Terms Used In Virginia Code > Title 8.01 > Chapter 20 > Article 1 - Attachments Generally

• 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.
• Affirmed: In the practice of the appellate courts, the decree or order is declared valid and will stand as rendered in the lower court.
• 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.
• 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.
• Assisted conception: means a pregnancy resulting from any intervening medical technology, whether in vivo or in vitro, which completely or partially replaces sexual intercourse as the means of conception. See Virginia Code 20-156
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Board: means the Board of Conservation and Recreation. See Virginia Code 10.1-705
• 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
• 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.
• Compensation: means payment of any valuable consideration for services in excess of reasonable medical and ancillary costs. See Virginia Code 20-156
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• 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.
• Cryopreservation: means freezing and storing of gametes and embryos for possible future use in assisted conception. See Virginia Code 20-156
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the Department of Conservation and Recreation. See Virginia Code 10.1-100
• development: means the replenishment and restoration of existing public beaches. See Virginia Code 10.1-705
• Director: means the Director of the Department of Conservation and Recreation. See Virginia Code 10.1-100
• Donor: The person who makes a gift.
• Donor: means an individual, other than a surrogate, who contributes the sperm or egg used in assisted conception. See Virginia Code 20-156
• Embryo: means the organism resulting from the union of a sperm and an ovum from first cell division until approximately the end of the second month of gestation. See Virginia Code 20-156
• Embryo transfer: means the placing of a viable embryo into the uterus of a gestational mother. See Virginia Code 20-156
• Entitlement: A Federal program or provision of law that requires payments to any person or unit of government that meets the eligibility criteria established by law. Entitlements constitute a binding obligation on the part of the Federal Government, and eligible recipients have legal recourse if the obligation is not fulfilled. Social Security and veterans' compensation and pensions are examples of entitlement programs.
• 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}
• Erosion: means the process of destruction by the action of wind, water, or ice of the land bordering the tidal waters of the Commonwealth. See Virginia Code 10.1-705
• Escrow: Money given to a third party to be held for payment until certain conditions are met.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Gamete: means either a sperm or an ovum. See Virginia Code 20-156
• Genetic parent: means an individual who contributes a gamete resulting in a conception. See Virginia Code 20-156
• Gestational mother: means the woman who gives birth to a child, regardless of her genetic relationship to the child. See Virginia Code 20-156
• 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 vitro: means any process that can be observed in an artificial environment such as a test tube or tissue culture plate. See Virginia Code 20-156
• In vitro fertilization: means the fertilization of ova by sperm in an artificial environment. See Virginia Code 20-156
• In vivo: means any process occurring within the living body. See Virginia Code 20-156
• 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
• Infertile: means the inability to conceive after one year of unprotected sexual intercourse. See Virginia Code 20-156
• Intended parent: means a married couple or unmarried individual who enters into an agreement with a surrogate under the terms of which such parent will be the parent of any child born to the surrogate through assisted conception regardless of the genetic relationships between the intended parent, the surrogate, and the child. See Virginia Code 20-156
• 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.
• 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 or contractual custody: means having authority granted by law, contract, or court order to make decisions concerning the use of an embryo. See Virginia Code 20-156
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Locality: means a county, city or town. See Virginia Code 10.1-705
• 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.
• 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.
• Ovum: means the female gamete or reproductive cell prior to fertilization. See Virginia Code 20-156
• 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: 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.
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Premarital agreement: means an agreement between prospective spouses made in contemplation of marriage and to be effective upon marriage. See Virginia Code 20-148
• Process: includes subpoenas, the summons and complaint in a civil action, and process in statutory actions. See Virginia Code 1-237
• Program: means the provisions of the Public Beach Conservation and Development Act. See Virginia Code 10.1-705
• Property: means an interest, present or future, legal or equitable, vested or contingent, in real or personal property, including income and earnings. See Virginia Code 20-148
• Public beach: means a sandy beach located on a tidal shoreline suitable for bathing in a county, city or town and open to indefinite public use. See Virginia Code 10.1-705
• Reasonable medical and ancillary costs: means the costs of the performance of assisted conception, the costs of prenatal maternal health care, the costs of maternal and child health care for a reasonable postpartum period, the reasonable costs for medications and maternity clothes, and any additional and reasonable costs for housing and other living expenses attributable to the pregnancy. See Virginia Code 20-156
• 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).
• 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
• Sperm: means the male gametes or reproductive cells which impregnate the ova. See Virginia Code 20-156
• 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 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.
• Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
• Surrogacy contract: means an agreement between the intended parent, a surrogate, and her spouse, if any, in which the surrogate agrees to be impregnated through the use of assisted conception, to carry any resulting fetus, and to relinquish to the intended parent the custody of and parental rights to any resulting child. See Virginia Code 20-156
• Surrogate: means any adult woman who agrees to bear a child carried for the intended parent. See Virginia Code 20-156
• sworn: means "affirm" or "affirmed. See Virginia Code 1-250
• 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
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
• Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.