Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws > Chapter 4-13.1 - Regulation of Vicious Dogs

• Adoptee: means a person who was born in this state and who has had an original birth certificate sealed due to an adoption. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-3-1
• Adoptee vital records file: means a file operated by the division of vital records that maintains adoptees' birth certificates, makes available the contact preference forms, and provides adoptees with non-certified copies of their birth certificates. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-3-1
• Adult adoptee: means an adoptee eighteen years of age or older. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-3-1
• 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.
• Alcoholic: means a person who habitually lacks self-control as to the use of alcoholic beverages, or uses alcoholic beverages to the extent that his or her health is substantially impaired or endangered or his or her social or economic function is substantially disrupted;

  (2)  "Approved private treatment facility" means a private agency meeting the standards prescribed in § 23-1. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-1.10-2

• 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.
• 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.
• Approved public treatment facility: means a treatment agency operating under the direction and control of the department or providing treatment under this chapter through a contract with the department under § 23-1. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-1.10-2
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Artificially produced radioactive material: means any radioactive material other than by-product material, special nuclear material, and source material which is produced by any unnatural process such as through the bombardment of material with high energy atomic particles. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-1.3-1
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• 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.
• 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}
• Business: includes every trade, occupation, and profession. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-12.1-102
• By-product material: means any radioactive material except special nuclear material yielded in or made radioactive by exposure to the radiation incident to the process of producing or utilizing special nuclear material. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-1.3-1
• 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.
• Code: means a standard body of rules for safety and health formulated, adopted, and issued by the commission under the provisions of this chapter. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-1.1-1
• Committee membership: Legislators are assigned to specific committees by their party. Seniority, regional balance, and political philosophy are the most prominent factors in the committee assignment process.
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Contact preference form: means the form prepared and maintained by the division that birth parent(s) of adoptees may file to express his or her preference regarding contact with the adoptee. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-3-1
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Conversion: means a transaction authorized by § 7-12. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-12.1-1101
• 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.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Dead body: means a lifeless human body or parts of a lifeless human body or its bones from the state of which it reasonably may be concluded that death recently occurred. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-3-1
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the department of health. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-1.3-1
• Department: means department of behavioral healthcare, developmental disabilities and hospitals;

  (5)  "Director" means the director of the department of behavioral healthcare, developmental disabilities and hospitals;

  (6)  "Incapacitated by alcohol" means a person, who as a result of the use of alcohol is intoxicated to such an extent that he or she is unconscious or has his or her judgment otherwise so impaired that he or she is incapable of realizing and making a rational decision with respect to his or her need for treatment;

  (7)  "Incompetent person" means a person who has been adjudged incompetent by the probate court of the city and town in which the person resides, or any other court of competent jurisdiction;

  (8)  "Intoxicated person" means a person whose mental or physical functioning is substantially impaired as a result of the use of alcohol;

  (9)  "Treatment" means the broad range of emergency, outpatient, intermediate, and inpatient services and care, including diagnostic evaluation, medical, psychiatric, psychological, and social service care, vocational rehabilitation and career counseling, which may be extended to alcoholics and intoxicated persons. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-1.10-2

• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Director: means the director of health or his or her duly authorized representative. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-1.1-1
• 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:
• Division: means the division of vital records as defined in this chapter. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-3-1
• Domestication: means a transaction authorized by § 7-12. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-12.1-1101
• Electronic product: means any manufactured product or device or component part of a product or device that has an electronic circuit which during operation can generate or emit a physical field of radiation. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-1.3-1
• 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 7-12.1-102
• 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}
• Employ: means the use of any services of an employee for compensation and includes to suffer or permit to work. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-1.1-1
• Employee: means an individual who is employed by an employer. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-1.1-1
• Employer: means a person, firm, corporation, partnership, association, receiver, or trustee in bankruptcy having one or more persons in his, her, or its employ, a state agency, or an agency of a political subdivision of the state, or any person acting directly or indirectly in the interest of an employer. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-1.1-1
• Employer: means those individuals or corporations with employees who have the potential to be exposed to blood-borne pathogens through a needlestick or other contaminated sharps;

  (2)  "Engineering controls" means controls including sharps disposal containers, self-sheathing needles, safer medical devices such as sharps with engineered sharps injury protections and needleless systems that isolate or remove the blood-borne pathogen hazard from the workplace;

  (3)  "Exposure control plan" is a document, which shall be produced and reviewed and updated at least annually and whenever necessary to reflect new or modified tasks, and procedures, which affect occupational exposure and reflect employee positions concerning occupational exposure;

  (4)  "Needleless system" means a device that does not use needles for: (i) the collection of bodily fluids or withdrawal of body fluids after initial venous or arterial access is established; (ii) the administration of medication or fluids; or (iii) any other procedure involving the potential for occupational exposure to blood-borne pathogens due to percutaneous injuries from contaminated sharps;

  (5)  "Sharps with engineered sharps injury protections" means a non-needle sharps or a needle device used for withdrawing body fluids, accessing a vein or artery, or administering medications or other fluids with a built-in safety feature or mechanism that effectively reduces the risk of an exposure incident. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-1.11-1

• 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.
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• Exposure control plan: is a document, which shall be produced and reviewed and updated at least annually and whenever necessary to reflect new or modified tasks, and procedures, which affect occupational exposure and reflect employee positions concerning occupational exposure;

  (4)  "Needleless system" means a device that does not use needles for: (i) the collection of bodily fluids or withdrawal of body fluids after initial venous or arterial access is established; (ii) the administration of medication or fluids; or (iii) any other procedure involving the potential for occupational exposure to blood-borne pathogens due to percutaneous injuries from contaminated sharps;

  (5)  "Sharps with engineered sharps injury protections" means a non-needle sharps or a needle device used for withdrawing body fluids, accessing a vein or artery, or administering medications or other fluids with a built-in safety feature or mechanism that effectively reduces the risk of an exposure incident. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-1.11-1

• Fetal death: means death prior to the complete expulsion or extraction from its mother of a product of human conception, irrespective of the duration of pregnancy; the death is indicated by the fact that after the expulsion or extraction the fetus does not breathe or show any other evidence of life such as beating of the heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of the voluntary muscles. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-3-1
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Filing: means the presentation of a certificate, report, or other record provided for in this chapter, of a birth, death, fetal death, adoption, marriage, or divorce for registration by the division of vital records. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-3-1
• Final disposition: means the burial, interment, cremation, or other disposition of a dead body or fetus. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-3-1
• 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.
• Foreign limited liability partnership: means a foreign partnership whose partners have limited liability for the debts, obligations, or other liabilities of the foreign partnership under a provision similar to § 7-12. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-12.1-102
• Foreign partnership: means an unincorporated entity formed under the law of a jurisdiction other than this state which would be a partnership if formed under the law of this state. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-12.1-102
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• 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.
• 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
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Institution: means any establishment, public or private, that provides in-patient medical, surgical, or diagnostic care or treatment, or nursing, custodial or domiciliary care to two (2) or more unrelated individuals, or to which persons are committed by law. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-3-1
• Interest: means :

  (i)  A share in a business corporation;

  (ii)  A membership in a nonprofit corporation;

  (iii)  A partnership interest in a general partnership;

  (iv)  A partnership interest in a limited partnership;

  (v)  A membership interest in a limited liability company;

  (vi)  A share in a general cooperative association;

  (vii)  A member's interest in a limited cooperative association;

  (viii)  A membership in an unincorporated nonprofit association;

  (ix)  A beneficial interest in a statutory trust, business trust, or common-law business trust; or

  (x)  A governance interest or distributional interest in any other type of unincorporated entity. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-12.1-1101

• Interest exchange: means a transaction authorized by § 7-12. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-12.1-1101
• 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.
• 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}
• Legal representative: means an individual's attorney, personal representative, or conservator and includes a guardian appointed by the court to make decisions regarding the person of an adult. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-3-1
• 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.
• Live birth: means the complete expulsion or extraction from its mother of a product of human conception, irrespective of the duration of pregnancy, that, after that expulsion or extraction, breathes or shows any other evidences of life such as beating of the heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of the voluntary muscles, whether or not the umbilical cord has been cut or the placenta is attached. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-3-1
• Merger: means a transaction authorized by § 7-12. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-12.1-1101
• Minority leader: See Floor Leaders
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Naturally occurring radioactive material: means any radioactive material that is not otherwise defined in this section and whose origin is wholly the result of natural processes. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-1.3-1
• 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.
• 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.
• Partner: means a person that:

  (i)  Has become a partner in a partnership under § 7-12. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-12.1-102

• 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.
• Partnership agreement: means the agreement, whether or not referred to as a partnership agreement and whether oral, implied, in a record, or in any combination thereof, of all the partners of a partnership concerning the matters described in § 7-12. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-12.1-102
• Person: means an individual, business corporation, nonprofit corporation, partnership, limited partnership, limited liability company, general cooperative association, limited cooperative association, unincorporated nonprofit association, statutory trust, business trust, common-law business trust, estate, trust, association, joint venture, public corporation, government or governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, or any other legal or commercial entity. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-12.1-102
• Person: means any individual, corporation, partnership, firm, association, trust, estate, public or private institution, group, agency, political subdivision of this state, any other state or political subdivision or agency of any other state, and any legal successor, representative, agent or agency of these, and other than federal government agencies licensed by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or any successor to the commission. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-1.3-1
• person: may be construed to extend to and include co-partnerships and bodies corporate and politic. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-6
• Physician: means a person authorized or licensed to practice medicine pursuant to chapter 37 of Title 5. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-3-1
• Plan: means a plan of merger, plan of interest exchange, plan of conversion, or plan of domestication. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-12.1-1101
• Plan of conversion: means a plan under § 7-12. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-12.1-1101
• Plan of domestication: means a plan under § 7-12. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-12.1-1101
• 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.
• 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.
• Principal office: means the principal executive office of a partnership or a foreign limited liability partnership, whether or not the office is located in this state. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-12.1-102
• 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: means all property, whether real, personal, or mixed or tangible or intangible, or any right or interest therein. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-12.1-102
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Radiation: means :

  (i)  Ionizing radiation including gamma rays, x-rays, alpha particles, beta particles, and other atomic or nuclear particles or rays; and

  (ii)  Any electromagnetic radiation that can be generated during the operation of a microwave oven. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-1.3-1

• Radiation source: means any material or electronic product capable of emitting radiation. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-1.3-1
• Radioactive material: means any material, solid, liquid, or gas, that emits ionizing radiation spontaneously. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-1.3-1
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Registered agent: means an agent of a limited liability partnership or foreign limited liability partnership which is authorized to receive service of any process, notice, or demand required or permitted by law to be served on the partnership. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-12.1-102
• Registration: means the proper completion and filing with the state radiation control agency of a form provided by the agency, and containing information that the agency may require by its regulations. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-1.3-1
• Registration: means the acceptance by the division of vital records and the incorporation in its official records of certificates, reports, or other records provided for in this chapter, or births, deaths, fetal deaths, adoptions, marriages, or divorces. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-3-1
• 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.
• 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
• Sign: means , with present intent to authenticate or adopt a record:

  (i)  To execute or adopt a tangible symbol; or

  (ii)  To attach to or logically associate with the record an electronic symbol, sound, or process. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-12.1-102

• Signature: means the application of either a hand signature to a paper record or an electronic process approved by the state registrar of vital records. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-3-1
• Source material: means :

  (i)  Uranium, thorium, or any other material which the director of health declared by order to be a source material after the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or any successor to the commission, has determined the material to be source material; or

  (ii)  Ores containing one or more of the materials listed in paragraph (i), in a concentration that the director of health declared by order to be source material after the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or any successor to the commission, has determined the material in that concentration to be source material. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-1.3-1

• Special nuclear material: means :

  (i)  Plutonium, uranium 233, uranium enriched in the isotope 233 or in the isotope 235, and any other material which the director of health declared by order to be special nuclear material after the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or any successor to the commission, has determined the material to be special nuclear material, but does not include source material; or

  (ii)  Any material artificially enriched by any of the material listed in paragraph (i), but does not include source material. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-1.3-1

• State: means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-12.1-102
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• System of vital records: means the registration, collection, preservation, amendment, and certification of vital statistics records, and activities related to them including the tabulation, analysis, and publication of statistical data derived from those records. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-3-1
• 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
• Transfer: includes :

  (i)  An assignment;

  (ii)  A conveyance;

  (iii)  A sale;

  (iv)  A lease;

  (v)  An encumbrance, including a mortgage or security interest;

  (vi)  A gift; and

  (vii)  A transfer by operation of law. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-12.1-102

• Transferable interest: means the right, as initially owned by a person in the person's capacity as a partner, to receive distributions from a partnership, whether or not the person remains a partner or continues to own any part of the right. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-12.1-102
• Transferee: means a person to which all or part of a transferable interest has been transferred, whether or not the transferor is a partner. See Rhode Island General Laws 7-12.1-102
• 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
• Unnecessary radiation: means radiation used in a manner that may present a hazard to the health of the people or the industrial or agricultural potentials or the ecology or wildlife of the state. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-1.3-1
• Vital records: means records of birth, death, fetal death, marriage, divorce, and data related to those records. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-3-1
• 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.