Terms Used In Tennessee Code > Title 8 > Chapter 14 - Public Defenders

• Adult care home: means a single family residence licensed pursuant to this part in which twenty-four-hour residential care, including assistance with activities of daily living, is provided in a homelike environment to no more than five (5) adults who are elderly or have a disability. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• 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.
• 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.
• 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
• 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
• Bail: Security given for the release of a criminal defendant or witness from legal custody (usually in the form of money) to secure his/her appearance on the day and time appointed.
• Board: means the board for licensing health care facilities, as established in §. See Tennessee Code 68-11-302
• Board: means the board of assessment commissioners. See Tennessee Code 7-84-103
• Business records: means all those books, ledgers, records, papers and other documents prepared, kept, made or received at hospitals that pertain to the organization, administration or management of the business and affairs of hospitals, but that do not constitute hospital records as defined in subdivision (5). See Tennessee Code 68-11-302
• Charity: An agency, institution, or organization in existence and operating for the benefit of an indefinite number of persons and conducted for educational, religious, scientific, medical, or other beneficent purposes.
• commission: means the health facilities commission created by §. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• 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
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• 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.
• 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 Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• Department: means the department of health. See Tennessee Code 68-11-302
• 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:
• District: means the central business district created by ordinance or resolution by a municipality, or a corridor of central business districts created by joint agreement of two (2) or more municipalities. See Tennessee Code 7-84-103
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Evaluation: means the determination and documentation of the physiological and functional factors that impact the selection of an appropriate seating and wheeled mobility device. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• 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 director: means the executive director of the health facilities commission. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• Facility: means any institution, place or building providing health care services that is required to be licensed under this chapter. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• 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.
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• 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.
• Hospital: means any institution, place, building or agency represented and held out to the general public as ready, willing and able to furnish care, accommodations, facilities and equipment for the use, in connection with the services of a physician or dentist, of one (1) or more nonrelated persons who may be suffering from deformity, injury or disease or from any other condition for which nursing, medical or surgical services would be appropriate for care, diagnosis or treatment. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• Hospital: means any institution, place, building or agency that has been licensed by the board, as defined in §. See Tennessee Code 68-11-302
• Hospital records: means those medical histories, records, reports, summaries, diagnoses, prognoses, records of treatment and medication ordered and given, entries, X-rays, radiology interpretations, and other written, electronic, or graphic data prepared, kept, made or maintained in hospitals that pertain to hospital confinements or hospital services rendered to patients admitted to hospitals or receiving emergency room or outpatient care. See Tennessee Code 68-11-302
• 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.
• 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.
• Law clerk: Assist judges with research and drafting of opinions.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• 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
• Month: means a calendar month. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Municipality: means any incorporated city, town, metropolitan government, or county of this state exercising general governmental functions in the state. See Tennessee Code 7-84-103
• 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.
• Owner: means record owner in fee. See Tennessee Code 7-84-103
• Patient: includes , but is not limited to, any person who is suffering from an acute or chronic illness or injury or who is crippled, convalescent or infirm, or who is in need of obstetrical, surgical, medical, nursing or supervisory care. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• Patient: includes , but is not limited to, outpatients, inpatients, persons dead on arrival, persons receiving emergency room care, and the newborn. See Tennessee Code 68-11-302
• Person: includes a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• Person: means any individual, partnership, association, corporation, other business entity, state or local governmental agencies and entities, and federal agencies and entities to the extent permitted by federal law. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• physician: includes a podiatrist licensed under title 63, chapter 3. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• 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.
• Prior service: means service rendered prior to the date of membership in the retirement system for which credit was given under the terms of one (1) or more of the superseded systems as provided in part 6 of this chapter. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• 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 defender: Represent defendants who can't afford an attorney in criminal matters.
• 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
• Resident manager: means a person twenty-one (21) years of age or older who lives in an adult care home and oversees the day-to-day operation of the adult care home on behalf of the adult care home provider and meets all education, training and experience requirements prescribed in this part and in regulations promulgated by the board pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• Retirement: means withdrawal from membership with a retirement allowance granted under chapters 34-37 of this title. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• Retirement: means the withdrawal from current files of hospital records, business records, or parts thereof on or after the expiration of the applicable period of retention established pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 68-11-302
• Service: means service as a general employee, a teacher, a state police officer, a wildlife officer, a firefighter, a police officer, a state judge, a county judge, an attorney general, a commissioner or a county official which is paid for by an employer, and also includes service for which a former member of the general assembly is entitled to under former §. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
• sex: means a person's immutable biological sex as determined by anatomy and genetics existing at the time of birth and evidence of a person's biological sex. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• 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 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
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Substitute caregiver: means any person twenty-one (21) years of age or older who temporarily oversees care and services in an adult care home during the short-term absence of the adult care home provider or resident manager and meets all education, training and experience requirements prescribed in this part and in regulations promulgated by the board pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• 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.
• Traumatic brain injury residential home: means a facility owned and operated by a community-based traumatic brain injury (TBI) adult care home provider in which residential care, including assistance with activities of daily living, is provided in a homelike environment to disabled adults suffering from the effects of a traumatic brain injury as defined in §. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• Traumatic brain injury residential home provider: means a person twenty-one (21) years of age or older who owns and operates a traumatic brain injury residential home. See Tennessee Code 68-11-201
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• United States: includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
• 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