sale purposes. See Rhode Island General Laws 2-18.1-2
• Nursery stock: means all hardy, deciduous and evergreen trees, shrubs, vines and other plants having a persistent woody stem, whether wild or cultivated, and plant parts, for and capable of propagation. See Rhode Island General Laws 2-18.1-2
• Nursery worker: means the person who owns, leases, manages, or is in charge of a nursery. See Rhode Island General Laws 2-18.1-2
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• oath: includes affirmation; the word "sworn" includes affirmed; and the word "engaged" includes either sworn or affirmed. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-11
• 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.
• One-year extreme risk protection order: means an extreme risk protection order granted pursuant to the provisions of § 8-8. See Rhode Island General Laws 8-8.3-1
• Operating agreement: means any agreement, written or oral, of the members as to the affairs of a limited-liability company and the conduct of its business. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-16-2
• 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 a corporation, company, society, association, partnership, governmental agency, and any individual or combination of individuals. See Rhode Island General Laws 2-18.1-2
• Person: means an individual, a corporation, an organization, or other legal entity. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-11.1-2
• Person: means a natural person, partnership, limited partnership, domestic or foreign limited-liability company, trust, estate, corporation, non-business corporation or other association. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-16-2
• person: may be construed to extend to and include co-partnerships and bodies corporate and politic. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-6
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Personal representative: includes executor, administrator, successor, personal representative, special administrator, and persons who perform substantially the same function under the law governing their status. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-11.1-2
• Petitioner: means a law enforcement agency that petitions for an order pursuant to this chapter. See Rhode Island General Laws 8-8.3-1
• Place of business: means each separate store, stand, sales ground, lot, truck, railway car, or other vehicle or any other place at or from which nursery stock is being sold or offered for sale where one or more sales persons are in attendance. See Rhode Island General Laws 2-18.1-2
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Plant disease: means an injurious physiological activity of plants caused by the continued action of a chief causal factor and exhibited through abnormal cellular activity expressed in characteristic conditions, called symptoms, which symptoms are of three (3) types, nocrosis, hyperplasia, and hypoplasia. See Rhode Island General Laws 2-18.1-2
• 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.
• Power of attorney: A written instrument which authorizes one person to act as another's agent or attorney. The power of attorney may be for a definite, specific act, or it may be general in nature. The terms of the written power of attorney may specify when it will expire. If not, the power of attorney usually expires when the person granting it dies. ^{Source: OCC}
• Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Probate: Proving a will
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• Property: includes both real and personal property or any interest in them and means anything that may be the subject of ownership. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-11.1-2
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Public defender: Represent defendants who can't afford an attorney in criminal matters.
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• Qualified adult: means :

  (i)  A person sixty (60) years of age or older; or

  (ii)  A person who:

  (A)  Has a mental or physical impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, whether the impairment is congenital or acquired by accident, injury, or disease, where the impairment is verified by medical findings; and

  (B)  Is between the ages of eighteen (18) and fifty-nine (59). See Rhode Island General Laws 7-11.2-2

• Qualified individual: means a person associated with a broker-dealer who serves in a supervisory, compliance, or legal capacity as part of his or her job. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-11.2-2
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• real estate: may be construed to include lands, tenements, and hereditaments and rights thereto and interests therein. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-10
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Recess: A temporary interruption of the legislative business.
• Registering entity: means a person who or that originates or transfers a security title by registration, and includes a broker maintaining security accounts for customers and a transfer agent or other person acting for or as an issuer of securities. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-11.1-2
• 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.
• Reporter: Makes a record of court proceedings and prepares a transcript, and also publishes the court's opinions or decisions (in the courts of appeals).
• Respondent: means the person who is identified as the respondent in a petition filed pursuant to this chapter. See Rhode Island General Laws 8-8.3-1
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• Right of survivorship: The ownership rights that result in the acquisition of title to property by reason of having survived other co-owners.
• seal: shall be construed to include an impression of the seal made with or without the use of wax or wafer on the paper. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-15
• Security: means a share, participation, or other interest in property, in a business, or in an obligation of an enterprise or other issuer, and includes a certificated security, an uncertificated security and a security account. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-11.1-2
• Security account: means :

  (i)  A reinvestment account associated with a security, a securities account with a broker, a cash balance in a brokerage account, cash, interest, earnings, or dividends earned or declared on security in an account, a reinvestment account, or a brokerage account, whether or not credited to the account before the owner's death; or

  (ii)  A cash balance or other property held for or due to the owner of a security as a replacement for or product of an account security, whether or not credited to the account before the owner's death. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-11.1-2

• 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.
• Social media: means any cell phone- or internet-based tools and applications that are used to share and distribute information. See Rhode Island General Laws 8-8.3-1
• Sole legal interest: means defendant has an ownership interest in the residence and plaintiff does not; or defendant's name is on the lease and plaintiff's is not. See Rhode Island General Laws 8-8.1-1
• Sole ownership: The type of property ownership in which one individual holds legal title to the property and has full control of it.
• State: includes any state of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and any territory or possession subject to the legislative authority of the United States. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-11.1-2
• State: means a state, territory or possession of the United States, or the District of Columbia. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-16-2
• 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.
• Subpoena duces tecum: A command to a witness to produce documents.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Surviving entity: means the constituent entity surviving a merger, as identified in the articles of merger provided for in § 7-16-62. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-16-2
• Temporary extreme risk protection order: means an extreme risk protection order issued pursuant to the provisions of § 8-8. See Rhode Island General Laws 8-8.3-1
• Temporary restraining order: Prohibits a person from an action that is likely to cause irreparable harm. This differs from an injunction in that it may be granted immediately, without notice to the opposing party, and without a hearing. It is intended to last only until a hearing can be held.
• 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
• Testate: To die leaving a will.
• Testator: A male person who leaves a will at death.
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• 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.
• town: may be construed to include city; the words "town council" include city council; the words "town clerk" include city clerk; the words "ward clerk" include clerk of election district; the words "town treasurer" include city treasurer; and the words "town sergeant" include city sergeant. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-9
• town council: include city council; the words "town clerk" include city clerk; the words "ward clerk" include clerk of election district; the words "town treasurer" include city treasurer; and the words "town sergeant" include city sergeant. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-9
• 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.
• United States: include the several states and the territories of the United States. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-8
• Usury: Charging an illegally high interest rate on a loan. ^{Source: OCC}
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.
• Writ of certiorari: An order issued by the Supreme Court directing the lower court to transmit records for a case for which it will hear on appeal.