Terms Used In Virginia Code > Title 15.2 > Subtitle II > Chapter 16 - Local Constitutional Officers, Courthouses and Supplies

• Activity and use limitations: means restrictions or obligations created under this chapter with respect to real property. See Virginia Code 10.1-1238
• Adjournment sine die: The end of a legislative session "without day." These adjournments are used to indicate the final adjournment of an annual or the two-year session of legislature.
• Adult: means a person 18 years of age or more. See Virginia Code 1-203
• 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.
• Agency: means the Department of Environmental Quality or any other state or federal agency that determines or approves the environmental response project pursuant to which the environmental covenant is created. See Virginia Code 10.1-1238
• agency: means any agency, authority, board, department, division, commission, institution, bureau, or like governmental entity of the Commonwealth and includes any entity, public or private, with which any of the foregoing has entered into a contractual relationship to accomplish an agency program. See Virginia Code 30-65
• Agency: means any authority, commission, instrumentality, officer, board or other unit of the state government empowered by the basic laws to make regulations or decide cases. See Virginia Code 30-73.1
• 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.
• 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
• 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.
• Authority: means the Virginia Resources Authority. See Virginia Code 10.1-1230
• Authority: means the Virginia Recreational Facilities Authority. See Virginia Code 10.1-1600
• 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.
• Battlefield preservation organization: means a private nonprofit organization whose primary purpose is the preservation of one or more historical battlefields, including a battlefield property as defined in § 10. See Virginia Code 10.1-2300
• Battlefield property: means any real property in the Commonwealth that is listed in the Report on the Nation's Civil War Battlefields by the Civil War Sites Advisory Commission (Civil War Sites Advisory Commission/National Park Service, 1993, as amended); the Report to Congress on the Historic Preservation of Revolutionary War and War of 1812 Sites in the United States by the American Battlefield Protection Program of the National Park Service (U. See Virginia Code 10.1-2200
• Bequest: Property gifted by will.
• Board: means the Board of Historic Resources. See Virginia Code 10.1-2200
• Board: means the Virginia Soil and Water Conservation Board. See Virginia Code 10.1-500
• Board: means the board of directors of the Authority. See Virginia Code 10.1-1600
• Board of supervisors: means the governing body of a county. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Bona fide prospective purchaser: means a person or a tenant of a person who acquires ownership, or proposes to acquire ownership, of real property after the release of hazardous substances occurred. See Virginia Code 10.1-1230
• Bonds: means notes, bonds, certificates and other evidences of indebtedness or obligations of the Authority. See Virginia Code 10.1-1600
• Brownfield: means real property; the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. See Virginia Code 10.1-1230
• Chambers: A judge's office.
• Chief judge: The judge who has primary responsibility for the administration of a court but also decides cases; chief judges are determined by seniority.
• City: includes all cities chartered under the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 10.1-500
• City: means an independent incorporated community which became a city as provided by law before noon on July 1, 1971, or which has within defined boundaries a population of 5,000 or more and which has become a city as provided by law. See Virginia Code 1-208
• Collegial body: means a governmental entity whose power or authority is vested within its membership. See Virginia Code 1-209
• Common interest community: means a condominium, cooperative, or other real property with respect to which a person, by virtue of the person's ownership of a parcel of real property, is obligated to pay property taxes or insurance premiums, for maintenance or improvement of other real property described in a recorded covenant that creates the common interest community. See Virginia Code 10.1-1238
• 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.
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Concurrent resolution: A legislative measure, designated "S. Con. Res." and numbered consecutively upon introduction, generally employed to address the sentiments of both chambers, to deal with issues or matters affecting both houses, such as a concurrent budget resolution, or to create a temporary joint committee. Concurrent resolutions are not submitted to the President/Governor and thus do not have the force of law.
• Constitutional officer: means an officer provided for pursuant to Article VII, § 4 of the Constitution. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• 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.
• Council: means the governing body of a city or town. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• County: includes towns. See Virginia Code 10.1-500
• County: means any existing county or such unit hereafter created. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Courts of record: means the Supreme Court of Virginia, the Court of Appeals of Virginia, and the circuit courts. See Virginia Code 1-212
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Department: means the Department of Conservation and Recreation. See Virginia Code 10.1-100
• Department: means the Department of Historic Resources. See Virginia Code 10.1-2200
• Department: means the Department of Environmental Quality. See Virginia Code 10.1-1230
• Department: means the Department of Environmental Quality. See Virginia Code 10.1-1238
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Devise: To gift property by will.
• Director: means the Director of the Department of Conservation and Recreation. See Virginia Code 10.1-100
• Director: means the Director of the Department of Historic Resources. See Virginia Code 10.1-2200
• Director: means the Director of the Department of Environmental Quality. See Virginia Code 10.1-1230
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Environmental covenant: means a servitude arising under an environmental response project that imposes activity and use limitations. See Virginia Code 10.1-1238
• Environmental response project: means a plan or work performed for environmental remediation of real property and conducted:

  1. See Virginia Code 10.1-1238

• 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}
• Escheat: Reversion of real or personal property to the state when 1) a person dies without leaving a will and has no heirs, or 2) when the property (such as a bank account) has been inactive for a certain period of time. ^{Source: OCC}
• Ex officio: Literally, by virtue of one's office.
• Ex officio: means service by virtue of one's office and includes voting privileges for ex officio members unless otherwise provided. See Virginia Code 1-215
• Executive session: A portion of the Senate's daily session in which it considers executive business.
• Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
• farm: means any person that obtains at least 51 percent of its annual gross income from agricultural operations and produces the agricultural waste used as feedstock for the waste-to-energy technology, (ii) "agricultural waste" means biomass waste materials capable of decomposition that are produced from the raising of plants and animals during agricultural operations, including animal manures, bedding, plant stalks, hulls, and vegetable matter, and (iii) "waste-to-energy technology" means any technology, including but not limited to a methane digester, that converts agricultural waste into gas, steam, or heat that is used to generate electricity on-site. See Virginia Code 1-222.1
• Federal agency: means the United States of America, the President of the United States of America, and any department, corporation, agency, or instrumentality created, designated, or established by the United States of America. See Virginia Code 10.1-1600
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• Field investigation: means the study of the traces of human culture at any site by means of surveying, sampling, excavating, or removing surface or subsurface material, or going on a site with that intent. See Virginia Code 10.1-2300
• Field supervisor: means a person who is physically present at least 70 percent of the time during a field investigation, exploration, or recovery operation involving the removal, destruction, or disturbance of any object of antiquity and who directly oversees such field investigation, exploration, or recovery operation. See Virginia Code 10.1-2300
• 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.
• Foreclosure: A legal process in which property that is collateral or security for a loan may be sold to help repay the loan when the loan is in default. ^{Source: OCC}
• Freedom of Information Act: A federal law that mandates that all the records created and kept by federal agencies in the executive branch of government must be open for public inspection and copying. The only exceptions are those records that fall into one of nine exempted categories listed in the statute. ^{Source: OCC}
• functional area: means that grouping of state governmental activities, programs, and agencies which constitute a single budget function as identified and classified in the Virginia State Government Program Structure. See Virginia Code 30-65
• Fund: means the Virginia Brownfields Restoration and Economic Redevelopment Assistance Fund. See Virginia Code 10.1-1230
• Gift: A voluntary transfer or conveyance of property without consideration, or for less than full and adequate consideration based on fair market value.
• Governing body: means the board of supervisors of a county, council of a city, or council of a town, as the context may require. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Grand jury: agreement providing that a lender will delay exercising its rights (in the case of a mortgage,
• Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
• Holder: means the grantee of an environmental covenant as specified in subsection A of § 10. See Virginia Code 10.1-1238
• 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.
• 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.
• in writing: include any representation of words, letters, symbols, numbers, or figures, whether (i) printed or inscribed on a tangible medium or (ii) stored in an electronic or other medium and retrievable in a perceivable form and whether an electronic signature authorized by Chapter 42. See Virginia Code 1-257
• Includes: means includes, but not limited to. See Virginia Code 1-218
• 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.
• inhabitants: means with reference to any county, city, town, political subdivision of the Commonwealth or any combination thereof, the natural persons in such county, city, town, political subdivision or combination as shown by the unadjusted United States decennial census last preceding the time at which any provision dependent upon population is being applied or the time as of which it is being construed. See Virginia Code 1-235
• Innocent land owner: means a person who holds any title, security interest or any other interest in a brownfield site and who acquired ownership of the real property after the release of hazardous substances occurred. See Virginia Code 10.1-1230
• Interest rate: The amount paid by a borrower to a lender in exchange for the use of the lender's money for a certain period of time. Interest is paid on loans or on debt instruments, such as notes or bonds, either at regular intervals or as part of a lump sum payment when the issue matures. ^{Source: OCC}
• Joint resolution: A legislative measure which requires the approval of both chambers.
• 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}
• Legislative branch employee: means (i) a General Assembly member; (ii) a General Assembly member's legislative assistant or other legislative staff compensated in whole, or in part, with state appropriations, working full-time for the member; and (iii) all other full-time employees of each legislative branch agency of the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 30-129.4
• Legislative session: That part of a chamber's daily session in which it considers legislative business (bills, resolutions, and actions related thereto).
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• 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.
• local government: shall be construed to mean a county, city, or town as the context may require. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Local government: means any county, city, town, municipal corporation, authority, district, commission, or political subdivision of the Commonwealth created by the General Assembly or otherwise created pursuant to the laws of the Commonwealth or any combination of the foregoing. See Virginia Code 10.1-1230
• Locality: means a county, city, or town as the context may require. See Virginia Code 1-221
• member of the council: means a member of the governing body of a city or town. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Month: means a calendar month and "year" means a calendar year. See Virginia Code 1-223
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Nonlegislative citizen member: means any natural person who is not a member of the General Assembly of Virginia. See Virginia Code 1-225
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• Oath: includes affirmation. See Virginia Code 1-228
• Object of antiquity: means any relic, artifact, remain, including human skeletal remains, specimen, or other archaeological article that may be found on, in, or below the surface of the earth that has historic, scientific, archaeologic, or educational value. See Virginia Code 10.1-2300
• 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.
• Open-space land: means any land which is provided or preserved for (i) park or recreational purposes, (ii) conservation of land or other natural resources, (iii) historic or scenic purposes, (iv) assisting in the shaping of the character, direction, and timing of community development, (v) wetlands as defined in § 28. See Virginia Code 10.1-1700
• 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.
• Partnership: means the Virginia Economic Development Partnership. See Virginia Code 10.1-1230
• Person: means an individual, corporation, partnership, association, governmental body, municipal corporation, public service authority, or any other legal entity. See Virginia Code 10.1-1230
• Person: means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, public corporation, government, governmental subdivision, agency or instrumentality, or any other legal or commercial entity. See Virginia Code 10.1-1238
• Person: means any natural individual, partnership, association, corporation, or other legal entity. See Virginia Code 10.1-2300
• Person: includes any individual, corporation, partnership, association, cooperative, limited liability company, trust, joint venture, government, political subdivision, or any other legal or commercial entity and any successor, representative, agent, agency, or instrumentality thereof. See Virginia Code 1-230
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Personal representative: includes the executor of a will or the administrator of the estate of a decedent, the administrator of such estate with the will annexed, the administrator of such estate unadministered by a former representative, whether there is a will or not, any person who is under the order of a circuit court to take into his possession the estate of a decedent for administration, and every other curator of a decedent's estate, for or against whom suits may be brought for causes of action that accrued to or against the decedent. See Virginia Code 1-234
• 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.
• Presiding officer: A majority-party Senator who presides over the Senate and is charged with maintaining order and decorum, recognizing Members to speak, and interpreting the Senate's rules, practices and precedents.
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Process: includes subpoenas, the summons and complaint in a civil action, and process in statutory actions. See Virginia Code 1-237
• Project: means all or any part of the following activities necessary or desirable for the restoration and redevelopment of a brownfield site: (i) environmental or cultural resource site assessments, (ii) monitoring, remediation, cleanup, or containment of property to remove hazardous substances, hazardous wastes, solid wastes or petroleum, (iii) the lawful and necessary removal of human remains, the appropriate treatment of grave sites, and the appropriate and necessary treatment of significant archaeological resources, or the stabilization or restoration of structures listed on or eligible for the Virginia Historic Landmarks Register, (iv) demolition and removal of existing structures, or other site work necessary to make a site or certain real property usable for economic development, and (v) development of a remediation and reuse plan. See Virginia Code 10.1-1230
• Project: means the construction, improvement, furnishing, maintenance, acquisition or operation of any facility that will further the purposes of the Authority, together with all property, rights, easements and interests which may be acquired by the Authority. See Virginia Code 10.1-1600
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Public body: means any state agency having authority to acquire land for a public use, or any county or municipality, any park authority, any public recreational facilities authority, any soil and water conservation district, any community development authority formed pursuant to Article 6 (§ 15. See Virginia Code 10.1-1700
• Public corporation: means the Commonwealth of Virginia or any political subdivision thereof or any incorporated municipality therein or any public agency of the Commonwealth or of any political subdivision thereof or of any municipality therein. See Virginia Code 1-219.1
• Public law: A public bill or joint resolution that has passed both chambers and been enacted into law. Public laws have general applicability nationwide.
• 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.
• Recess: A temporary interruption of the legislative business.
• Reenacted: when used in the title or enactment of a bill or act of the General Assembly, means that the changes enacted to a section of the Code of Virginia or an act of the General Assembly are in addition to the existing substantive provisions in that section or act, and are effective prospectively unless the bill expressly provides that such changes are effective retroactively on a specified date. See Virginia Code 1-238
• regulation: means any statement of general application, having the force of law, affecting the rights or conduct of any person, adopted by an agency in accordance with the authority conferred on it by applicable basic laws. See Virginia Code 30-73.1
• 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).
• 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.
• 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.
• Sexual harassment: means unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature when such conduct explicitly or implicitly affects an individual's employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual's work performance, or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment. See Virginia Code 30-129.4
• Site: means a geographical area on dry land that contains any evidence of human activity that is or may be the source of important historic, scientific, archaeologic, or educational data or objects. See Virginia Code 10.1-2300
• soil and water conservation district: means a political subdivision of this Commonwealth organized in accordance with the provisions of this chapter. See Virginia Code 10.1-500
• State: means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, or any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. See Virginia Code 10.1-1238
• state agency: means the same as that term is defined in § 2. See Virginia Code 1-206
• State archaeological site: means an area designated by the Department in which it is reasonable to expect to find objects of antiquity. See Virginia Code 10.1-2300
• State archaeologist: means the individual designated pursuant to § 10. See Virginia Code 10.1-2300
• State-controlled land: includes state parks, state wildlife areas, state recreation areas, highway rights-of-way, and state-owned easements. See Virginia Code 10.1-2300
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Supervisor: means a member of the board of supervisors of a county. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Supreme Court: means the Supreme Court of Virginia. See Virginia Code 1-249
• Town: means any existing town or an incorporated community within one or more counties which became a town before noon, July one, nineteen hundred seventy-one, as provided by law or which has within defined boundaries a population of 1,000 or more and which has become a town as provided by law. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Town: means any existing town or an incorporated community within one or more counties which became a town before noon, July 1, 1971, as provided by law or which has within defined boundaries a population of 1,000 or more and which has become a town as provided by law. See Virginia Code 1-254
• 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 50 states, the District of Columbia the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-255
• Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.
• Voter: means a qualified voter as defined in § 24. See Virginia Code 15.2-102
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.