Terms Used In Tennessee Code > Title 56 > Chapter 53 - Insurance Fraud

• Actual malice: means knowledge that information is false, or reckless disregard of whether it is false. See Tennessee Code 56-53-101
• 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
• Beneficiary: means a person that has a present or future beneficial interest in a trust, vested or contingent. See Tennessee Code 35-15-103
• 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}
• Charitable trust: means a trust, or portion of a trust, created for a charitable purpose described in §. See Tennessee Code 35-15-103
• 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.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• Department: means the department of commerce and insurance. See Tennessee Code 56-1-102
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• 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.
• Fiduciary: means :
  (A) A trustee, conservator, guardian, agent under any agency agreement or other instrument, an executor, personal representative or administrator of a decedent's estate, or any other party, including a trust advisor or a trust protector, who is acting in a fiduciary capacity for any person, trust, or estate. See Tennessee Code 35-15-103
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Indemnification: In general, a collateral contract or assurance under which one person agrees to secure another person against either anticipated financial losses or potential adverse legal consequences. ^{Source: FDIC}
• Insurance policy: means the written instrument in which are set forth the terms of any certificate of insurance, binder of coverage or contract of insurance, including a certificate, binder or contract issued by a state-assigned risk plan, benefit plan, nonprofit hospital service plan, health maintenance organization, motor club service plan, or surety bond, cash bond or any other alternative to insurance authorized by a state's financial responsibility act. See Tennessee Code 56-53-101
• Insurance professional: means sales agents, managing general agents, brokers, producers, adjusters and third-party administrators. See Tennessee Code 56-53-101
• Insurance transaction: means a transaction by, between or among:
  (A) An insurer or a person who acts on behalf of an insurer. See Tennessee Code 56-53-101
• Insurer: includes , but is not limited to, an insurance company, self-insurer, reinsurer, reciprocal exchange, interinsurer, risk retention group, Lloyd's insurer, fraternal benefit society, surety, medical service, health maintenance organization, dental, optometric or any other similar health service plan, and any other legal entity engaged or purportedly engaged in the business of insurance, including any person or entity that falls within the definition of "insurer" found within this title. See Tennessee Code 56-53-101
• Interests of the beneficiaries: means the beneficial interests provided in the terms of the trust. See Tennessee Code 35-15-103
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Pattern or practice: means repeated, routine or generalized in nature, and not merely isolated or sporadic. See Tennessee Code 56-53-101
• Person: means a natural person, company, corporation, unincorporated association, partnership, professional corporation, agency of government and any other entity. See Tennessee Code 56-53-101
• Person: means an individual. See Tennessee Code 35-15-103
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Practitioner: means a licensee of this state authorized to practice medicine and surgery, psychology, chiropractic or law or any other licensee of the state or person required to be licensed in the state whose services are compensated either in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, by insurance proceeds, including, but not limited to, automotive repair shops, building contractors and insurance adjusters, or a licensee similarly licensed in other states and nations or the licensed practitioner of any nonmedical treatment rendered in accordance with a recognized religious method of healing. See Tennessee Code 56-53-101
• 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 professional 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 56-53-101
• Premium finance company: means a person engaged or purporting to engage in the business of advancing money, directly or indirectly, to an insurer or producer at the request of an insured pursuant to the terms of a premium finance agreement, including but not limited to loan contracts, notes, agreements or obligations, wherein the insured has assigned the unearned premiums, accrued dividends, or loss payments as security for the advancement in payment of premiums on insurance policies only, and does not include the financing of insurance premiums purchased in connection with the financing of goods and services. See Tennessee Code 56-53-101
• Premium finance transaction: means a transaction by, between or among an insured, a producer or other party claiming to act on behalf of an insured and a third-party premium finance company, for the purposes of purportedly or actually advancing money directly or indirectly to an insurer or producer at the request of an insured pursuant to the terms of a premium finance agreement, wherein the insured has assigned the unearned premiums, accrued dividends or loan payments as security for the advancement in payment of premiums on insurance policies only, and does not include the financing of insurance premiums purchased in connection with the financing of goods and services. See Tennessee Code 56-53-101
• Property: means anything that may be the subject of ownership, whether real or personal, legal or equitable, or any interest therein. See Tennessee Code 35-15-103
• Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Reciprocal: means the aggregation of subscribers under a common name. See Tennessee Code 56-16-102
• Reckless: means without reasonable belief of the truth, or, for the purposes of §. See Tennessee Code 56-53-101
• 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
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 Tennessee Code 35-15-103
• 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
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Terms of a trust: means the manifestation of the settlor's intent regarding a trust's provisions as expressed in the trust instrument or as may be established by other evidence that would be admissible in a judicial proceeding. See Tennessee Code 35-15-103
• This state: means the state of Tennessee. See Tennessee Code 35-15-103
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Trust advisor: means any person described in §. See Tennessee Code 35-15-103
• Trust instrument: means an instrument executed by the settlor that contains terms of the trust, including any amendments thereto. See Tennessee Code 35-15-103
• Trust protector: means any person described in §. See Tennessee Code 35-15-103
• Trustee: includes an original, additional, and successor trustee, and a cotrustee. See Tennessee Code 35-15-103
• 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
• written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105