Terms Used In Tennessee Code > Title 56 > Chapter 47 - Workers' Compensation Fraud Act

• Actual malice: means the knowledge that information is false, or reckless disregard of whether it is false. See Tennessee Code 56-47-102
• Allegation: something that someone says happened.
• 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.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Attorney: means the person designated and authorized by subscribers as the attorney-in-fact having authority to obligate them on reciprocal insurance contracts. See Tennessee Code 56-16-102
• Child: means an individual, whether over or under the age of majority, who is or is alleged to be owed a duty of support by the individual's parent or who is or is alleged to be the beneficiary of a support order directed to the parent. See Tennessee Code 36-5-2101
• Clerk: means the clerk of the original or registering court, or the clerk of any court who has been designated by either of those courts to collect support payments for such court. See Tennessee Code 36-5-3102
• 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 the commissioner of commerce and insurance. See Tennessee Code 56-1-102
• 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.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Court: means a juvenile, circuit, or chancery court or other court of this state with jurisdiction to enter support or custody orders. See Tennessee Code 36-5-3102
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Department: means the department of commerce and insurance. See Tennessee Code 56-1-102
• Department: means the department of human services or its contractor. See Tennessee Code 36-5-3102
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• 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.
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Income: includes earnings or other periodic entitlements to money from any source and any other property subject to withholding for support under the law of this state. See Tennessee Code 36-5-2101
• 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.
• Insurance policy: means the written instrument in which are set forth the terms of any binder of coverage or contract of insurance, including a binder or contract issued by a state-assigned risk plan, or other forms of workers' compensation insurance. See Tennessee Code 56-47-102
• Insurance professional: means sales agents, managing general agents, brokers, producers, adjusters and third party administrators. See Tennessee Code 56-47-102
• Insurance transaction: means a transaction by, between or among an:
  
  
  1. Insurer or a person who acts on behalf of an insurer. See Tennessee Code 56-47-102
  2. Insurer: means any person purporting to engage in the business of insurance or authorized to do business in this state or subject to regulation by the state, who undertakes to indemnify another against loss, damage or liability arising from a contingent or unknown event related to causes arising under title 50, chapter 6. See Tennessee Code 56-47-102
  3. Issuing court: means the court that entered the order sought to be enforced in the registering court. See Tennessee Code 36-5-3102
  4. 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.
  5. Law: includes decisional and statutory law and rules and regulations having the force of law. See Tennessee Code 36-5-2101
  6. Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
  7. Minor: means any person who has not attained eighteen (18) years of age. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  8. Nonrequesting party: means the party against whom a registered order is sought to be enforced. See Tennessee Code 36-5-3102
  9. 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.
  10. Obligee: means an individual or agency to whom a support obligation is owed by an obligor. See Tennessee Code 36-5-3102
  11. Obligor: means an individual against whom a support order has been entered. See Tennessee Code 36-5-3102
  12. 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.
  13. Pattern or practice: means repeated, routine or generalized in nature, and not merely isolated or sporadic. See Tennessee Code 56-47-102
  14. Person: means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, public corporation, government, or governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, or any other legal or commercial entity. See Tennessee Code 36-5-2101
  15. Person: means a natural person, company, corporation, unincorporated association, partnership, professional corporation, agency of government or any other entity. See Tennessee Code 56-47-102
  16. Person: includes a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  17. Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
  18. Practitioner: means a licensee of this state authorized to practice medicine and surgery, psychology, chiropractic or law or any other licensee of state or person required to be licensed in this state whose services are compensated either in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, by insurance proceeds. See Tennessee Code 56-47-102
  19. Premium: includes any payments, whether due within the insurance policy term or otherwise, and deductible payments whether advanced by the insurer or insurance professional and subject to reimbursement by the insured or otherwise, any self-insured retention or payments, whether advanced by the insurer or insurance professionals and subject to reimbursement by the insured or otherwise, and any collateral or security to be provided to collateralize obligations to pay any of the above. See Tennessee Code 56-47-102
  20. Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  21. Reckless: means without reasonable belief of the truth, or, for the purposes of §. See Tennessee Code 56-47-102
  22. Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 36-5-2101
  23. 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
  24. Registering court: means the court in which a support order is registered for enforcement only. See Tennessee Code 36-5-3102
  25. 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).
  26. 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
  27. Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
  28. Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
  29. 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 under the jurisdiction of the United States. See Tennessee Code 36-5-2101
  30. 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
  31. Support order: means a judgment, decree, order, decision, or directive, whether temporary, final, or subject to modification, issued in a state or foreign country for the benefit of a child, a spouse, or a former spouse, which provides for monetary support, health care, arrearages, retroactive support, or reimbursement for financial assistance provided to an individual obligee in place of child support. See Tennessee Code 36-5-2101
  32. Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
  33. written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  34. Year: means a calendar year, unless otherwise expressed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105