Terms Used In Virginia Code > Title 37.2 > Subtitle II > Chapter 7 > Article 1 - General Provisions

• Adult: means a person 18 years of age or older. See Virginia Code 16.1-228
• 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.
• 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.
• authority: means a public body and a body corporate and politic organized in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 6 (§ 37. See Virginia Code 37.2-100
• 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 Board of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. See Virginia Code 37.2-100
• 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
• Consent: means the voluntary, express, and informed agreement to treatment in a mental health facility by a minor 14 years of age or older and by a parent or a legally authorized custodian. See Virginia Code 16.1-336
• 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.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the Department of Juvenile Justice and "Director" means the administrative head in charge thereof or such of his assistants and subordinates as are designated by him to discharge the duties imposed upon him under this law. See Virginia Code 16.1-228
• Department: means the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. See Virginia Code 37.2-100
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Employee: means an employee of the local community services board who is skilled in the assessment and treatment of mental illness and has completed a certification program approved by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. See Virginia Code 16.1-336
• 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.
• 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
• Facility: means a state or licensed hospital, training center, psychiatric hospital, or other type of residential or outpatient mental health or developmental services facility. See Virginia Code 37.2-100
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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
• 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}
• individual: means a current direct recipient of public or private mental health, developmental, or substance abuse treatment, rehabilitation, or habilitation services and includes the terms "consumer" "patient" "resident" "recipient" or "client. See Virginia Code 37.2-100
• Inpatient treatment: means placement for observation, diagnosis, or treatment of mental illness in a psychiatric hospital or in any other type of mental health facility determined by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services to be substantially similar to a psychiatric hospital with respect to restrictions on freedom and therapeutic intrusiveness. See Virginia Code 16.1-336
• Intake officer: means a juvenile probation officer appointed as such pursuant to the authority of this chapter. See Virginia Code 16.1-228
• Investment interest: means the ownership or holding of an equity or debt security, including shares of stock in a corporation, interests or units of a partnership, bonds, debentures, notes, or other equity or debt instruments. See Virginia Code 16.1-336
• judge: includes a retired judge sitting by designation pursuant to § 16. See Virginia Code 16.1-336
• judge: means the judge or the substitute judge of the juvenile and domestic relations district court of each county or city. See Virginia Code 16.1-228
• 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.
• law: means the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court Law embraced in this chapter. See Virginia Code 16.1-228
• 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}
• Legal custody: means (i) a legal status created by court order which vests in a custodian the right to have physical custody of the child, to determine and redetermine where and with whom he shall live, the right and duty to protect, train and discipline him and to provide him with food, shelter, education and ordinary medical care, all subject to any residual parental rights and responsibilities or (ii) the legal status created by court order of joint custody as defined in § 20-107. See Virginia Code 16.1-228
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• licensed: means a state hospital and a licensed hospital that provides care and treatment for persons with mental illness. See Virginia Code 37.2-100
• Litigation: A case, controversy, or lawsuit. Participants (plaintiffs and defendants) in lawsuits are called litigants.
• Locality: means a county, city, or town as the context may require. See Virginia Code 1-221
• Mental health facility: means a public or private facility for the treatment of mental illness operated or licensed by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. See Virginia Code 16.1-336
• Mental illness: means a substantial disorder of the minor's cognitive, volitional, or emotional processes that demonstrably and significantly impairs judgment or capacity to recognize reality or to control behavior. See Virginia Code 16.1-336
• Minor: means a person less than 18 years of age. See Virginia Code 16.1-336
• minor: means a person who is (i) younger than 18 years of age or (ii) for purposes of the Fostering Futures program set forth in Article 2 (§ 63. See Virginia Code 16.1-228
• 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
• 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.
• Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
• Parent: means (i) a biological or adoptive parent who has legal custody of the minor, including either parent if custody is shared under a joint decree or agreement, (ii) a biological or adoptive parent with whom the minor regularly resides, (iii) a person judicially appointed as a legal guardian of the minor, or (iv) a person who exercises the rights and responsibilities of legal custody by delegation from a biological or adoptive parent, upon provisional adoption or otherwise by operation of law. See Virginia Code 16.1-336
• 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.
• 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
• Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.
• Process: includes subpoenas, the summons and complaint in a civil action, and process in statutory actions. See Virginia Code 1-237
• Public facilities: means (i) airports, landing fields, and air navigation facilities; (ii) educational facilities; (iii) flood control, bank and shore protection, watershed protection, and dams; (iv) hospital facilities; (v) judicial and court facilities; (vi) correctional facilities, including jails and penitentiaries; (vii) library facilities; (viii) military installations; (ix) parks so designated by the Commonwealth or by the locality in its comprehensive plan; (x) properties of historical significance so designated by the Commonwealth; (xi) law enforcement, fire, emergency medical, and rescue facilities; (xii) sanitary sewer, water or stormwater facilities; (xiii) transportation facilities including highways, roads, streets, and bridges, traffic signals, related easements and rights-of-way, mass transit, ports, and any components of federal, state, or local transportation facilities; (xiv) waste management facilities for hazardous, radioactive, or other waste; (xv) office facilities occupied by a public corporation; and (xvi) such other facilities that are necessary to the construction, maintenance, or operation of a public facility as listed in clauses (i) through (xv) and directly related thereto. See Virginia Code 1-219.1
• Qualified evaluator: means a psychiatrist or a psychologist licensed in Virginia by either the Board of Medicine or the Board of Psychology, or if such psychiatrist or psychologist is unavailable, (i) any mental health professional licensed in Virginia through the Department of Health Professions as a clinical social worker, professional counselor, marriage and family therapist, or psychiatric advanced practice registered nurse or (ii) any mental health professional employed by a community services board. See Virginia Code 16.1-336
• 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.
• 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.
• State: when applied to a part of the United States, includes any of 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 1-245
• State Board: means the State Board of Juvenile Justice. See Virginia Code 16.1-228
• State hospital: means a hospital, psychiatric institute, or other institution operated by the Department that provides care and treatment for persons with mental illness. See Virginia Code 37.2-100
• Status offender: means a child who commits an act prohibited by law which would not be criminal if committed by an adult. See Virginia Code 16.1-228
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• Supreme Court: means the Supreme Court of Virginia. See Virginia Code 1-249
• Training center: means a facility operated by the Department that provides training, habilitation, or other individually focused supports to persons with intellectual disability. See Virginia Code 37.2-100
• Treatment: means any planned intervention intended to improve a minor's functioning in those areas which show impairment as a result of mental illness. See Virginia Code 16.1-336
• 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