Part 1 General Provisions 8-4-101 – 8-4-119
Part 2 Hearings and Investigations 8-4-201 – 8-4-209
Part 3 Disability of Comptroller of the Treasury – Assistant Comptroller of the Treasury 8-4-301 – 8-4-304
Part 4 Advocacy for Honest and Appropriate Government Spending Act 8-4-401 – 8-4-409
Part 5 Local Government Instances of Fraud Reporting Act 8-4-501 – 8-4-505
Part 6 Office of Open Records Counsel 8-4-601 – 8-4-604
Part 7 Small Business Advocate 8-4-701 – 8-4-707

Terms Used In Tennessee Code > Title 8 > Chapter 4 - Comptroller of the Treasury

  • Acceptable form of identification: means :
    (A) A state-issued driver license. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1802
  • account: means a trust or custodian established pursuant to a health savings account program exclusively to pay the qualified medical expenses of an eligible individual or the individual's dependents, but only if the written governing instrument creating the account meets the following requirements:
    (A) Except in the case of a rollover contribution, no contribution shall be accepted:
    (i) Unless it is in cash. See Tennessee Code 67-10-102
  • 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.
  • Age-restricted venue: means a legal establishment that affirmatively restricts access to its buildings or facilities at all times to persons who are twenty-one (21) years of age or older by requiring each person who attempts to gain entry to those buildings or facilities to submit for inspection an acceptable form of identification for the express purpose of determining if the person is twenty-one (21) years of age or older. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1802
  • 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.
  • Answer: The formal written statement by a defendant responding to a civil complaint and setting forth the grounds for defense.
  • Antique firearm: means :
    (A) Any firearm, including any firearm with a matchlock, flintlock, percussion cap, or similar type of ignition system, manufactured in or before the year 1898. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • 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
  • Arrest: Taking physical custody of a person by lawful authority.
  • 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
  • Bailiff: a court officer who enforces the rules of behavior in courtrooms.
  • Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
  • Benefit: means anything reasonably regarded as economic gain, enhancement or advantage, including benefit to any other person in whose welfare the beneficiary is interested. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • bidis: means a product containing tobacco that is wrapped in temburni leaf (dispyros melanoxylon) or tendu leaf (diospyros exculpra), or any other product that is offered to, or purchased by, consumers as beedies or bidis. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1503
  • board: means the board provided for in part 3 of this chapter. See Tennessee Code 8-34-101
  • Bodily injury: includes a cut, abrasion, bruise, burn or disfigurement, and physical pain or temporary illness or impairment of the function of a bodily member, organ, or mental faculty. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • Chambers: A judge's office.
  • Children: means individuals who have not attained eighteen (18) years of age. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1603
  • Club: means any instrument that is specially designed, made or adapted for the purpose of inflicting serious bodily injury or death by striking a person with the instrument. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1301
  • 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 health. See Tennessee Code 68-3-102
  • 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 agriculture or the commissioner's duly authorized representative. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1503
  • 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.
  • Community center: means any center operated by any city or county government that is used for children's activities. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1603
  • Community grant: means federal funds made available to the state of Tennessee for administration and distribution pursuant to any of the following programs:
    (A) The maternal and child health block grant program. See Tennessee Code 8-4-402
  • Community grant agency: means any private corporation that contracts with a state agency to receive one (1) or more community grants in consideration for rendering specified services to the public. See Tennessee Code 8-4-402
  • 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.
  • 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 mayor: means and includes "county executive" unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Crime of violence: includes any degree of murder, voluntary manslaughter, aggravated rape, rape, rape of a child, aggravated rape of a child, aggravated sexual battery, especially aggravated robbery, aggravated robbery, burglary, aggravated burglary, especially aggravated burglary, aggravated assault, kidnapping, aggravated kidnapping, especially aggravated kidnapping, carjacking, trafficking for commercial sex act, especially aggravated sexual exploitation, felony child abuse, and aggravated child abuse. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1301
  • Criminal negligence: refers to a person who acts with criminal negligence with respect to the circumstances surrounding that person's conduct or the result of that conduct when the person ought to be aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the circumstances exist or the result will occur. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • customer: means a person who receives a bill for utility services and pays money for such services. See Tennessee Code 7-82-102
  • 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
  • Deadly weapon: means :
    (A) A firearm or anything manifestly designed, made or adapted for the purpose of inflicting death or serious bodily injury. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • Decedent: A deceased person.
  • Deductible: means the total deductible for an eligible individual and all the dependents of that eligible individual for a calendar year. See Tennessee Code 67-10-102
  • 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.
  • Defendant: means a person accused of an offense under this title and includes any person who aids or abets the commission of such offense. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • Department: means the department of health. See Tennessee Code 68-3-102
  • Department: means the department of agriculture. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1503
  • Deposition: An oral statement made before an officer authorized by law to administer oaths. Such statements are often taken to examine potential witnesses, to obtain discovery, or to be used later in trial.
  • Devise: To gift property by will.
  • 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.
  • Eligible individual: means the individual taxpayer, including employees of an employer who contributes to health savings accounts on the employees' behalf, who:
    (A) Must be covered by a high deductible health plan individually or with the individual's dependent. See Tennessee Code 67-10-102
  • Employee: means a person who is employed by an employer in consideration for direct or indirect monetary wages or profit and a person who volunteers that person's services for a nonprofit entity. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1802
  • Employer: means a person, business, partnership, association, corporation, including a municipal corporation, educational institution, trust, or nonprofit entity that employs the services of one (1) or more individual persons. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1802
  • Enclosed area: means all space between a floor and ceiling that is enclosed on all sides by solid walls or windows, exclusive of doorways, that extend from the floor to the ceiling. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1802
  • 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.
  • Explosive weapon: means any explosive, incendiary or poisonous gas:
    (i) Bomb. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1301
  • 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
  • Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
  • 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
  • Final disposition: means the burial, interment, cremation, removal from the state or other authorized disposition of a dead body or fetus. 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.
  • Force: means compulsion by the use of physical power or violence and shall be broadly construed to accomplish the purposes of this title. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • 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
  • 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.
  • Government: means the state or any political subdivision of the state, and includes any branch or agency of the state, a county, municipality or other political subdivision. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • Grand jury: agreement providing that a lender will delay exercising its rights (in the case of a mortgage,
  • Group care home: means a home operated by any person, society, agency, corporation, or institution or any group which receives seven (7) or more children for full-time care outside their own homes in facilities owned or rented and operated by the organization. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1603
  • 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.
  • Handgun: means any firearm with a barrel length of less than twelve inches (12") that is designed, made or adapted to be fired with one (1) hand. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • Harm: means anything reasonably regarded as loss, disadvantage or injury, including harm to another person in whose welfare the person affected is interested. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • Health care facility: includes all waiting rooms, hallways, private rooms, semiprivate rooms, and wards within health care facilities. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1802
  • Hearsay: Statements by a witness who did not see or hear the incident in question but heard about it from someone else. Hearsay is usually not admissible as evidence in court.
  • Hemp: means the plant Cannabis sativa L. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1503
  • High deductible health plan: means a health plan with:
    (A) In the case of self-only coverage, an annual deductible that is not less than one thousand dollars ($1,000), and the sum of the annual deductible and other out-of-pocket expenses required to be paid under the plan for covered benefits does not exceed five thousand one hundred dollars ($5,100), or such other amounts for an annual deductible and out-of-pocket expenses established in accordance with §. See Tennessee Code 67-10-102
  • Highway: includes public bridges and may be held equivalent to the words "county way" "county road" or "state road". See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Hoax device: means any device that reasonably appears to be or is purported to be an explosive or incendiary device and is intended to cause alarm or reaction of any type by an official of a public safety agency or a volunteer agency organized to deal with emergencies. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1301
  • Hotline: means a method or system created or established to accept any telephonic or electronic form of communication that is communicated to the office of the comptroller of the treasury, for the purposes of providing governmental employees and citizens of Tennessee a means to report or provide information relating to alleged fraud, abuse, or wrongdoing. See Tennessee Code 8-4-402
  • Immediate vicinity: refers to the area within the person's immediate control within which the person has ready access to the ammunition. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1301
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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
  • Intentional: means that a person acts intentionally with respect to the nature of the conduct or to a result of the conduct when it is the person's conscious objective or desire to engage in the conduct or cause the result. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • Interrogatories: Written questions asked by one party of an opposing party, who must answer them in writing under oath; a discovery device in a lawsuit.
  • Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
  • 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.
  • Knife: means any bladed hand instrument that is capable of inflicting serious bodily injury or death by cutting or stabbing a person with the instrument. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1301
  • Knowing: means that a person acts knowingly with respect to the conduct or to circumstances surrounding the conduct when the person is aware of the nature of the conduct or that the circumstances exist. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • Knuckles: means any instrument that consists of finger rings or guards made of a hard substance and that is designed, made or adapted for the purpose of inflicting serious bodily injury or death by striking a person with a fist enclosed in the knuckles. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1301
  • Lands: includes lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all rights thereto and interests therein, equitable as well as legal. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Law enforcement officer: includes a sheriff, sheriff's deputy, and, only for purposes of the enhancement of a crime, a deputy jailer. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • 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.
  • 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
  • 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 agency: means any county, municipality, branch or agency of a county or municipality, public utility, utility district, entity created pursuant to any interlocal agreement, or any other political subdivision thereof. See Tennessee Code 8-4-402
  • Machine gun: means any firearm that is capable of shooting more than two (2) shots automatically, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1301
  • 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
  • Mental institution: means a mental health facility, mental hospital, sanitarium, psychiatric facility and any other facility that provides diagnoses by a licensed professional of an intellectual disability or mental illness, including, but not limited to, a psychiatric ward in a general hospital. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1301
  • Metals recycling facility: means any business that is predominantly engaged in performing the process by which scrap, used or obsolete ferrous or nonferrous metals are converted into raw materials consisting of proper grades and having an existing or potential economic value. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1401
  • Minor: means any person who has not attained eighteen (18) years of age. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Minor: means any person under eighteen (18) years of age. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • 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.
  • Motor vehicle: means any vehicle which is self-propelled. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1401
  • 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.
  • Obtain: includes , but is not limited to, the taking, carrying away or the sale, conveyance or transfer of title to or interest in or possession of property, and includes, but is not limited to, conduct known as larceny, larceny by trick, larceny by conversion, embezzlement, extortion or obtaining property by false pretenses. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • Official proceeding: means any type of administrative, executive, legislative or judicial proceeding that may be conducted before a public servant authorized by law to take statements under oath. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • Owner: means a person, other than the defendant, who has possession of or any interest other than a mortgage, deed of trust or security interest in property, even though that possession or interest is unlawful and without whose consent the defendant has no authority to exert control over the property. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • 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.
  • PCB-containing capacitor: means a capacitor that contains polychlorinated biphenyls and is regulated under the federal Toxic Substances Control Act ( 15 U. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1401
  • Person: includes a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Person: includes the singular and the plural and means and includes any individual, firm, partnership, copartnership, association, corporation, governmental subdivision or agency, or other organization or other legal entity, or any agent or servant thereof. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • Person: means an individual, corporation, partnership, sole proprietorship or other business entity. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1401
  • Person: means any individual, firm, fiduciary, partnership, corporation, trust, or association. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1503
  • Person: means an individual, partnership, committee, association, corporation or any other organization or group of persons. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1802
  • Person: means a natural person, individual, governmental agency, partnership, corporation, trust, estate, incorporated or unincorporated association, and any other legal or commercial entity however organized. See Tennessee Code 23-3-101
  • 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
  • Physician: means a person licensed to practice medicine or osteopathy pursuant to the laws of this state. See Tennessee Code 68-3-102
  • Place of employment: means an enclosed area under the control of a public or private employer that employees normally frequent during the course of employment, including, but not limited to, work areas, private offices, employee lounges, restrooms, conference rooms, meeting rooms, classrooms, employee cafeterias, hallways, and vehicles. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1802
  • Place of worship: means any enclosed area that is:
    (A) Approved, or qualified to be approved, by the state board of equalization for property tax exemption pursuant to §. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1802
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Private club: means any club or organization that does not permit the general public access to its facilities or activities. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1802
  • Pro se: A Latin term meaning "on one's own behalf"; in courts, it refers to persons who present their own cases without lawyers.
  • Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
  • Probate: Proving a will
  • Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
  • program: means a program that includes all of the following:
    (A) The purchase by an eligible individual or by an employer of a high deductible health plan. See Tennessee Code 67-10-102
  • Proof of age: means a driver license or other generally accepted means of identification that describes the individual as twenty-one (21) years of age or older, contains a photograph or other likeness of the individual, and appears on its face to be valid. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1503
  • Property: includes both personal and real property. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Property: means anything of value, including, but not limited to, money, real estate, tangible or intangible personal property, including anything severed from land, library material, contract rights, choses-in-action, interests in or claims to wealth, credit, admission or transportation tickets, captured or domestic animals, food and drink, electric or other power. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
  • Public entity: means any branch or agency of a county, municipality, public utility, utility district, entity created pursuant to any interlocal agreement, or any other political subdivision thereof. See Tennessee Code 8-4-502
  • Public health council: means the [former] council established in §. See Tennessee Code 68-3-102
  • Public official: means a person elected or appointed to any office of a public entity. See Tennessee Code 8-4-502
  • Public place: means any public street, sidewalk or park, or any area open to the general public in any publicly owned or operated building. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1503
  • Public place: means a place to which the public or a group of persons has access and includes, but is not limited to, highways, transportation facilities, schools, places of amusement, parks, places of business, playgrounds and hallways, lobbies and other portions of apartment houses and hotels not constituting rooms or apartments designed for actual residence. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • Public place: means an enclosed area to which the public is invited, including, but not limited to, banks, educational facilities, health care facilities, hotel and motel lobbies, laundromats, public transportation facilities, reception areas, restaurants, retail food production and marketing establishments, recreational facilities, retail service establishments, retail stores, shopping malls, sports arenas, theaters, places of employment and waiting rooms. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1802
  • Reasonable amount of time: means any amount of time that is reasonable under the particular circumstances, but shall not under any circumstances exceed five (5) working days. See Tennessee Code 8-4-502
  • Recess: A temporary interruption of the legislative 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
  • 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
  • Rescission: The cancellation of budget authority previously provided by Congress. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 specifies that the President may propose to Congress that funds be rescinded. If both Houses have not approved a rescission proposal (by passing legislation) within 45 days of continuous session, any funds being withheld must be made available for obligation.
  • Residential treatment facility: means a residential treatment facility licensed under title 33, chapter 2, part 4. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1603
  • Restaurant: includes a bar area within the restaurant. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1802
  • Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
  • Restricted firearm ammunition: means any cartridge containing a bullet coated with a plastic substance with other than a lead or lead alloy core or a jacketed bullet with other than a lead or lead alloy core or a cartridge of which the bullet itself is wholly composed of a metal or metal alloy other than lead. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1301
  • Rifle: means any firearm designed, made or adapted to be fired from the shoulder and to use the energy of the explosive in a fixed metallic cartridge to fire a projectile through a rifled bore by a single function of the trigger. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1301
  • Sampling: means the distribution of samples to members of the general public in a public place. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1503
  • School grounds: means any building, structure, and surrounding outdoor grounds contained within a public or private preschool, nursery school, kindergarten, elementary or secondary school's legally defined property boundaries as registered in a county register's office, and any publicly owned or leased vehicle used to transport children to or from school or any officially sanctioned or organized school event. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1603
  • Scrap vehicle: means any motor vehicle that has been crushed, flattened or dismantled or that has been otherwise damaged to the extent that it cannot be economically repaired. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1401
  • Serious bodily injury: means bodily injury that involves:
    (A) A substantial risk of death. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • 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
  • Services: includes labor, skill, professional service, transportation, telephone, mail, gas, electricity, steam, water, cable television, entertainment subscription service or other public services, accommodations in hotels, restaurants or elsewhere, admissions to exhibitions, use of vehicles or other movable property, and any other activity or product considered in the ordinary course of business to be a service, regardless of whether it is listed in this subdivision (a)(38) or a specific statute exists covering the same or similar conduct. See Tennessee Code 39-11-106
  • 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.
  • 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
  • Shotgun: means any firearm designed, made or adapted to be fired from the shoulder and to use the energy of the explosive in a fixed shotgun shell to fire through a smooth-bore barrel either a number of ball shot or a single projectile by a single function of the trigger. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1301
  • 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
  • Smoking: means the burning of a lighted cigarette, cigar, pipe or any other substance containing tobacco. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1603
  • Smoking: means inhaling, exhaling, burning, or carrying any lighted cigar, cigarette, pipe, or other lighted tobacco product in any manner or in any form. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1802
  • Smoking hemp: means hemp that is offered for sale to the public with the intention that it is consumed by smoking and that does not meet the definition of a vapor product. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1503
  • 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
  • State agency: means each state board, commission, committee, department, office, or any other unit of state government. See Tennessee Code 8-4-402
  • Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
  • Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
  • Subpoena duces tecum: A command to a witness to produce documents.
  • Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
  • Switchblade knife: means any knife that has a blade which opens automatically by:
    (A) Hand pressure applied to a button or other device in the handle. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1301
  • 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
  • Testator: A male person who leaves a will at death.
  • Testify: Answer questions in court.
  • Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
  • Tobacco product: means any product that contains tobacco and is intended for human consumption, including, but not limited to, cigars, cigarettes and bidis. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1503
  • 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.
  • 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 conduct: means theft, forgery, credit or debit card fraud, or any other act of unlawful taking, waste, or abuse of, or official misconduct, as defined in §. See Tennessee Code 8-4-502
  • Unloaded: means the rifle, shotgun or handgun does not have ammunition in the chamber, cylinder, clip or magazine, and no clip or magazine is in the immediate vicinity of the weapon. See Tennessee Code 39-17-1301
  • Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
  • 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