Terms Used In Tennessee Code > Title 40 > Chapter 3 - Methods of Prosecution

• Acquittal:
  1. Judgement that a criminal defendant has not been proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
  2. A verdict of "not guilty."
   
• 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
• Analytic testing: means that phase of medical laboratory testing, as defined by the board, that can impact the reliability of the results reported. See Tennessee Code 68-29-103
• Anatomical gift: means a donation of all or part of a human body to take effect after the donor's death for the purpose of transplantation, therapy, research, or education. See Tennessee Code 68-31-101
• 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.
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
• Auxiliary aids and services: means :
  (A) Qualified interpreters or other effective methods of making aurally delivered materials available to individuals with hearing impairments. See Tennessee Code 68-31-101
• Board: means the medical laboratory board, created by §. See Tennessee Code 68-29-103
• Cat: means all domesticated members of the feline family. See Tennessee Code 68-8-102
• Collection station: means any place or entity that has as its primary purpose either the collection of specimens directly from patients or the bringing together of specimens after collection for the purpose of referral to a medical laboratory where testing is performed. See Tennessee Code 68-29-103
• Commissioner: means the commissioner of health or a duly authorized representative. See Tennessee Code 68-8-102
• Commissioner: means the commissioner of health or the commissioner's designee. See Tennessee Code 68-10-101
• Commissioner: means the commissioner of health. See Tennessee Code 68-29-103
• Commissioner: means the commissioner of health. See Tennessee Code 68-34-102
• 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.
• Confinement: means housed in a building, pen or by some other suitable escape-proof method or enclosure or being leashed. See Tennessee Code 68-8-102
• Congenital defect: means a physical or chemical abnormality present in a minor that is inconsistent with the normal development of a human being of the minor's sex, including abnormalities caused by a medically verifiable disorder of sex development, but does not include gender dysphoria, gender identity disorder, gender incongruence, or any mental condition, disorder, disability, or abnormality. See Tennessee Code 68-33-102
• Contraceptive procedures: means any medically accepted procedure designed to prevent conception. See Tennessee Code 68-34-102
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Council: means the public health council, as defined in §. See Tennessee Code 68-29-103
• Covered entity: means :
  (A) A healthcare provider. See Tennessee Code 68-31-101
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the Tennessee department of health. See Tennessee Code 68-8-102
• Department: means the department of health. See Tennessee Code 68-10-101
• Department: means the state department of health, including the public health council [repealed]. See Tennessee Code 68-29-103
• Department: means the department of health. See Tennessee Code 68-34-102
• Designated Entity: means an entity that performs actions or functions on behalf of the provider, payer or patient for the purposes of creating an electronic health record. See Tennessee Code 68-29-103
• 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:
• Dog: means all domesticated members of the canine family. See Tennessee Code 68-8-102
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• 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}
• 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.
• 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.
• Forgery: The fraudulent signing or alteration of another's name to an instrument such as a deed, mortgage, or check. The intent of the forgery is to deceive or defraud. ^{Source: OCC}
• Forms: means the certificates that are authorized, prepared and distributed by the department to carry out this chapter. See Tennessee Code 68-10-101
• 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.
• Governing body: means the legislative body of any local government of this state or any other authority charged with the governing of the affairs of any local government in this state. See Tennessee Code 9-21-105
• Grand jury: agreement providing that a lender will delay exercising its rights (in the case of a mortgage,
• 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.
• Healthcare provider: means a person licensed under title 63, chapter 6, 7, 9, or 19. See Tennessee Code 68-31-101
• Healthcare provider: means a healthcare professional, establishment, or facility licensed, registered, certified, or permitted pursuant to this title or title 63 and under the regulatory authority of:. See Tennessee Code 68-33-102
• Hormone: means an androgen or estrogen. See Tennessee Code 68-33-102
• Impeachment: (1) The process of calling something into question, as in "impeaching the testimony of a witness." (2) The constitutional process whereby the House of Representatives may "impeach" (accuse of misconduct) high officers of the federal government for trial in the Senate.
• Independent laboratory: means a medical laboratory performing patient tests that is independent both of attending and consulting physicians' offices and independent of a hospital. See Tennessee Code 68-29-103
• 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.
• 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.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Livestock: means all equine as well as animals that are being raised primarily for use as food or fiber for human utilization or consumption including, but not limited to, cattle, sheep, swine, goats, and poultry. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Local government: means any county, municipality or metropolitan government in this state. See Tennessee Code 9-21-105
• Medical laboratory: means any institution, building, or place in which operations and procedures for the microbiological, serological, chemical, hematological, immunohematological, or biophysical examination of specimens taken from the human body are performed to obtain information for diagnosis, prophylaxis, or treatment or where any examination, determination, or test is made on any sample used as a basis for health advice, or where any sample is collected for the purpose of transfusion or processing of blood or blood fractions, or for the training of medical laboratory personnel. See Tennessee Code 68-29-103
• Medical laboratory director: means a person who is responsible for the administration of the technical and scientific operation of a medical laboratory, including supervision of procedures for testing and the reporting of results. See Tennessee Code 68-29-103
• Medical laboratory evaluation program: means a program of evaluating the proficiency of medical laboratories by the department. See Tennessee Code 68-29-103
• Medical laboratory owner: means a person or agency in whom is vested the rights of control, possession, and dominion of a medical laboratory, and, for the purposes of this chapter, includes a county, municipality, or any other owner of an institution operating a medical laboratory. See Tennessee Code 68-29-103
• Medical laboratory personnel: includes the medical laboratory director, supervisor, technologist, or technician, but does not include medical laboratory assistants, trainees, or other persons employed by a medical laboratory to perform clerical or other administrative responsibilities involving no laboratory test. See Tennessee Code 68-29-103
• Medical laboratory supervisor: means a person who, under the general supervision of a medical laboratory director, supervises technical personnel, performs tests requiring special scientific skills, and, in the absence of the director, is held responsible for the proper performance of all medical laboratory procedures and the reporting of results. See Tennessee Code 68-29-103
• Medical laboratory technician: means any person other than the medical laboratory director, supervisor, technologist, or trainee who functions under the supervision of a medical laboratory director, supervisor, or technologist and performs only those medical laboratory procedures that require limited skill, responsibility, and a minimal exercise of independent judgment. See Tennessee Code 68-29-103
• Medical laboratory technologist: means a person who performs tests that require the exercise of independent judgment and responsibility with minimal supervision by the director or supervisor, in only those specialties or subspecialties in which the technologist is qualified by education, training, and experience. See Tennessee Code 68-29-103
• Medical laboratory trainee: is a person enrolled in a program accredited by an accrediting agency accepted by the board. See Tennessee Code 68-29-103
• Medical procedure: means :
  (A) Surgically removing, modifying, altering, or entering into tissues, cavities, or organs of a human being. See Tennessee Code 68-33-102
• Minor: means an individual under eighteen (18) years of age. See Tennessee Code 68-33-102
• Minor: means any person who has not attained eighteen (18) years of age. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Notes: means notes or interim certificates issued pending preparation or delivery of definitive notes of a local government issued pursuant to this chapter. See Tennessee Code 9-21-105
• 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.
• Obligations: means bonds, notes and any other evidence of indebtedness lawfully issued or assumed by a local government. See Tennessee Code 9-21-105
• Observation period: means the time following a bite incident during which the biting animal's health status must be monitored. See Tennessee Code 68-8-102
• Owner: means any person having a right or property in a dog or cat, or who keeps or harbors a dog or cat, or who has it in such person's care or acts as its custodian, or who permits a dog or cat to remain on or about any premises. See Tennessee Code 68-8-102
• Parent: means any biological, legal, or adoptive parent or parents of the minor or any legal guardian of the minor. See Tennessee Code 68-33-102
• 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.
• Peace officer: means animal control officer, police, rabies control officer, sheriff, wildlife officer, or similar duly appointed law enforcement officer of the state or any political subdivision thereof, authorized by the Constitution, statutes, charter, or ordinances to enforce statutory, rule, charter or ordinance violations. See Tennessee Code 68-8-102
• Person: means any individual, firm, partnership, association, corporation, municipality, political subdivision, or any other entity whether organized for profit or not. See Tennessee Code 68-29-103
• Person: includes a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Pharmacy: means a pharmacy licensed by the board of pharmacy pursuant to title 63, chapter 10. See Tennessee Code 68-29-103
• Physician: means any doctor of medicine or doctor of osteopathy duly licensed to practice the doctor's profession in Tennessee. See Tennessee Code 68-29-103
• Physician: means any doctor of medicine or doctor of osteopathy duly licensed to practice such physician's profession in Tennessee or the state in which such physician resides and lawfully practices such physician's profession. See Tennessee Code 68-34-102
• 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.
• 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.
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Puberty blocker: means a drug or device that suppresses the production of hormones in a minor's body to stop, delay, or suppress pubertal development. See Tennessee Code 68-33-102
• Public works project: includes any one (1) or any combination of the following: acquisitions of land for the purpose of providing or preserving open land. See Tennessee Code 9-21-105
• Qualified recipient: means a recipient who has a disability and meets the eligibility requirements for receipt of transplantation or anatomical gift regardless of the use of the following:
  (A) Individuals or entities available to support and assist the recipient of an anatomical gift or transplantation. See Tennessee Code 68-31-101
• Quarantine: means a state of strictly enforced isolation from other animals or the public imposed to prevent the spread of disease. See Tennessee Code 68-8-102
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• 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
• 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
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• Revenues: means all fees, rents, tolls, rates, rentals, interest earnings, or other charges received or receivable by the local government from any public works project or enterprise then existing or thereafter to be constructed, including any revenues derived or to be derived by a local government from a lease, agreement or contract with any other local government, local government instrumentality, the state, or a state or federal agency for the use of or in connection with a public works project or enterprise, or all other charges to be levied and collected in connection with and all other income and receipts of whatever kind or character derived by the local government from the operation of any public works project or enterprise or arising from any public works project or enterprise. See Tennessee Code 9-21-105
• Sex: means a person's immutable characteristics of the reproductive system that define the individual as male or female, as determined by anatomy and genetics existing at the time of birth. See Tennessee Code 68-33-102
• Shelter: means animal or humane shelter, dog pound or animal pound. See Tennessee Code 68-8-102
• 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
• Special analyst: means any person performing a singular or limited type of medical laboratory test or group of tests, such as, but not limited to, blood gases or pH tests, on human specimens, but who is not trained to perform the broad range of tests required of licensed medical laboratory personnel. See Tennessee Code 68-29-103
• State: means the state of Tennessee. See Tennessee Code 9-21-105
• 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.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Test: means a test approved by the department to determine possible infection with STDs. See Tennessee Code 68-10-101
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Transplantation: means the transplantation or transfusion of a human body part into the body of another individual for the purpose of treating or curing a medical condition. See Tennessee Code 68-31-101
• 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
• Vaccination: means the injection of a rabies vaccine for animals, which meets the standards prescribed by both the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) license granted to the vaccine for interstate sale and by the department. See Tennessee Code 68-8-102
• Veterinarian: means any individual licensed by the state board of veterinary medical examiners to practice veterinary medicine in this state. See Tennessee Code 68-8-102
• Waived: means those laboratory tests systems cleared by the United States food and drug administration (FDA) for home use and those tests approved for waiver under the federal Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA) (42 U. See Tennessee Code 68-29-103
• 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