WHAT THE WORDS MEAN

Also called squatter's rights

Holding land against the legal title for ten years. Without a deed or judgment, land counts as possessed only where it was protected by a substantial enclosure and usually cultivated or improved.

Also called sworn statement

The sworn statement a search warrant is issued on, establishing its grounds. A person served with a search warrant is given a copy of the warrant along with it.

Also called attorney in fact

The person a power of attorney authorizes to act for the principal, who acts in good faith, within the authority granted, loyally and in the principal's best interest, and keeps a record of every transaction.

Also called surety bond

A bond in a set amount with sureties the court approves, one of the conditions a court may impose when it finds release on recognizance will not assure appearance or will create unreasonable danger.

Also called ABHAN

Unlawfully injuring another person where great bodily injury results, or by means likely to produce death or great bodily injury, a felony carrying up to twenty years.

Also called signing over the title

The seller's signed assignment and warranty of title on the certificate, made when the vehicle is delivered. As between the parties, a transfer is not effective until the seller assigns and the buyer applies for a new title.

Also called service dog, guide dog

A dog specially trained for the purpose, which a handicapped person has the right to bring into public accommodations, transportation and places the public is invited, without an extra charge.

Also called booster seat

The seat a child at least four years of age who has outgrown a forward facing seat rides in, in a rear seat, used with both lap and shoulder belts and never with a lap belt alone.

Also called bike lane

A portion of the roadway, or a paved lane beside it, designated by striping, markings and signs for preferential or exclusive use by bicyclists.

Also called repo by force

What a creditor may not commit in taking collateral without going to court, along with entering a dwelling used as a current residence or using force.

Also called castle law

The common law doctrine that a person's home is his castle, which the General Assembly stated its intent to codify and to extend to an occupied vehicle and a place of business.

Also called arrest by a private person

An arrest by any person, on seeing a felony committed, on certain information that one has been committed, or on seeing a larceny committed, taking the person to a judge or magistrate.

Also called higher burden of proof

The standard of proof the court must have before appointing a guardian, higher than the ordinary civil standard.

Also called CWP, carry permit

The permit SLED issues to carry a concealable weapon, to a resident or qualified nonresident who is at least 18 and not prohibited from possessing the weapon, on an application with identification, proof of training and fingerprints.

Also called first offender probation

Probation without a judgment of guilt for a first time drug possession charge, ending in dismissal of the proceedings when completed. It is not a conviction, and may happen only once for any person.

Also called cognovit

A term authorizing someone to confess a judgment against the tenant on a claim under the rental agreement, which a rental agreement may not contain.

Also called implied consent hearing

The hearing on a suspension after a breath or blood test or a refusal, which a person has the right to request within thirty days of the notice of suspension.

Also called violent crime

In the handgun article, murder, manslaughter other than negligent manslaughter from a traffic accident, rape, mayhem, kidnapping, burglary, robbery, housebreaking, and the assaults the definitions list.

Also called dangerous dog

A dog or cat known to be inclined to attack unprovoked, one that makes an unprovoked attack injuring a person away from its confinement, or one kept or trained for fighting.

Also called living will, declaration of a desire for a natural death

A document expressing a desire that no life sustaining procedures be used to prolong dying if the person's condition is terminal or they are permanently unconscious, signed before an officer authorized to administer oaths and two qualified witnesses.

Also called payday loan

A licensed lender holding a customer's check for up to thirty-one days in return for cash now, for a fee of no more than fifteen percent of the principal.

Also called deficiency balance

The balance left owing after repossessed goods are sold, which a consumer owes only if the creditor disposed of the goods in good faith and in a commercially reasonable manner.

Also called deficiency

A judgment for whatever remains of a mortgage debt after the foreclosure sale, against a borrower personally liable for it, or against another person who guaranteed it.

Also called CDV

Causing physical harm or injury to one's own household member, or offering or attempting to with apparent present ability under circumstances reasonably creating fear of imminent peril, graded in degrees.

Also called durable power of attorney

Not ended by the principal's incapacity. A power of attorney made under the act is durable unless it expressly provides that incapacity ends it.

Also called stand your ground

An obligation to withdraw before using force. A person not engaged in an unlawful activity who is attacked where they have a right to be has none, and may meet force with force, including deadly force, if they reasonably believe it is necessary to prevent death, great bodily injury or a violent crime.

Also called home

In the self defense article, a building or conveyance of any kind with a roof, including an attached porch and a tent, designed to be occupied by people lodging there at night, temporary or permanent, mobile or immobile.

Also called involuntary commitment, mental health hold

Admission to a hospital or mental health facility on a sworn affidavit and a physician's certificate that a person with a mental illness is likely to cause serious harm if not immediately hospitalized, reviewed by the probate court for probable cause.

Also called EPC

A law enforcement officer's taking of a child without the parents' consent, on probable cause that abuse or neglect puts the child in substantial and imminent danger with no time for a court order, or when a parent is arrested and no adult is left to care for the child.

Also called utilities

The services the rental agreement or the maintenance section requires the landlord to provide. Where the landlord negligently or wilfully fails to, the tenant may give notice and procure them and deduct the cost, or recover damages.

Also called closed session

A meeting a public body closes to the public for one of the reasons the section lists, after a public vote and an announcement of its specific purpose. No action may be taken in it except to adjourn or return to public session.

Also called exemptions from levy

Property of a debtor that cannot be attached, levied on or sold to pay a judgment, such as a residence up to $50,000, one vehicle up to $5,000 and household goods up to $4,000.

Also called habitable

The condition a landlord makes all repairs and does whatever is reasonably necessary to put and keep the premises in.

Also called competency

Having the capacity to understand the proceedings and to assist in one's own defense. A judge with reason to doubt it orders an examination by two designated examiners.

Also called asset forfeiture

The loss to the state of property connected with drug offenses, such as equipment, conveyances, money and proceeds, decided by a judge on a petition from the Attorney General or the solicitor.

Also called new address

The address the tenant gives the landlord in writing for the deposit notice. Without it, the tenant is not entitled to the deposit damages where the landlord had no notice of the tenant's whereabouts and mailed to the last known address.

Also called wage garnishment

Taking a debtor's unpaid earnings through the employer. On a debt from a consumer credit sale, consumer lease, consumer loan or rental-purchase agreement, a creditor may not do it.

Also called grandmother, grandfather

For visitation, the natural or adoptive parent of a natural or adoptive parent of a minor child.

Also called serious injury

Bodily injury that creates a substantial risk of death, or causes serious, permanent disfigurement or protracted loss or impairment of the function of a bodily member or organ.

Also called recklessness

Conduct the good samaritan section does not protect: a person giving free emergency care in good faith is not liable for civil damages except for acts or omissions amounting to gross negligence or wilful or wanton misconduct.

Also called court appointed guardian

A person the court appoints, on clear and convincing evidence that someone is incapacitated, to provide continuing care and supervision, with orders only to the extent the incapacity requires.

Also called pistol

Under the handgun article, any firearm designed to expel a projectile and to be fired from the hand, other than antiques, curiosities or collector's items and firearms that do not fire fixed cartridges.

Also called initiation abuse

Intentionally or recklessly doing acts with a foreseeable potential for physical harm for initiation into, admission to or affiliation with a student organization connected with a school, college or university.

Also called health care proxy

A document substantially in the statutory form, signed by the principal and two qualified witnesses, naming an agent eighteen years of age or older to make health care decisions.

Also called police chase

A pursuit the fleeing section defines, leading which, after failing to stop for a law enforcement vehicle's siren or lights, is a felony under that section.

Also called holding over

A tenant staying in possession without the landlord's consent after the rental agreement expires or ends, which lets the landlord bring an action for possession.

Also called senior property tax exemption

The exemption of the first $50,000 of the fair market value of a dwelling from property taxes for an owner who is sixty-five, totally and permanently disabled, or legally blind, on a written application.

Also called consent to testing

The consent a driver is considered to have given, by driving in the state, to tests of breath, blood or urine if arrested for an offense arising out of driving under the influence.

Also called no will

What passes when a person dies without a will. The surviving spouse takes all of it if there are no surviving issue, and one-half if there are.

Also called descendants

A person's descendants, who take the part of an intestate estate not passing to the spouse, equally if all of the same degree of kinship, and otherwise by representation.

Also called officer

For the resisting arrest article, any duly appointed or commissioned officer of the state, a county or a municipality.

Also called partial guardianship

A guardianship whose powers the court has limited, with the limitation endorsed on the guardian's letters.

Also called good samaritan overdose

The protection from prosecution for the offenses the overdose section lists, for a person who seeks medical help for someone overdosing, gives their own name, cooperates and stays until help arrives.

Also called trunk

The trunk of a vehicle that has one; in a vehicle without one, the area designed for luggage, and in a station wagon, van, hatchback, truck or sport utility vehicle, the area behind the rearmost seat.

Also called marital estate

Everything acquired during the marriage and owned when the case is filed, however title is held, divided equitably by the family court.

Also called under the influence

The degree to which a person's faculties to drive must be impaired by alcohol, other drugs or both for driving to be the offense of driving under the influence.

Also called contractor's lien

A lien on a building for labor or materials furnished for it, dissolved unless a sworn statement is served and filed within ninety days after the claimant stops work.

Also called child, underage

A person under the age of eighteen, which is what every reference to minors in the state's laws means, except in the laws on selling alcoholic beverages.

Also called fired for cause

For unemployment, conduct showing wilful and wanton disregard of the employer's interests. A discharge for it disqualifies a worker for twenty weeks.

Also called cell phone

A cellular telephone, portable computer, GPS receiver, electronic game or similar device used to communicate, display or record digital content, which a driver may not hold or support while driving on a public highway.

Also called moderate injury

Injury involving prolonged loss of consciousness, temporary or moderate disfigurement or loss of function, a fracture or dislocation, or treatment needing regional or general anesthesia.

Also called divided highway

For the school bus rule, a highway or private road with four or more traffic lanes, at least two in each direction, on which a driver going the opposite way need not stop for a stopped bus.

Also called no guns sign

The words of the sign an employer or property owner posts to request that concealable weapons not be brought onto the premises. It must show the words and a crossed out handgun at each entrance, in the sizes the sign section sets.

Also called lis pendens

The notice of an action that, with a suit to enforce the lien, must be filed within six months after the claimant stops work, or the lien is dissolved.

Also called creditor notice

The notice a personal representative publishes once a week for three successive weeks, telling creditors to present their claims within eight months after the first publication or be forever barred.

Also called open beer

Beer or wine in an open container in a motor vehicle on a public highway, outside the trunk or luggage compartment, which is a misdemeanor. Beer or wine there means any containing one-half of one percent or more of alcohol.

Also called protective order

A family court order protecting a household member from abuse, which may bar the respondent from abusing, contacting or approaching the petitioner, for a fixed time of not less than six months nor more than one year.

Also called lockout, self help eviction

A landlord unlawfully removing or excluding a tenant from the premises, which lets the tenant recover possession or end the agreement and recover three months' rent or twice the actual damages, whichever is greater.

Also called excess proceeds

What a tax sale brings in beyond the taxes, penalties and costs owed. After any municipal tax liens, it belongs to the owner of record just before the redemption period ended, and goes to the county if unclaimed within five years.

Also called PR bond, personal recognizance

Release pending trial on the person's own promise, without surety, in an amount the court sets. A person charged with a noncapital offense is released this way unless the court finds a reason the section names not to.

Also called drug paraphernalia

An object a court finds, weighing the factors the section lists such as residue, nearness to drugs and how it was sold, to be for drug use. Possessing or selling it carries a civil fine.

Also called custody schedule

The plan each parent files at a contested custody hearing, setting out parenting time and major decisions on education, health care, activities and religious training.

Also called eavesdropper

A person who peeps through windows, doors or similar places on or about another's premises to spy on or invade the privacy of the people there, including by using video or audio equipment for that purpose.

Also called persistent vegetative state

A condition two physicians may certify for a declaration to take effect, ordinarily after the person has been unconscious for at least ninety consecutive days.

Also called petty theft, shoplifting

Simple larceny of goods worth $2,000 or less, a misdemeanor tried in magistrates or municipal court.

Also called warrant, process

The document an arrest is made under. An officer may not neglect, on request, to show it to the person arrested or someone acting for them.

Also called PTI

A solicitor's program that ends, on successful completion, in a noncriminal disposition of the charge, after which the person may ask the court to destroy the arrest records.

Also called presumed intent to distribute

What possessing more than the amounts the drug section lists, such as more than one ounce of marijuana, makes a person of possession with intent to distribute.

Also called primary physical aggressor

The person an officer decides, weighing the factors the section lists, was the main physical aggressor when household members make conflicting complaints of domestic violence. The officer must not then arrest the other person.

Also called one party consent

Agreement given before a communication is intercepted. A person not acting under color of law may intercept a wire, oral or electronic communication where the person is a party to it, or one of the parties has given prior consent.

Also called insurance card

Evidence of insurance the owner keeps in the vehicle and displays on an officer's demand, which may be shown on a mobile device in the insurer's format.

Also called fail-safe ballot

A ballot cast by a voter who cannot produce the required photo identification, counted only if the voter brings a valid photo identification to the county board before the canvass is certified.

Also called drunk and disorderly

Being grossly intoxicated or disorderly in a public place, using obscene or profane language in public or near a school or church, or firing a gun near a public road while under the influence, each a misdemeanor.

Also called FOIA record

A record of a public body, which a person has a right to inspect, copy or receive electronically, except as the exemptions or other laws provide, at fees no more than the actual cost.

Also called purple paint law

One of two ways to post land against entry: a vertical purple line at least eight inches long and two inches wide, three to six feet off the ground, on permanent objects no more than one hundred yards apart.

Also called court interpreter

A person eighteen years of age or older, not a family member of a party or witness, able to interpret simultaneously and consecutively and to sight translate documents, whom the court appoints in a criminal case for a person who does not speak or understand English well enough.

Also called equalization

The county's appraisal and equalization of property once every fifth year, with notice to every taxpayer whose value or classification changes by $1,000 or more.

Also called careless driving

Driving any vehicle in a way that indicates a wilful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property.

Also called right to redeem

The twelve months after a delinquent tax sale during which the owner, a grantee or a creditor may get the property back by paying the taxes, penalties and costs with interest on the bid.

Also called uninsured motorist fee

The fee, set at $600 and adjusted yearly, an owner of an uninsured vehicle pays before the department reissues the license, registrations and plates it suspended.

Also called rent to own

An agreement to use household goods for an initial period of four months or less, renewable with each payment, that lets the renter become the owner.

Also called repetitive stress injury

An injury for which notice is due within ninety days of when the employee discovered, or with reasonable diligence could have discovered, that the condition is compensable.

Also called mandated reporter

A professional, such as a doctor, teacher, counselor, police officer or childcare worker, who must report when information received in that professional capacity gives reason to believe a child has been or may be abused or neglected.

Also called opposing an officer

Knowingly and wilfully opposing or resisting an officer serving process, or resisting an arrest by someone the person knows or reasonably should know is an officer.

Also called harassment restraining order

A magistrates court order against a person engaged in harassment or stalking, lasting a fixed period of not less than one year and enforceable throughout the state.

Also called retaliation

A landlord raising rent above fair market value, decreasing essential services or bringing an action for possession after a tenant complained to a code enforcement agency or to the landlord.

Also called cure notice

A consumer's right, after a written notice from the creditor, to pay all unpaid sums due plus delinquency charges and continue the contract as though the default had not happened.

Also called rout, affray

The crime of participating in a riot by being present, instigating, promoting or aiding it, graded by its purpose and by whether the person carried a weapon, was disguised or urged others to force or violence.

Also called work license

A license a person convicted of a first or second offense of driving under suspension, who works or is in college, may apply for, to drive only to and from work or school and in the course of them.

Also called eviction notice from court

The written rule a magistrate issues on a landlord's application, requiring the tenant to leave or to show cause before the magistrate why not, within ten days after it is served.

Also called loose dog

A dog off property its owner owns, rents or controls. Where a county or city has adopted penalties, allowing it is a misdemeanor with a $50 fine for a first offense.

Also called warrant

A judicial officer's written order, issued on a sworn affidavit, identifying property and naming or describing the person or place to be searched, which must be executed and returned within ten days after it is dated.

Also called security deposit, deposit

Property or money a landlord holds as security, returned at the end of the tenancy less accrued rent and damages from the tenant's failure to keep up the unit, with any deduction itemized in writing.

Also called leaving a job, termination

An employee's leaving the payroll for any reason, after which all wages due are paid within forty-eight hours or by the next regular payday no more than thirty days away.

Also called affidavit of collection

The affidavit a successor presents, thirty days after a death and countersigned by the probate judge, to collect property from a probate estate worth no more than $45,000.

Also called cyberstalking

A pattern of words or conduct that serves no legitimate purpose and is meant to cause, and causes, a reasonable fear of death, assault, bodily injury, sexual contact, kidnapping or property damage to the person or family.

Also called window tint

Film or other material added to a vehicle's windows after the factory. On the side and rear windows, combined with the glass, it must let through not less than twenty-seven percent of the light.

Also called TTD

Incapacity for work that is total, for which the employer pays weekly compensation of sixty-six and two-thirds percent of average weekly wages, for up to five hundred weeks in most cases.

Also called trespass after warning

Entering another's dwelling, business or premises without legal cause after being warned not to, or failing to leave immediately when the person in possession asks.

Also called DUAC

Driving with an alcohol concentration of eight one-hundredths of one percent or more, an offense of its own.

Also called job discrimination

An employer's refusing to hire, discharging or otherwise discriminating against an individual because of race, religion, color, sex, age, national origin or disability, or the other acts the section lists.

Also called raised bid

A higher bid entered after a judicial foreclosure sale, while the bidding stays open until the thirtieth day after it, by anyone other than the highest bidder, with the required deposit.

Also called in town

Territory built up with businesses or houses less than one hundred feet apart for a quarter of a mile or more, where thirty miles an hour is the maximum speed.

Also called acknowledgment of paternity

A signed acknowledgment of paternity that creates a legal finding of paternity, which a signatory may rescind within sixty days or by the date of a proceeding about the child, whichever is earlier.

Also called victim statement at sentencing

A victim's written or oral statement that the court hears or reviews before sentencing. It is given to the defense only after a finding of guilt and is not admissible as evidence at trial.

Also called secret filming

Knowingly viewing, photographing, recording or filming another person without their knowledge and consent, while they are in a place where they would have a reasonable expectation of privacy, to arouse or gratify sexual desire.

Also called knowing violation

Under the Unfair Trade Practices Act, a violation where the business knew or should have known its conduct was unlawful. It triples the actual damages.

Also called warrant of ejectment, eviction order

The magistrate's order to remove the tenant. The constable or deputy sheriff presents it and gives the occupants twenty-four hours to leave voluntarily.

Also called wrongful death

An act, neglect or default causing a death that would have let the injured person sue had they lived, which makes the person responsible liable to an action for damages.