Terms Used In Virginia Code > Title 21 > Chapter 6 - Drainage Projects

• Adjourn: A motion to adjourn a legislative chamber or a committee, if passed, ends that day's session.
• Advisory Board: means the State Advisory Board on Air Pollution. See Virginia Code 10.1-1300
• 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.
• Air pollution: means the presence in the outdoor atmosphere of one or more substances which are or may be harmful or injurious to human health, welfare or safety, to animal or plant life, or to property, or which unreasonably interfere with the enjoyment by the people of life or property. See Virginia Code 10.1-1300
• 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.
• 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.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• 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.
• Baseline: Projection of the receipts, outlays, and other budget amounts that would ensue in the future without any change in existing policy. Baseline projections are used to gauge the extent to which proposed legislation, if enacted into law, would alter current spending and revenue levels.
• 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}
• Board: means the State Air Pollution Control Board. See Virginia Code 10.1-1300
• Bond with surety: includes the payment in cash of the full amount of the required bond and, in such case, no surety shall be required. See Virginia Code 1-205
• certified mail: means electronically certified or postal certified mail, except that this provision shall apply only to the mailing of plan approvals, permits, or certificates issued under the provisions of this chapter and those of the Air Pollution Control Law (§ 10. See Virginia Code 10.1-1183
• Certified prescribed burn manager: means any person who has successfully completed a certification process established by the State Forester under § 10. See Virginia Code 10.1-1150.1
• Chief judge: The judge who has primary responsibility for the administration of a court but also decides cases; chief judges are determined by seniority.
• Clerk of court: An officer appointed by the court to work with the chief judge in overseeing the court's administration, especially to assist in managing the flow of cases through the court and to maintain court records.
• Construction project: means any land-disturbing activity that involves construction of infrastructure, including interstate highways, pipelines, or energy generation and transmission facilities. See Virginia Code 10.1-1181.13
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Decedent: A deceased person.
• 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.
• Department: means the Department of Environmental Quality. See Virginia Code 10.1-1182
• Department: means the Department of Environmental Quality. See Virginia Code 10.1-1300
• 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.
• Diameter: means the distance through a tree at the point of average thickness as measured from outside of bark to outside of bark at a point on a trunk ten inches above the general ground level. See Virginia Code 10.1-1162
• Director: means the Director of the Department of Environmental Quality. See Virginia Code 10.1-1182
• 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.
• Energy storage facility: means energy storage equipment or technology that is capable of absorbing energy, storing such energy for a period of time, and redelivering energy after it has been stored. See Virginia Code 10.1-1197.5
• Environment: means the natural, scenic, and historic attributes of the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 10.1-1182
• Environmental justice: means the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of every person, regardless of race, color, national origin, faith, disability, or income, in the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. See Virginia Code 10.1-1182
• Executive Director: means the Executive Director of the Department of Environmental Quality. See Virginia Code 10.1-1300
• Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation: A government corporation that insures the deposits of all national and state banks that are members of the Federal Reserve System. ^{Source: OCC}
• Fee simple: Absolute title to property with no limitations or restrictions regarding the person who may inherit it.
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Fiduciary: shall include any one or more of the following:

  a. See Virginia Code 8.01-2

• 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}
• Forest land: means land on which forest trees are found. See Virginia Code 10.1-1178
• Forest mitigation: means addressing the direct and indirect adverse impacts to forests that may be caused by a construction project by avoiding and minimizing impacts to the extent practicable and then compensating for the remaining impacts. See Virginia Code 10.1-1181.13
• forest trees: includes shade trees of any species around houses, along highways and within cities and towns if the trees constitute an insect or disease menace to nearby timber trees or timber stands. See Virginia Code 10.1-1178
• Forester: means any person who is engaged in the science, profession and practice of forestry and who possesses the qualifications required by this article. See Virginia Code 10.1-1181.8
• Forestry: means the science, art and practice of creating, managing, using and conserving forests and associated natural resources for human benefit and in a sustainable manner to meet desired goals, needs, and values. See Virginia Code 10.1-1181.8
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Fund: means the Small Business Environmental Compliance Assistance Fund. See Virginia Code 10.1-1197.1
• Grand jury: agreement providing that a lender will delay exercising its rights (in the case of a mortgage,
• Habeas corpus: A writ that is usually used to bring a prisoner before the court to determine the legality of his imprisonment. It may also be used to bring a person in custody before the court to give testimony, or to be prosecuted.
• Health care: means any act, professional services in nursing homes, or treatment performed or furnished, or which should have been performed or furnished, by any health care provider for, to, or on behalf of a patient during the patient's medical diagnosis, care, treatment or confinement. See Virginia Code 8.01-581.1
• Health care provider: means (i) a person, corporation, facility or institution licensed by this Commonwealth to provide health care or professional services as a physician or hospital, a dentist, a pharmacist, a registered nurse or licensed practical nurse or a person who holds a multistate privilege to practice such nursing under the Nurse Licensure Compact, an advanced practice registered nurse, an optometrist, a podiatrist, a physician assistant, a chiropractor, a physical therapist, a physical therapy assistant, a clinical psychologist, a clinical social worker, a professional counselor, a licensed marriage and family therapist, a licensed dental hygienist, a health maintenance organization, or an emergency medical care attendant or technician who provides services on a fee basis; (ii) a professional corporation, all of whose shareholders or members are so licensed; (iii) a partnership, all of whose partners are so licensed; (iv) a nursing home as defined in § 54. See Virginia Code 8.01-581.1
• Health maintenance organization: means any person licensed pursuant to Chapter 43 of Title 38. See Virginia Code 8.01-581.1
• Hospital: means a public or private institution licensed pursuant to Chapter 5 of Title 32. See Virginia Code 8.01-581.1
• 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.
• 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.
• Infection: means infection by any disease affecting forest trees which is declared by the State Forester to be dangerously injurious to forest trees. See Virginia Code 10.1-1178
• Infestation: means infestation by means of any insect which is declared by the State Forester to be dangerously injurious to forest trees. See Virginia Code 10.1-1178
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• mail: means electronic or postal delivery. See Virginia Code 10.1-1183
• Malpractice: means any tort action or breach of contract action for personal injuries or wrongful death, based on health care or professional services rendered, or which should have been rendered, by a health care provider, to a patient. See Virginia Code 8.01-581.1
• Month: means a calendar month and "year" means a calendar year. See Virginia Code 1-223
• Notary: means notary public. See Virginia Code 1-226
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• Oath: includes affirmation. See Virginia Code 1-228
• Operator: means any person that operates or has operated or exercises or has exercised control over any silvicultural activity. See Virginia Code 10.1-1181.1
• Oral argument: An opportunity for lawyers to summarize their position before the court and also to answer the judges' questions.
• Owner: means any person that (i) owns or leases land on which silvicultural activity occurs or has occurred or (ii) owns timber on land on which silvicultural activity occurs or has occurred. See Virginia Code 10.1-1181.1
• Patient: means any natural person who receives or should have received health care from a licensed health care provider except those persons who are given health care in an emergency situation which exempts the health care provider from liability for his emergency services in accordance with § 8. See Virginia Code 8.01-581.1
• Person: means an individual, corporation, partnership, association, a governmental body, a municipal corporation, or any other legal entity. See Virginia Code 10.1-1300
• Person: shall include individuals, a trust, an estate, a partnership, an association, an order, a corporation, or any other legal or commercial entity;

  6. See Virginia Code 8.01-2

• Person: means any landowner, owner of timber, owner of timber rights, sawmill operator, sawmill owner, veneer wood operator, pulpwood contractor, or any person engaged in the business of severing timber from the stump. See Virginia Code 10.1-1162
• Person under a disability: shall include :

  a. See Virginia Code 8.01-2

• Personal estate: includes chattels real and such other estate as, upon the death of the owner intestate, would devolve upon his personal representative. See Virginia Code 1-233
• 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
• Physician: means a person licensed to practice medicine or osteopathy in this Commonwealth pursuant to Chapter 29 of Title 54. See Virginia Code 8.01-581.1
• 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.
• Pollution: means such alteration of the physical, chemical or biological properties of any state waters resulting from sediment deposition as will or is likely to create a nuisance or render such waters (i) harmful or detrimental or injurious to the public health, safety or welfare, or to the health of animals, fish or aquatic life; (ii) unsuitable with reasonable treatment for use as present or possible future sources of public water supply; or (iii) unsuitable for recreational, commercial, industrial, agricultural, or other reasonable uses. See Virginia Code 10.1-1181.1
• 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}
• 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.
• Preliminary hearing: A hearing where the judge decides whether there is enough evidence to make the defendant have a trial.
• Prescribed burning: means the controlled application of fire or wildland fuels in either the natural or modified state, under specified environmental conditions, which allows a fire to be confined to a predetermined area and produces the fire behavior and fire characteristics necessary to attain planned fire treatment and ecological, silvicultural, and wildlife management objectives. See Virginia Code 10.1-1150.1
• Prescription: means a written statement defining the objectives to be attained by a prescribed burning and the conditions of temperature, humidity, wind direction and speed, fuel moisture, and soil moisture under which a fire will be allowed to burn. See Virginia Code 10.1-1150.1
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• Professional services in nursing homes: means services provided in a nursing home, as that term is defined in clause (iv) of the definition of health care provider in this section, by a health care provider related to health care, staffing to provide patient care, psycho-social services, personal hygiene, hydration, nutrition, fall assessments or interventions, patient monitoring, prevention and treatment of medical conditions, diagnosis or therapy. See Virginia Code 8.01-581.1
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• real estate: includes lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all rights and appurtenances thereto and interests therein, other than a chattel interest. See Virginia Code 1-219
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Recess: A temporary interruption of the legislative business.
• Remand: When an appellate court sends a case back to a lower court for further proceedings.
• 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).
• Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
• 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.
• Sheriff: shall include deputy sheriffs and such other persons designated in § 15. See Virginia Code 8.01-2
• Silvicultural activity: means any forest management activity, including but not limited to the harvesting of timber, the construction of roads and trails for forest management purposes, and the preparation of property for reforestation. See Virginia Code 10.1-1181.1
• Small business: means a business located in Virginia that (i) employs 100 or fewer people and (ii) is a small business concern as defined in the federal Small Business Act (15 U. See Virginia Code 10.1-1197.1
• Small renewable energy project: means (i) an electrical generation facility with a rated capacity not exceeding 150 megawatts that generates electricity only from sunlight or wind; (ii) an electrical generation facility with a rated capacity not exceeding 100 megawatts that generates electricity only from falling water, wave motion, tides, or geothermal power; (iii) an electrical generation facility with a rated capacity not exceeding 20 megawatts that generates electricity only from biomass, energy from waste, or municipal solid waste; (iv) an energy storage facility that uses electrochemical cells to convert chemical energy with a rated capacity not exceeding 150 megawatts; or (v) a hybrid project composed of an electrical generation facility that meets the parameters established in clause (i), (ii), or (iii) and an energy storage facility that meets the parameters established in clause (iv). See Virginia Code 10.1-1197.5
• Sole ownership: The type of property ownership in which one individual holds legal title to the property and has full control of it.
• Special order: means an administrative order issued to any party that has a stated duration of not more than twelve months and that may include a civil penalty of not more than $10,000. See Virginia Code 10.1-1182
• Special order: means a special order issued under § 10. See Virginia Code 10.1-1300
• Special order: means a special order or emergency special order issued under subsection B or C of § 10. See Virginia Code 10.1-1181.1
• state forest: means lands acquired for the Commonwealth by purchase, gift or lease pursuant to this section. See Virginia Code 10.1-1107
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Statute of limitations: A law that sets the time within which parties must take action to enforce their rights.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Supreme Court: means the Supreme Court of Virginia. See Virginia Code 1-249
• 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.
• Tree: means any tree of a currently commercially valuable species which is six inches or more in diameter. See Virginia Code 10.1-1162
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Verdict: The decision of a petit jury or a judge.
• Voluntary pollution prevention measures: means operational or equipment changes that meet the definition of pollution prevention contained in § 10. See Virginia Code 10.1-1197.1
• Wood heater: means a wood stove, pellet stove, wood-fired hydronic heater, wood-burning forced-air furnace, or masonry wood heater, any of which is solely designed for heating a home or a business and with either (i) uncontrolled fine particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than or equal to 2. See Virginia Code 10.1-1300
• 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.