Terms Used In Tennessee Code > Title 3 > Chapter 7 - Fiscal Review Committee

• 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.
• Agriculture: means :
  (i) The land, buildings and machinery used in the commercial production of farm products and nursery stock. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Allegation: something that someone says happened.
• 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.
• 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
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Attorney general: means the attorney general and reporter and any assistant thereto by whatever name known, any district attorney general and any assistant thereto by whatever name called, and any officer or full-time employee of the general assembly or any committee thereof established by statute, who is duly licensed to practice law in Tennessee, whose duty it is to provide facilities for drafting bills or to assist individual legislators in drafting bills or who renders legal advice and services to the members of the general assembly or committees thereof. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Authority: means a port authority created pursuant to this chapter. See Tennessee Code 7-87-103
• Base tax revenues: means the revenues generated from the collection of state and local sales and use taxes from all businesses within the applicable tourism development zone as of the end of the fiscal year of the state of Tennessee immediately prior to the year in which the municipality or public authority is entitled to receive an allocation of tax revenue pursuant to this chapter, adjusted annually after the first year by a percentage equal to the percentage of change in the collection of state and local sales and use taxes derived from the sale of goods, products and services for the entire county in which the public use facility is located for the preceding fiscal year. See Tennessee Code 7-88-103
• Beneficially impacted area: means the geographic area within which it is reasonably anticipated and projected that state and local sales and use taxes will increase as a result of the construction and operation of the qualified public use facility by an amount in excess of the increases in the collection of state and local sales and use tax revenues reasonably projected to occur within that area without regard to the construction of the public use facility. See Tennessee Code 7-88-103
• Board: means the board of commissioners of an authority. See Tennessee Code 7-87-103
• board: means the board provided for in part 3 of this chapter. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• board of directors: means the governing body of the authority. See Tennessee Code 7-89-103
• Chief judge: The judge who has primary responsibility for the administration of a court but also decides cases; chief judges are determined by seniority.
• City: means any city or territory to be incorporated that may adopt chapters 30-36 of this title. See Tennessee Code 6-30-102
• Code: includes the Tennessee Code and all amendments and revisions to the code and all additions and supplements to the code. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Commissioner: means any person in office as a member of the public service commission, as prescribed by title 65, chapter 1, prior to June 30, 1996. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Commissioner: means the commissioner of health. See Tennessee Code 68-1-1802
• Commissioner: means the commissioner of health. See Tennessee Code 68-1-2202
• Commissioner: means the commissioner of health. See Tennessee Code 68-1-2302
• Commissioner: means the commissioner of health. See Tennessee Code 68-3-102
• 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.
• 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.
• Communication: means the making or submitting of a statement or document in any form or medium, including oral, written, audiovisual, or electronic. See Tennessee Code 20-17-103
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• convention center authority: means any public corporation organized pursuant to this chapter. See Tennessee Code 7-89-103
• 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.
• Counterclaim: A claim that a defendant makes against a plaintiff.
• County: means the county in which any such city or territory to be incorporated under chapters 30-36 of this title is located, or in which the major portion of the population of any such city or territory to be incorporated is located as indicated by the last federal census. See Tennessee Code 6-30-102
• County mayor: means and includes "county executive" unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Course of conduct: means a pattern of conduct composed of a series of acts over a period of time, however short, evidencing a continuity of purpose, including following or stalking an employee to or from the employee's place of work, entering the workplace of an employee, following an employee during hours of employment, telephone calls to an employee, and correspondence with an employee, including, but not limited to, the use of the public or private mails, interoffice mail, facsimile or computer e-mail. See Tennessee Code 20-14-101
• Credible threat of violence: means a knowing and willful statement or course of conduct that would cause a reasonable person to believe that the person is under threat of death or serious bodily injury and that is intended to, and that actually causes, a person to believe that the person is under threat of death or serious bodily injury. See Tennessee Code 20-14-101
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Dead body: means a human body from the condition of which it reasonably may be concluded that death occurred. See Tennessee Code 68-3-102
• 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.
• Dental school: means an educational facility created and operated as part of a program that grants the degree of doctor of dental surgery or doctor of dental medicine to the graduates of such educational facility. See Tennessee Code 7-90-103
• Department: means the department of health. See Tennessee Code 68-1-1302
• Department: means the department of health. See Tennessee Code 68-1-1802
• Department: means the department of health. See Tennessee Code 68-1-2202
• Department: means the department of health. See Tennessee Code 68-1-2302
• Department: means the department of health. See Tennessee Code 68-3-102
• Department: means the department of health. See Tennessee Code 68-1-2403
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• disabled: means the inability to engage in any substantial gainful activity by reason of any medically determinable physical or mental impairment which can be expected to last for a continuous period of not less than twelve (12) months. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• 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.
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Down syndrome: means a chromosomal condition caused by an error in cell division that results in the presence of an extra whole or partial copy of chromosome 21. See Tennessee Code 68-1-1302
• Employer: means any person or entity that employs one (1) or more employees and shall include the state and its political subdivisions and instrumentalities. See Tennessee Code 20-14-101
• Entity: means any nonprofit, not-for-profit, or for-profit corporation, religious or charitable organization, institution of higher education, visiting nurse association, existing visiting nurse program, local health department, county department of social services, political subdivision of the state, or other governmental agency or any combination thereof. See Tennessee Code 68-1-2403
• 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.
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• Executive officer: means the mayor, county mayor, or other chief executive of a municipality. See Tennessee Code 7-87-103
• Exercise of the right of free speech: means a communication made in connection with a matter of public concern or religious expression that falls within the protection of the United States Constitution or the Tennessee Constitution. See Tennessee Code 20-17-103
• Fetal death: means death prior to the complete expulsion or extraction from its mother of a product of human conception. See Tennessee Code 68-3-102
• File: means to present a vital record provided for in this chapter for registration by the office of vital records. See Tennessee Code 68-3-102
• 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}
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Governing body: means the body in which the general legislative powers of a municipality are vested. See Tennessee Code 7-87-103
• Governing body: means the body in which the general legislative powers of a municipality are vested. See Tennessee Code 7-89-103
• Governing body: means the body in which the general legislative powers of a municipality are vested, and in the case of counties means the legislative body of any county. See Tennessee Code 7-90-103
• Graduate medical education: means the period of didactic and clinical education in a medical specialty or subspecialty which follows the completion of a recognized undergraduate medical education and which prepares physicians for the independent practice of medicine in that specialty or subspecialty, also referred to as residency education. See Tennessee Code 7-90-103
• 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.
• Health care and services facility: means a health care entity or facility identified pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 68-1-2403
• In forma pauperis: In the manner of a pauper. Permission given to a person to sue without payment of court fees on claim of indigence or poverty.
• Induced termination of pregnancy: means the intentional termination of pregnancy with the intention other than to produce a live-born infant or to remove a dead fetus. See Tennessee Code 68-3-102
• 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 inpatient or outpatient medical, surgical or diagnostic care or treatment or nursing, custodial or domiciliary care, or to which persons are committed by law. See Tennessee Code 68-3-102
• Interest rate: The amount paid by a borrower to a lender in exchange for the use of the lender's money for a certain period of time. Interest is paid on loans or on debt instruments, such as notes or bonds, either at regular intervals or as part of a lump sum payment when the issue matures. ^{Source: OCC}
• Joint venture: means a partnership or any other type of business relationship or organization, such as a corporation, trust, partnership, public-private partnership, limited liability company, association, government or governmental subdivision, agency or instrumentality that is sponsored, owned, operated, or governed by two (2) or more entities. See Tennessee Code 7-89-103
• 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.
• Juror: A person who is on the jury.
• Lands: includes lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all rights thereto and interests therein, equitable as well as legal. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Lawsuit: A legal action started by a plaintiff against a defendant based on a complaint that the defendant failed to perform a legal duty, resulting in harm to the plaintiff.
• 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 action: means a claim, cause of action, petition, cross-claim, or counterclaim or any request for legal or equitable relief initiated against a private party. See Tennessee Code 20-17-103
• Lessee: means a private nonprofit or public educational institution, which provides a medical education program. See Tennessee Code 7-90-103
• 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 the pregnancy, that, after expulsion or extraction, breathes or shows any other evidence of life, such as beating of the heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of voluntary muscles, whether or not the umbilical cord has been cut or the placenta is attached. See Tennessee Code 68-3-102
• Loan agreement: means an agreement providing for an authority to loan the proceeds derived from the issuance of revenue bonds pursuant to this chapter to one (1) or more contracting parties to be used to pay the cost of one (1) or more projects and providing for the repayment of the loan by the other contracting party or parties. See Tennessee Code 7-89-103
• Low-income: means an annual income that does not exceed two hundred percent (200%) of the federal poverty level. See Tennessee Code 68-1-2403
• Matter of public concern: includes an issue related to:
  (A) Health or safety. See Tennessee Code 20-17-103
• Medical education program: means a program of study that is a biomedical research program, dental program, nursing program, medical program, including graduate medical education, or allied health program. See Tennessee Code 7-90-103
• Medical school: means an educational facility created and operated as part of a program that grants the degree of doctor of medicine to the graduates of such educational facility or provides graduate medical education. See Tennessee Code 7-90-103
• medical school authority: means any public corporation organized pursuant to this chapter. See Tennessee Code 7-90-103
• Member: means any person included in the membership of the retirement system, as provided in chapter 35, part 1 of this title. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Metropolitan government: means the political entity created by consolidation of all, or substantially all, of the political and corporate functions of a county and a city or cities. See Tennessee Code 7-1-101
• Minor: means any person who has not attained eighteen (18) years of age. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Minorities: include , but are not limited to, African American, Hispanic, Asian American, American Indian, Alaskan Native, Middle Eastern American and the underserved regardless of age, race, economics, gender, language or geographic location. See Tennessee Code 68-1-2202
• Month: means a calendar month. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Municipality: means any county or incorporated city or town in this state with respect to which an authority may be organized. See Tennessee Code 7-87-103
• Municipality: means any incorporated city or county located in the state of Tennessee, including a county with a metropolitan form of government. See Tennessee Code 7-88-103
• Municipality: means any county, metropolitan government or incorporated city or town in this state with respect to which an authority may be organized. See Tennessee Code 7-89-103
• Municipality: means any county, metropolitan government or incorporated city or town in this state located in a county having a population of not less than ninety-one thousand eight hundred (91,800), according to the 2000 federal census or any subsequent federal census. See Tennessee Code 7-90-103
• Nurse: means a person licensed as a professional nurse pursuant to title 63, chapter 7. See Tennessee Code 68-1-2403
• Oath: includes affirmation. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• 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.
• Office: means the office of women's health designated by this part. See Tennessee Code 68-1-1802
• Office: means the office of minority health designated by this part. See Tennessee Code 68-1-2202
• Office: means the office of child nutrition and wellness in the department, which is created in §. See Tennessee Code 68-1-2302
• other contracting party: means any party, including a municipality, to a sale contract, lease agreement or loan agreement, other than the authority. See Tennessee Code 7-89-103
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• 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: includes a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Personal property: includes money, goods, chattels, things in action, and evidences of debt. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Personal representative: when applied to those who represent a decedent, includes executors and administrators, unless the context implies heirs and distributees. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Petit jury: A group of citizens who hear the evidence presented by both sides at trial and determine the facts in dispute. Federal criminal juries consist of 12 persons. Federal civil juries consist of six persons.
• Physician: means a person licensed to practice medicine or osteopathy pursuant to the laws of this state. See Tennessee Code 68-3-102
• 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.
• Port: means and includes any one (1) or more harbors or ports and related facilities, including, but not limited to, land and interests in land, wharves, piers, loading and unloading machinery, scales, transportation equipment, harbor and riverfront or lake front improvements, buildings, storage and transfer facilities, elevators, railroads, switchyards, concentration yards, roads, bridges, communication, electric power, gas, water and all other utility facilities and such other structures, facilities and improvements necessary or convenient to the development of harbors and river ports and for the promotion either directly or indirectly of trade, industry, and commerce. See Tennessee Code 7-87-103
• 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.
• Presiding officer: A majority-party Senator who presides over the Senate and is charged with maintaining order and decorum, recognizing Members to speak, and interpreting the Senate's rules, practices and precedents.
• Pro se: A Latin term meaning "on one's own behalf"; in courts, it refers to persons who present their own cases without lawyers.
• Program: means the nurse home visitor program established in this part. See Tennessee Code 68-1-2403
• Project: means any land, improvement, structure, building or part of a building comprised of facilities for conventions, public assemblies, conferences, trade exhibitions or other business, social, cultural, scientific and public interest events, along with any associated hotel accommodations. See Tennessee Code 7-89-103
• Project: means any facilities or group of facilities to be used for a medical school, dental school, biomedical research, graduate medical education, nursing degree programs, or allied health profession degree programs. See Tennessee Code 7-90-103
• Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Public authority: means any agency, authority or instrumentality created or authorized by any municipality or by two (2) or more municipalities acting jointly, including, but not limited to, any public building authority organized pursuant to the Public Building Authorities Act of 1971, compiled in title 12, chapter 10 or an industrial development corporation organized pursuant to chapter 53 of this title. See Tennessee Code 7-88-103
• Public health council: means the council established in §. See Tennessee Code 68-3-102
• Qualified associated development: means parks, plazas, recreational facilities, schools, sidewalks, access ways, roads, drives, bridges, ramps, landscaping, signage and other public improvements constructed or renovated by the municipality or the public building authority in connection with the public use facility and related infrastructure and utility improvements for public or private peripheral development included in a master development plan for the tourism development zone and that is constructed, renovated or installed by the municipality or the public authority. See Tennessee Code 7-88-103
• Qualified public use facility: includes :
  (i) Any building, complex, center, facility or any two (2) or more adjacent buildings, complexes, centers or facilities containing at least two hundred fifty thousand square feet (250,000 sq. See Tennessee Code 7-88-103
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• real property: include lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all rights thereto and interests therein, equitable as well as legal. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in a perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Registration: means the acceptance by the office of vital records and the incorporation of vital records provided for in this chapter into its official records. See Tennessee Code 68-3-102
• 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.
• 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).
• Representative: when applied to those who represent a decedent, includes executors and administrators, unless the context implies heirs and distributees. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• revenue bonds: means bonds, notes, interim certificates or other obligations of an authority issued pursuant to this chapter, or pursuant to any other law, as supplemented by, or in conjunction with, this chapter. See Tennessee Code 7-87-103
• revenue bonds: means bonds, notes, interim certificates or other obligations of an authority issued pursuant to this chapter, or pursuant to any other law, as supplemented by, or in conjunction with, this chapter. See Tennessee Code 7-89-103
• revenue bonds: means bonds, notes, interim certificates or other obligations of an authority issued pursuant to this chapter, or pursuant to any other law, as supplemented by, or in conjunction with, this chapter. See Tennessee Code 7-90-103
• Sale contract: means a contract providing for the sale of one (1) or more projects to one (1) or more contracting parties and includes a contract providing for payment of the purchase price in one (1) or more installments. See Tennessee Code 7-89-103
• Secondary tourist development zone: means a tourist development zone that at the time of its creation is located more than three (3) miles from the county courthouse. See Tennessee Code 7-88-103
• 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.
• signed: includes a mark, the name being written near the mark and witnessed, or any other symbol or methodology executed or adopted by a party with intention to authenticate a writing or record, regardless of being witnessed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• State: means the state of Tennessee. See Tennessee Code 7-87-103
• State: means the state of Tennessee and, unless otherwise indicated by the context, any agency, authority, branch, bureau, commission, corporation, department or instrumentality of the state, now or hereafter existing. See Tennessee Code 7-89-103
• State: means the state of Tennessee and, unless otherwise indicated by the context, any agency, authority, branch, bureau, commission, corporation, department or instrumentality of the state, now or hereafter existing. See Tennessee Code 7-90-103
• State: means the state of Tennessee. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Structured lease agreement: means a lease by a municipality of a qualified public use facility within a tourism development zone financed by bonds issued and outstanding in compliance with §. See Tennessee Code 7-88-103
• 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: includes the registration, collection, preservation, amendment, and certification of vital records, and the collection of other reports required by this chapter. See Tennessee Code 68-3-102
• 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.
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• THEC: means the Tennessee higher education commission. See Tennessee Code 7-90-103
• 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.
• Tourism development zone: means an area in a municipality designated by ordinance or resolution of such municipality in which a qualified public use facility is located or planned, that is determined by the department of finance and administration to be a beneficially impacted area in accordance with the requirements of this chapter and that is certified as a tourism development zone by the department. See Tennessee Code 7-88-103
• 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: includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Unlawful violence: means assault, aggravated assault, stalking, intimidation, or extortion as prohibited by §. See Tennessee Code 20-14-101
• 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.
• Veto: The procedure established under the Constitution by which the President/Governor refuses to approve a bill or joint resolution and thus prevents its enactment into law. A regular veto occurs when the President/Governor returns the legislation to the house in which it originated. The President/Governor usually returns a vetoed bill with a message indicating his reasons for rejecting the measure. In Congress, the veto can be overridden only by a two-thirds vote in both the Senate and the House.
• Vital records: means certificates or reports of birth, death, marriage, divorce or annulment and other records related thereto. See Tennessee Code 68-3-102
• 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.
• written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Year: means a calendar year, unless otherwise expressed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105