Terms Used In Texas Family Code > Title 4 > Subtitle C - Family Violence Reporting and Services

• Affirmed: In the practice of the appellate courts, the decree or order is declared valid and will stand as rendered in the lower court.
• Amortization: Paying off a loan by regular installments.
• Appraisal: A determination of property value.
• 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
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Balanced budget: A budget in which receipts equal outlays.
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Court: means and includes:
  (1) a county court in the exercise of its probate jurisdiction;
  (2) a court created by statute and authorized to exercise original probate jurisdiction; and
  (3) a district court exercising original probate jurisdiction in a contested matter. See Texas Estates Code 22.007
• 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}
• Estate: means a decedent's property, as that property:
  (1) exists originally and as the property changes in form by sale, reinvestment, or otherwise;
  (2) is augmented by any accretions and other additions to the property, including any property to be distributed to the decedent's representative by the trustee of a trust that terminates on the decedent's death, and substitutions for the property; and
  (3) is diminished by any decreases in or distributions from the property. See Texas Estates Code 22.012
• 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.
• Felony: A crime carrying a penalty of more than a year in prison.
• 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.
• 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.
• Justice: when applied to a magistrate, means justice of the peace. See Texas Government Code 312.011
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Livestock: means cattle, horses, mules, asses, sheep, goats, llamas, alpacas, exotic livestock, including elk and elk hybrids, and hogs, unless otherwise defined. See Texas Agriculture Code 1.003
• Month: means a calendar month. See Texas Government Code 312.011
• 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.
• Person: includes a natural person and a corporation. See Texas Estates Code 22.027
• 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.
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• Property: means real and personal property. See Texas Government Code 311.005
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Signed: includes any symbol executed or adopted by a person with present intention to authenticate a writing. See Texas Government Code 311.005
• Succeeding: means immediately following. See Texas Government Code 312.011
• United States: includes a department, bureau, or other agency of the United States of America. See Texas Government Code 311.005
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Ward: means a person for whom a guardian has been appointed. See Texas Estates Code 22.033
• Will: includes :
  (1) a codicil; and
  (2) a testamentary instrument that merely:
  (A) appoints an executor or guardian;
  (B) directs how property may not be disposed of; or
  (C) revokes another will. See Texas Estates Code 22.034
• Year: means 12 consecutive months. See Texas Government Code 311.005