Terms Used In Vermont Statutes > Title 8 > Chapter 74 - Consumer Litigation Funding Companies

• Addition: means any new construction that increases the height or floor area of an existing building or facility. See
• Advisory or service organization: means any person or organization that assists insurers as authorized by section 4690 of this title, but such an organization shall not include joint underwriting organizations, actuarial or legal consultants, a single insurer, any employees of an insurer, or insurers under common control or management or their employees or managers. See
• 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.
• 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.
• Annual percentage rate: The cost of credit at a yearly rate. It is calculated in a standard way, taking the average compound interest rate over the term of the loan so borrowers can compare loans. Lenders are required by law to disclose a card account's APR. ^{Source: FDIC}
• 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
• Art selection panel: means a Council-appointed group of individuals consisting of the Department of Buildings and General Services project manager, the project architect, a representative or representatives from the occupant agency or agencies, the community, and arts professionals who forward recommendations of artwork to the Advisory Committee for final approval. See
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• 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}
• biennially: shall mean the year in which a regular session of the General Assembly is held. See
• Board: means the Board of Professional Engineering. See
• Charges: means the amount a consumer owes to a company in addition to the funded amount and includes an administrative fee, origination fee, underwriting fee, processing fee, and any other fee regardless of how the fee is denominated, including amounts denominated as interest or rate. See
• classification: means a plan, system, or arrangement for recognizing differences in exposure to hazard among risks. See
• Commercial risk insurance: means insurance within the scope of this chapter that is not:

• Commissioner: means the Commissioner of Buildings and General Services. See
• Commissioner: means the Commissioner of Corrections. See
• company: means a person that provides consumer litigation funding to a consumer. See
• Competitive market: means a market that has not been found to be noncompetitive pursuant to section 4684 of this title. See
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Consumer: means a natural person who is seeking or has obtained consumer litigation funding for a pending legal claim, provided:

• contract: means a contract between a company and a consumer for the provision of consumer litigation funding. See
• Contracting agency: means the administrative unit of State government responsible for securing the preparation of plans and specifications of a State building or facility for the purpose of negotiating or advertising for bids for the construction of such building or facility. See
• Council: means the Vermont Council on the Arts, Inc. See
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the Department of Corrections. See
• Director: means the Director of the Office of Professional Regulation. See
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Disposition facility: means a business registered with the Office conducted at a specific street address or location devoted to the disposition of human remains by means of cremation, alkaline hydrolysis, or natural organic reduction. See
• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• Experience rating: means a rating procedure utilizing past insurance experience of the individual policyholder to forecast future losses by measuring the policyholder's loss experience to produce a prospective premium credit, debit, or unity modification. See
• Financial interest: means being:

• 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.
• following: when used by way of reference to a section of the law shall mean the next preceding or following section. See
• Funded amount: means the amount of monies provided to, or on behalf of, the consumer pursuant to a litigation funding contract. See
• funding: means a nonrecourse transaction in which a company purchases and a consumer assigns to the company a contingent right to receive an amount of the potential net proceeds of a settlement or judgment obtained from the consumer's legal claim. See
• Funeral director: means a licensed person who is the owner, co-owner, employee, or manager of a licensed funeral establishment and who, for compensation, engages in the practice of funeral service. See
• Funeral establishment: means a business registered with the Office conducted at a specific street address or location devoted to the practice of funeral service, and includes a limited services establishment. See
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• 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}
• Instruments of service: means project deliverables, such as reports, specifications, drawings, plans, construction documents, or engineering surveys, that have been prepared under the licensee's responsible charge. See
• Joint underwriting: means a voluntary arrangement established on an ad hoc basis to provide insurance coverage pursuant to which two or more insurers separately contract with the insured at a price and under policy terms agreed upon between the insurers. See
• Judgement: The official decision of a court finally determining the respective rights and claims of the parties to a suit.
• 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 person, other than a Justice of the Supreme Court, shall mean a justice of the peace for the county for which he or she is elected or appointed. See
• Law: includes the laws and ordinances of the State, its political subdivisions, and municipalities. See
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Loss trending: means any procedure for projecting developed losses to the average date of loss for the period during which the policies are to be effective. See
• Market: means the statewide interaction between buyers and sellers of a particular line of insurance or product market component. See
• Mixed media: means any combination of two or more types of materials used to create a single work of art in two or three dimensions. See
• Month: shall mean a calendar month and "year" shall mean a calendar year and be equivalent to the expression "year of our Lord. 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
• Net proceeds: means the amount recovered by a consumer as a result of a legal claim less costs associated with the legal claim or the underlying events giving rise to the legal claim, including:

• Noncompetitive market: means a market for which there is a ruling in effect pursuant to section 4684 of this title that a reasonable degree of competition does not exist. 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.
• Occupant agency: means that public entity that has or will have principal authority to use or occupy a public building. See
• Office: means the Office of Professional Regulation. See
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• 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.
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Pool: means a voluntary arrangement other than a residual market mechanism, established on an ongoing basis, pursuant to which two or more insurers participate in the sharing of risks on a predetermined basis. See
• Practice of funeral service: means arranging, directing, or providing for the care, preparation, or disposition of dead human bodies for a fee or other compensation. See
• Practice of professional engineering: means providing, attempting to provide, or offering to provide professional engineering services. See
• private practice: means a professional engineer who owns, operates, or is employed by a business entity that derives a substantial part of its income from providing professional engineering services to the public. See
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• Probation officers: Screen applicants for pretrial release and monitor convicted offenders released under court supervision.
• Professional engineer: means a person licensed under this chapter. See
• Professional engineering: means any service or creative work, the adequate performance of which requires engineering education, training, and experience in the application of special knowledge of the mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences and the principles and methods of engineering analysis and design acquired by engineering education and engineering experience, insofar as the service or work involves safeguarding life, health, or property. See
• Project cost: means the budgeted cost of a construction or renovation project, which may include an addition, excluding the cost of design and of land acquisition or land improvement. See
• Project site: means any State building or facility undergoing new construction or renovation, which may include an addition, with a total project cost of $1,000,000. See
• Psychiatric disability: means an impairment of thought, mood, perception, orientation, or memory that limits one or more major life activities but does not include intellectual disability. See
• Pure premium rate: means that portion of the rate that represents the loss cost per unit of exposure or loss cost per unit of insurance. See
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Rate: means the cost of insurance per exposure base unit, or cost per unit of insurance, prior to the application of individual risk variations based upon loss or expense considerations, and does not include minimum premiums. See
• Removal: means the removal of dead human bodies from places of death, hospitals, institutions, or other locations, for a fee or other compensation. See
• 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.
• Residual market mechanism: means an arrangement, either voluntary or mandated by law or regulation of the Commissioner, involving participation by insurers in the equitable apportionment among them of insurance that may be afforded applicants who are unable to obtain insurance through ordinary methods. See
• Responsible charge: means direct control and personal supervision of engineering work. See
• Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action.
• Right of rescission: Right to cancel, within three business days, a contract that uses the home of a person as collateral, except in the case of a first mortgage loan. There is no fee to the borrower, who receives a full refund of all fees paid. The right of rescission is guaranteed by the Truth in Lending Act (TILA). ^{Source: OCC}
• said: when used by way of reference to a person or thing shall apply to the same person or thing last mentioned. See
• seal: shall include an impression of the official seal made upon paper alone or by means of a wafer or wax affixed thereto. 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.
• Specialty discipline: means that area of professional engineering recognized by the Board as the area of expertise and practice for which a license is granted. See
• State: includes the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U. See
• State building or facility: means any State building, facility, permanent structure, park, or appurtenant structure thereof, wholly or partially enclosed, owned or leased by State government, that is to be constructed or renovated, which may include an addition, in part or totally with funds from any appropriation from the capital construction act. See
• Statistical plan: means a plan, system, or arrangement used in collecting insurance or related data. See
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Supplementary rate information: includes any manual, schedule, or plan of rates, classification system, rating schedule, minimum premium, policy fee, rating rule, rating plan, or any other similar information needed or used to determine the applicable premium in effect or to be in effect for an insured. See
• Supporting information: means :

• 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
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Trust account: A general term that covers all types of accounts in a trust department, such as estates, guardianships, and agencies. ^{Source: OCC}
• Unauthorized practice: means conduct prohibited by section 1162 of this chapter and not exempted by section 1163 of this chapter. See
• Uniform Commercial Code: A set of statutes enacted by the various states to provide consistency among the states' commercial laws. It includes negotiable instruments, sales, stock transfers, trust and warehouse receipts, and bills of lading. ^{Source: OCC}
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Work of art: means an original creation of visual art in sculpture, paintings, graphic arts, mosaics, photography, crafts, calligraphy, mixed media, or any other creation that the Advisory Committee deems a visual art. See