Terms Used In Vermont Statutes > Title 23 > Chapter 11 - Financial Responsibility and Insurance

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Commissioner: shall mean in this title only the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles. See
• compensation: means payment in any form except reimbursement for mileage or the normal salary paid to a person otherwise employed by the school. See
• 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.
• Conviction: means an unvacated final adjudication of guilt, or a final determination that a person has violated or failed to comply with the law in a court of original jurisdiction or an authorized administrative tribunal, an unvacated forfeiture of bail or collateral deposited to secure the person's appearance in court, the payment of a fine or court cost, or violation of a condition of release without bail, regardless of whether or not the penalty is rebated, suspended, or probated. See
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• 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.
• Fees: shall mean earnings due for official services, aside from salaries or per diem compensation. See
• following: when used by way of reference to a section of the law shall mean the next preceding or following section. See
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Jitney: shall include any motor vehicle, not designated for the carrying of merchandise or freight, advertised or regularly used for carrying passengers for hire, but not operating over a fixed route, including motor vehicles operated for hire in connection with a livery business, but shall not include any such vehicle that the owner thereof uses in an emergency for such purpose, nor one that an employer uses to transport his or her employees to and from their work, nor one that is used at least 75 percent of the time in the transportation of schoolchildren or under authority granted to a school board under 16 V. See
• 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.
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Motor bus: shall include any motor vehicle with a seating capacity of more than seven persons, other than a street car, operated upon the public streets and highways along a regular route, and in such operation receiving, discharging, and transporting passengers for hire. See
• Motor vehicle: includes all vehicles propelled or drawn by power other than muscular power, except farm tractors, vehicles running only upon stationary rails or tracks, motorized highway building equipment, road making appliances, snowmobiles, tracked vehicles, motor-assisted bicycles, electric bicycles, or electric personal assistive mobility devices. See
• Municipality: shall include a city, town, town school district, incorporated school or fire district or incorporated village, and all other governmental incorporated units. See
• Nonresident: shall include any person who does not come under the definition of a resident. See
• 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.
• Operator: shall include all persons 18 years of age or over properly licensed to operate motor vehicles. See
• Owner: shall include any person, corporation, co-partnership, or association holding legal title to a motor vehicle or having exclusive right to the use or control thereof for a period of 30 days or more. See
• Person: shall include any natural person, corporation, municipality, the State of Vermont or any department, agency, or subdivision of the State, and any partnership, unincorporated association, or other legal entity. See
• Person: includes any natural person, corporation, association, co-partnership, company, firm, or other aggregation of individuals. See
• Portable electronic device: means a portable electronic or computing device, including a cellular telephone, personal digital assistant (PDA), or laptop computer. See
• Power of attorney: A written instrument which authorizes one person to act as another's agent or attorney. The power of attorney may be for a definite, specific act, or it may be general in nature. The terms of the written power of attorney may specify when it will expire. If not, the power of attorney usually expires when the person granting it dies. ^{Source: OCC}
• Privilege to operate: includes the privilege of a nonresident to operate a motor vehicle within the State and includes the privilege of a resident to obtain a license. See
• Resident: as used in this title only, means any person living in the State who intends to make the State his or her principal place of domicile either permanently or for an indefinite number of years. See
• said: when used by way of reference to a person or thing shall apply to the same person or thing last mentioned. See
• School board: means the board of school directors of a school district or its equivalent in any independent elementary or secondary school. See
• School district: means any public school district or any independent elementary or secondary school within the State that directly or indirectly receives support from public funds. See
• 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: when applied to the different parts of the United States may apply to the District of Columbia and any territory and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. See
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Suspension of license: means the withdrawal by formal action of the Commissioner, for a specific period of time and until reinstatement by the Commissioner, of a person's license or privilege to operate a motor vehicle on the public highways. See
• sworn: shall include affirmed. See
• Town: shall include city and wards or precincts therein; "selectboard members" and "board of civil authority" shall extend to and include the mayor and aldermen of cities; "trustees" shall extend to and include bailiffs of incorporated villages; and the laws applicable to the inhabitants and officers of towns shall be applicable to the inhabitants and similar officers of all municipal corporations. See
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Village: shall mean an incorporated village. See
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.