Glossary: Legal and Clinical Terms as the Roadmaps Use Them

How to use this glossary#

The terms are grouped by subject rather than in a single alphabetical run, because most terms make sense only beside their neighbours. Within each group the entries are alphabetical. The last topical group, "Terms with more than one meaning," collects the words most often misused and states every sense the Roadmaps recognise.

A few conventions apply throughout:

• Role vocabulary. The Roadmaps describe people by role — patient, detainee, prisoner, personal representative, successor in interest, heir, decedent's estate, employee, former employee, applicant, licensed clinician, whistleblower, witness, regulator, a person with information but no private claim — rather than by the word "standing," except where a technical sense of that word is meant (see "Standing" under "Terms with more than one meaning").
• Grades. A statement of law carries a certainty grade (see "Certainty grade"). A glossary definition does not change the grade of the authority behind it.
• Deadlines. No entry states a deadline for any reader. Where a term concerns a time limit, the entry names the source and the trigger only.
• Entities. No entry states that any organization did anything. Organization names appear only where the term itself is a plan or statutory term; Roadmap 146 carries the entity reference.

Terms about how the Roadmaps are written#

Accrual. The moment a claim comes into existence for limitation purposes, from which the period runs: ordinarily the date of the injury or the adverse act, and sometimes, under a discovery rule, the date the person knew or should have known. Accrual is the trigger in every five-component deadline statement; federal law governs the accrual of a § 1983 claim, and the Government Claims Act borrows its accrual date from the limitation statute that would otherwise apply (see "Accrual (claim period)"). Defined in: 001.1; 008; 078; 082. Related: Five-component deadline statement; Tolling.

Analytical inference. The certainty grade for a conclusion the Roadmaps reason to from statutory text, patterns, omissions or timing, where no controlling authority states it directly. An analytical inference is labelled as such and is a question for counsel to confirm. Defined in: 001.1; brief vocabulary applied in every R2 Roadmap (for example 066, 078, 080). Related: Certainty grade; Documented report.

Certainty grade. A project classification of the strength of a specified legal proposition, not a certificate of present-day validity. Five inherited labels are Settled (current authenticated statutory text or binding holding, within its actual scope), Majority/likely (supportive appellate treatment not yet shown binding), Unsettled/split (contrary or unresolved authority), Documented report (the stated existence or content of a public record, not adjudication of any allegation), and Analytical inference (project analysis requiring review). A citation appearing in a statute or case library is not, by itself, verification of effective date, subsequent amendments, negative treatment, facts or application. Earlier Release 1 vocabulary needs a proposition-specific crosswalk; "Fact-dependent" is not a legal-authority grade, and an "Agency position" is evidence of an agency view, not automatically controlling law. Defined in source A: 148; 001.1. Related: Verified; Verified with limitation.

Companion worksheet. The worksheet in the 100–124 range that collects the facts a Roadmap's analysis needs. A worksheet records facts; it scores nothing and concludes nothing. Defined in: 001.1. Related: Product levels; Records key.

Documented report. The certainty grade for what a public record — an agency record, a court filing describing a party's position, a news report of a hearing — shows, without any adjudication of its truth. A Documented report is never presented as a finding. Defined in: 001.1; 090; 137. Related: Certainty grade; Finding.

Fact gateway. One of the fourteen plain statements of fact in Roadmap 002.1 ("I was terminated after requesting an accommodation"; "My family member died in custody"), each of which names the families of law that may be relevant, what must be identified first, who can use the processes involved, the forums potentially involved, and the Roadmaps to read. A gateway opens doors; it does not walk through them, and it never says a reader has a claim. Defined in: 002.1. Related: Matrix family; Navigator (150).

Finding. A determination by a court or agency with authority to make it. The series distinguishes allegation, complaint, evidence, public record, agency position, settlement, stipulation, order, finding, judgment and unresolved question, and it never treats one as another. Defined in: 001.1; 048.1. Related: Documented report.

Five-component deadline statement. The only form in which the Roadmaps describe a time limit: the source (the statute or rule), the period (as the source states it), the trigger (the event the source measures from), the tolling or extension provisions, if any, and the certainty. No Roadmap computes a date for any reader; counsel computes. Defined in: 001.1; 008. Related: Accrual; Tolling.

Generic hypothetical. An invented, unnamed, labelled scenario ("A generic hypothetical.") used to show how law applies. It involves no real person and no real case facts. Defined in: 001.1; every Roadmap chassis. Related: Fact gateway.

Pending. The register status of an authority that has not yet been opened for the page that cites it. A pending authority is never presented as verified. Defined in: 001.1; 148. Related: Verified with limitation.

Product levels. The kinds of page in the series, kept apart because a document that explains, collects, concludes and drafts at once does none of them well. Guidebooks (001.1, 002.1) explain and route; Roadmaps carry the law of one claim or process; worksheets (100–124) collect facts; toolkits (125–128.1) explain an agency pathway with a bracketed model; educational pleading and claim models (129–132) show the anatomy of a filing; defense playbooks (133–143) state the strongest opposing arguments neutrally; public reference libraries (144–149) are generated from the verified register; and the Navigator (150) routes only. Defined in: 001.1 (in part); the series' serial allocation. Related: Companion worksheet.

Records key. The six-way mark the Roadmaps put on every category of record: H — the reader presently has it lawfully; R — it may be requested under a statute (for example, one's own medical records, Health & Saf. Code § 123110, or one's own personnel and payroll records, Roadmap 033); D — obtainable only through discovery or subpoena; P — potentially privileged or private (peer review under Evid. Code § 1157; other patients' records; attorney communications); K — someone else must preserve it but need not produce it voluntarily (Roadmap 007); X — the reader must not access, copy or remove it (jail systems, patient charts, peer-review files, employer systems). Defined in: 001.1; 101; 114; every Roadmap chassis. Related: Preservation; Peer-review protection.

Tolling. A provision or doctrine that suspends or extends a limitation period, stated in the fourth component of every deadline statement. Examples the Roadmaps carry include the extension that follows a § 364 notice served in the last ninety days of the professional-negligence period (Roadmap 066) and imprisonment tolling under Code Civ. Proc. § 352.1, whose application to a claim accruing during pretrial detention in a county jail is unsettled; custody should never be assumed to extend any deadline (Roadmaps 041, 082). Defined in: 008; 041; 066; 082. Related: Accrual; Five-component deadline statement.

Verified; verified with limitation. Source-access statuses, never global readiness grades. Verified on official source is justified only when the issuing body's text was actually accessible and the exact proposition, subdivision or holding, edition and date were matched; it does not independently verify all subsequent history. Verified with limitation must identify the actual limit, which may be a nonofficial reproduction, incomplete access, missing effective-date check or unresolved negative treatment. For example, the federal text of Title VII § 706(f)(1) was directly checked on the official Office of the Law Revision Counsel website in this pass; California Government Code § 12965 was checked on current CRD guidance and a nonofficial 2025-code reproduction reflecting a January 1, 2026 amendment, because direct legislative-site retrieval returned HTTP 403. Neither check certifies this entire glossary or replaces independent counsel review. Defined in source A: 001.1; 148. Related: Pending; Certainty grade.

Who may use a process: roles#

Administrative complainant eligibility. Whatever an agency's own rules say about who may file with it. The EEOC and the Civil Rights Department require an aggrieved person or someone filing for one; a licensing board accepts information from anyone. Defined in: 001.1; 002.1. Related: Standing; Role vocabulary.

Decedent's estate. The legal estate of a person who has died, which owns the decedent's own surviving claims and acts through a personal representative or, if none, a successor in interest. Defined in: 080; 078; 065. Related: Personal representative; Survival claim.

Detainee; pretrial detainee. A person held in custody who has not been convicted of the charge for which he or she is held. For medical-care claims, a pretrial detainee's protection comes from the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause, judged in the Ninth Circuit by an objective standard (AR-0961-C01). Custody status is fixed from booking and court records for the date and time of each challenged decision, not from a housing label. Defined in: 041; 042. Related: Prisoner; Civil detainee; Objective deliberate indifference.

Civil detainee. A person held under civil rather than criminal authority (for example, civil commitment). Release 1 Roadmap 041 notes that civil detainees are entitled to more considerate treatment than criminal detainees; Roadmap 080 notes that a civilly committed person is not a "prisoner" under the PLRA's definition, as the Ninth Circuit has held. Defined in: 041; 080. Related: Prisoner.

Personal representative. The court-appointed executor or administrator of a decedent's estate, who prosecutes the survival claim (Code Civ. Proc. § 377.30; AR-0961-S06). Defined in: 001.1; 078; 129.1. Related: Successor in interest; Survival claim.

Real party in interest. The person who owns the claim. An estate's claim belongs to its representative or successor, not to a relative who is neither. Defined in: 001.1; 002.1; 133. Related: Standing; Wrongful-death heir.

Role vocabulary. The plain roles the series uses in place of "standing": injured employee; former employee; applicant; licensed clinician; patient; incarcerated patient; former detainee or prisoner; estate representative; wrongful-death heir; whistleblower; witness; regulator; person reporting licensed-professional misconduct; a third party with information but no private claim; and, in the correctional Roadmaps, detainee, prisoner, personal representative, successor in interest, heir and decedent's estate. Listing a role means a person in it may be able to use the process, not that the person will succeed. Defined in: 001.1; 002.1; 096.1; 080. Related: Standing.

Successor in interest. The person who succeeds to a decedent's cause of action and may prosecute the survival claim where no personal representative has been appointed, with the statutory declaration (Code Civ. Proc. § 377.30; AR-0961-S06). Defined in: 001.1; 078; 129.1. Related: Personal representative.

Survival claim. The decedent's own cause of action, which does not end with death but passes to the decedent's successor in interest and is prosecuted by the personal representative or, if none, the successor in interest (Code Civ. Proc. § 377.30; AR-0961-S06). It is distinct from the heirs' wrongful-death claim, and each requires its own Government Claims Act claim where a public entity is involved; one claimant cannot rely on a claim presented by another (Roadmap 078). Defined in: 078; 065; 129.1. Related: Personal representative; Wrongful-death claim.

Wrongful-death claim. The heirs' own cause of action for a death, created in the persons Code Civ. Proc. § 377.60 lists (AR-065-S08) — an entirely new cause of action, not the decedent's claim continued. Defined in: 078; 065; 129.1. Related: Wrongful-death heir; Survival claim.

Wrongful-death heir. A person whom Code Civ. Proc. § 377.60 names as entitled to sue for a death (AR-065-S08). Not every family member is one; a sibling, for example, is not unless the statute's conditions are met. The heirs' claim is their own, separate from the estate's survival claim. Defined in: 001.1; 078; 129.1. Related: Survival claim; Real party in interest.

Custody status and the constitutional standards#

Color of state law. The requirement that a § 1983 defendant acted with authority derived from the state. A physician under contract to provide medical care to people in state custody acts under color of state law (AR-0961-C07), and Release 1 Roadmap 046 treats private medical providers serving people in custody under government contract the same way. Acting under color of state law for § 1983 does not make a private company a public entity under the Government Claims Act (Roadmap 078). Defined in: 001.1; 045; 046. Related: State action; Public entity.

Deliberate indifference. The fault standard for a constitutional medical-care claim, in two forms that must never be merged. For a convicted prisoner under the Eighth Amendment it is subjective: the official must actually know of and disregard an excessive risk to health or safety (AR-0961-C02; AR-0961-C03). For a pretrial detainee under the Fourteenth Amendment in the Ninth Circuit it is objective: the elements are an intentional decision about the conditions of confinement, a substantial risk of serious harm, a failure to take reasonable available measures although a reasonable official would have appreciated the high degree of risk, and causation (AR-0961-C01). Both require more than negligence. The term is also used for the culpability required for a Monell failure-to-train claim. Defined in: 041; 042; 043; 044 (controlling); 001.1; 048. Related: Objective deliberate indifference; Subjective deliberate indifference; Negligence.

Denial, delay and interference. Three different factual theories of a constitutional medical claim: complete denial of care; harmful delay, which requires attention to what medically significant consequence the interval caused; and intentional interference with an existing prescription, referral or treatment plan. Defined in: 043; 042. Related: Causation.

Difference of medical opinion. A disagreement between clinicians, or between patient and clinician, about treatment. It is not deliberate indifference unless the chosen course was medically unacceptable and chosen in conscious disregard of an excessive risk. Defined in: 043; 044; 133. Related: Professional negligence; Deliberate indifference.

Objective deliberate indifference. The Ninth Circuit's Fourteenth Amendment standard for pretrial detainees' medical-care claims, extended from the court's failure-to-protect decision (AR-055-C01) and drawn from the Supreme Court's excessive-force decision (AR-059-C03): the four elements stated under "Deliberate indifference." "Objective" does not mean strict liability and does not mean objective malpractice; the conduct must be objectively unreasonable, which requires more than negligence. Defined in: 042; 044. Related: Deliberate indifference; Reasonable available measures.

Personal participation. The § 1983 rule that each defendant answers only for his or her own conduct; there is no vicarious liability. A title, an organizational position or a copy line on an e-mail is not participation. A supervisor may be liable for his or her own culpable action or inaction, or where there is a sufficient causal connection between the supervisor's own wrongful conduct and the violation. Defined in: 003; 043; 045. Related: Respondeat superior; Qualified immunity.

Qualified immunity. The defense available to an individual public official sued for damages under § 1983 unless the right was clearly established at the time, so that a reasonable official would have known the conduct was unlawful. Whether an employee of a private contractor may assert it is a separate question: the Supreme Court held that prison guards employed by a private firm may not (AR-0961-C10), later described that holding as narrow and allowed a private individual retained by the government to seek the immunity in other circumstances (AR-077-C03), and the Ninth Circuit has denied it to a privately employed psychiatrist working under a county contract (AR-062-C02). Defined in: 077 (controlling); 045; 133; 001.1. Related: Color of state law; Personal participation.

Reasonable available measures. The third element of the objective standard: the measures that were available to the defendant in context — given the information available, the alternatives that existed and what the defendant's role permitted — and that a reasonable official would have taken. Defined in: 042. Related: Objective deliberate indifference.

Serious medical need. A medical condition or risk sufficiently serious to engage the constitutional duty; the first part of the Eighth Amendment analysis, and the counterpart of "substantial risk of serious harm" under the objective standard. Defined in: 043; 042. Related: Deliberate indifference.

Subjective deliberate indifference. The Eighth Amendment standard for convicted prisoners: actual knowledge of and disregard for an excessive risk (AR-0961-C03). Knowledge may be proved circumstantially, including from the obviousness of a risk, but obviousness is evidence of knowledge, not a substitute for it. Defined in: 043; 044. Related: Deliberate indifference.

Entity liability under § 1983#

Custom. A practice so persistent and widespread that it carries the force of policy; it requires duration, frequency and consistency, and isolated incidents do not suffice. Defined in: 047; 048; 049. Related: Monell liability; Pattern.

Failure to train or supervise. A Monell route in which the entity's omission is its policy; it requires deliberate indifference, ordinarily shown by a pattern of similar violations, and moving-force causation. Defined in: 047; 048. Related: Deliberate indifference; Policy of inaction.

Final policymaker. An official whose decision on a subject is the entity's policy because state law gives that official final policymaking authority over it; a single such decision can be policy. Defined in: 003; 047. Related: Monell liability.

Monell liability. The rule that a county — and, in the Ninth Circuit, a private entity acting under color of state law (AR-0961-C08) — is liable under § 1983 only for its own policy, custom or practice that caused the violation, never merely because it employed the person who committed it (AR-0961-C04). The Roadmaps recognise four routes: an express policy; a longstanding custom or practice; a decision by an official with final policymaking authority (including ratification by such an official); and a policy of omission — failure to train, supervise or act — shown with deliberate indifference. The underlying violation and the entity's causation are separate elements. Defined in: 047 (controlling); 046; 048; 049; 001.1; 133. Related: Custom; Final policymaker; Moving force; Respondeat superior.

Moving force. The causation requirement for entity liability: the entity's policy or custom must be the moving force behind the constitutional injury. Defined in: 047; 050. Related: Monell liability; Causation.

Pattern; denominator. Evidence of repeated similar events, used to prove a custom or the notice needed for failure to train. The Roadmaps require a similarity rule and a denominator: thirty missed appointments mean something different in a system with one hundred scheduled visits than in one with thirty thousand. Defined in: 048; 049. Related: Custom.

Policy of inaction. An entity's failure to act treated as policy; it requires deliberate indifference and moving-force causation. Defined in: 047; 049; 050. Related: Failure to train or supervise.

Respondeat superior. Vicarious liability of an employer for an employee's torts within the scope of employment. It is available in California negligence law (AR-066-C04) and unavailable under § 1983, where an entity answers only for its own policy or custom. Defined in: 001.1; 044; 046; 047. Related: Monell liability; Vicarious liability.

State action. For § 1983, conduct fairly attributable to the state, including the conduct of a private provider performing a custody medical function under government contract; the inquiry is functional. Defined in: 046; 133. Related: Color of state law.

Negligence, professional negligence and MICRA#

Correctional treatment center. A licensed health facility, operated by the state corrections department or by a county, city or city-and-county law-enforcement agency, that provides inpatient health services to the portion of the inmate population that does not require general acute care; the definition does not reach areas of a law-enforcement facility that house inmates who may be receiving outpatient services. Whether a particular jail infirmary is licensed as one is a public-record fact. Defined in: 066. Related: Health care provider.

Duty to summon medical care. The limited liability of a public employee, and of the public entity where the employee acts within the scope of employment, when the employee knows or has reason to know that a prisoner needs immediate medical care and fails to take reasonable action to summon it (Gov. Code § 845.6; AR-051-S01). The courts keep it apart from malpractice: a failure to summon care is not a failure to provide adequate care. Defined in: 066; 078. Related: Prisoner (Government Code sense); Professional negligence.

Health care provider. A term each MICRA statute defines for itself. For Code Civ. Proc. §§ 340.5 and 364 and related sections, it means persons licensed or certified under Division 2 of the Business and Professions Code (and under the Osteopathic and Chiropractic Initiative Acts), licensed clinics, dispensaries and health facilities, and their legal representatives (AR-069-S06; AR-096-S04). Civil Code § 3333.2, as amended in 2022, adds the provider's employer, professional corporation, partnership or other legally recognised professional practice organization, and separately defines "health care institution" (AR-0961-S03). Whether a private correctional-health company that is not itself licensed is a "health care provider" for §§ 340.5 and 364 is a question the Roadmaps flag rather than answer. Defined in: 066. Related: MICRA; Professional negligence.

MICRA. The Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act: the set of statutes that modify professional-negligence actions against health-care providers, including the limitation period (Code Civ. Proc. § 340.5), the ninety-day notice of intent (§ 364) and the limits on noneconomic damages (Civ. Code § 3333.2, as amended effective for cases filed on or after January 1, 2023, with amounts that rise annually on a statutory schedule; AR-0961-S03). Defined in: 066 (controlling); 001.1; 096.2. Related: Health care provider; Notice of intent.

Negligence; one standard of care. California recognises one negligence tort, not two; a defendant has one duty measured by one standard of care under any given circumstances, and professional status changes the measure of care, not the duty (AR-066-C01). The label "professional negligence" matters because the Legislature attached special rules to it. Defined in: 066. Related: Professional negligence; Standard of care.

Notice of intent (§ 364). The written notice, at least ninety days before suit, that Code Civ. Proc. § 364 requires before an action based on a health-care provider's professional negligence; it must state the legal basis of the claim and the type of loss, with specificity as to the injuries (AR-096-S04). Served within the last ninety days of the limitation period, it extends the time to sue; it is not jurisdictional, but it is a statutory precondition. It is not a Government Claims Act claim, though a notice served on a public entity can be treated as a defective "claim as presented." Defined in: 066; 078. Related: Claim as presented; Administrative prerequisite.

Professional negligence. As MICRA defines it, a negligent act or omission by a health-care provider in the rendering of professional services, which is the proximate cause of personal injury or wrongful death, where the services are within the scope of the provider's licence and not within any restriction imposed by the licensing agency or licensed hospital (Code Civ. Proc. § 340.5; AR-069-S06). Its elements are a professional standard of care, breach, causation and damages, ordinarily proved by expert testimony. It is not deliberate indifference, and a constitutional claim requires more. Defined in: 066 (controlling); 044. Related: Negligence; Standard of care; Deliberate indifference.

Standard of care. The knowledge, skill and care ordinarily possessed and employed by members of the profession under the same or similar circumstances. An internal policy, accreditation standard, contract term or jail regulation can be evidence of expected practice but is not the standard itself. Defined in: 066; 044; 088. Related: Professional negligence; Expert.

Vicarious liability. Liability for another's conduct because of a relationship — employer and employee (respondeat superior), principal and agent. Available in state tort law; unavailable as such under § 1983. Defined in: 044; 066. Related: Respondeat superior.

The Government Claims Act#

Accrual (claim period). For the Act's time limits, a claim accrues on the date the cause of action would accrue under the limitation statute that would apply if no claim were required (Gov. Code § 901; AR-078-S15). For heirs' wrongful-death claims, death is the ordinary candidate trigger. Defined in: 078. Related: Accrual; Five-component deadline statement.

Claim as presented. A document that reached the public entity and disclosed a demand for money with a lawsuit to follow if not paid; even if it fails to comply substantially, it triggers the entity's duty to give notice of insufficiency or untimeliness, and defenses based on defects not noticed are waived. It does not create a claim that was never presented and does not extend the period. Defined in: 078; 066. Related: Substantial compliance; Notice of insufficiency.

Deemed rejection. If the board does not act on a claim within forty-five days after presentation (subject to agreed extension), the claim is deemed rejected on the last day of that period. Defined in: 078. Related: Section 913 notice.

Employee (Government Claims Act). Includes an officer, employee or servant, compensated or not, but not an independent contractor (Gov. Code § 810.2; AR-078-S02). A public employee is an employee of a public entity (Gov. Code § 811.4; AR-077-S09). On the statutory text, a clinician employed by a private contractor is not a county employee, and a physician who contracts with a county individually is an independent contractor. Defined in: 078; 066. Related: Public entity; Employer (more than one meaning).

Government Claims Act. California's statute (Division 3.6 of Title 1 of the Government Code) that governs public-entity liability and requires a written claim to the public entity before a suit for money or damages; the requirement reaches every state-law theory for money or damages against the entity, whatever its label. For death or injury to the person, the claim period is six months after accrual (Gov. Code § 911.2; AR-096-S01), and suit follows rejection within the periods of § 945.6 (AR-096-S03). The name replaced the older "Tort Claims Act" because the requirement is not limited to torts. The claim requirement does not govern a § 1983 claim. Defined in: 078 (controlling); 001.1; 131. Related: Claim presentation; Section 1983 exception.

Local public entity. For the claim chapters, a county, city, district, public authority, public agency or other political subdivision or public corporation in the State, but not the State itself (Gov. Code § 900.4; AR-078-S14). Defined in: 078. Related: Public entity.

Notice of insufficiency. The board's written notice, within twenty days after presentation, stating with particularity the defects in a claim; failing to give it waives defenses based on those defects (Gov. Code §§ 910.8, 911). A parallel notice of untimeliness must be given within forty-five days (§ 911.3). Defined in: 078. Related: Claim as presented.

Presentation (claim presentation). Delivering or mailing a claim to the clerk, secretary or auditor of the local public entity, or to its governing body at its principal office, or submitting it electronically where an ordinance or resolution authorises it (Gov. Code § 915(a)). Delivery to another office — a hospital risk-management department, a jail, a contractor — is not presentation. Defined in: 078; 131. Related: Government Claims Act.

Public entity. Includes the State, the University of California and California State University governing bodies, a county, city, district, public authority, public agency, and any other political subdivision or public corporation (Gov. Code § 811.2; AR-078-S03). A private corporation that contracts with a county for jail medical care is not on that list; Roadmap 078 states, as an analytical inference, that the claim requirement does not reach a suit against the contractor or its employees. Defined in: 078. Related: Local public entity; Employee (Government Claims Act).

Section 1983 exception. The rule that the Government Claims Act's claim requirement does not apply to a federal civil-rights claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, in state or federal court (AR-C08). It relieves the federal claim only; state claims pleaded beside it still require a claim, and it does not relieve a prisoner of PLRA exhaustion. Defined in: 078; 079; 003. Related: Government Claims Act; PLRA.

Section 913 notice. The board's written notice of rejection, which must warn that, subject to exceptions, the claimant has six months from personal delivery or mailing of the notice to file suit. If no compliant notice is given, a longer statutory period applies (Gov. Code § 945.6; AR-096-S03). Defined in: 078. Related: Deemed rejection.

Substantial compliance. The doctrine that a claim which complies substantially with the content requirements is sufficient; it demands at least some compliance with every statutory requirement and does not excuse presentation to the wrong recipient. Defined in: 078. Related: Claim as presented.

The PLRA and jail grievances#

Availability. A grievance remedy must be exhausted only if it is "capable of use" to obtain some relief. The Supreme Court identified three situations in which a remedy on the books is unavailable: it operates as a dead end; it is so opaque as to be practically incapable of use; or administrators thwart its use through machination, misrepresentation or intimidation (AR-0961-C09). The Ninth Circuit has added improper screening and official misdirection as applications. There is no unwritten "special circumstances" exception. Defined in: 080. Related: Exhaustion; Proper exhaustion.

Exhaustion (PLRA). The requirement that a prisoner complete available administrative remedies before bringing a federal action about prison conditions (42 U.S.C. § 1997e(a); AR-096-F04). It applies to all inmate suits about prison life, regardless of whether the grievance system can award the relief sought; it is measured when the operative complaint is filed; and failure to exhaust is an affirmative defense the defendant raises, not something the prisoner must plead (AR-080-C04). Defined in: 080 (controlling); 041; 133. Related: Proper exhaustion; Availability; Administrative prerequisite.

Grievance notice standard. Where a facility's rules do not prescribe a grievance's content, a grievance suffices if it alerts the facility to the nature of the wrong for which redress is sought; it need not state legal theories. A grievance about one thing does not exhaust a claim about another. Officials who decide a grievance on its merits despite a procedural defect cannot later rely on that defect. Defined in: 080. Related: Exhaustion.

Physical-injury requirement (§ 1997e(e)). The PLRA provision that a prisoner confined in a correctional facility may not bring a federal civil action for mental or emotional injury suffered in custody without a prior showing of physical injury (or a sexual act as defined). In the Ninth Circuit the injury need not be significant but must be more than de minimis, and the provision applies only to claims for mental or emotional injury: nominal and punitive damages, and damages for the constitutional violation itself, remain available (AR-096-F04; AR-076-C04). Defined in: 081 (controlling); 133. Related: PLRA.

PLRA. The Prison Litigation Reform Act: federal statutes that require exhaustion of available administrative remedies before a prisoner's federal action about prison conditions, limit recovery for mental or emotional injury without physical injury, limit attorney's fees, require screening of prisoners' complaints, impose filing fees and the three-strikes rule, and limit prospective relief. Defined in: 080; 081; 001.1. Related: Exhaustion; Prisoner (PLRA sense).

Prison conditions. For the PLRA, every inmate suit about prison life, whether it concerns general circumstances or particular episodes; a claim that jail medical staff were deliberately indifferent to a serious medical need is one. Defined in: 080. Related: Exhaustion.

Proper exhaustion. Compliance with the facility's deadlines and other critical procedural rules at every available level; an untimely or procedurally defective grievance does not ordinarily exhaust (AR-080-C03). The facility's written rules, not the PLRA, define the boundaries of proper exhaustion (AR-080-C04). Defined in: 080. Related: Exhaustion.

Employment terms#

Adverse action. An employer's act that materially affects the terms, conditions or privileges of employment — termination, demotion, refusal to reinstate, discipline — or, for retaliation, an act that might dissuade a reasonable worker from protected activity. Defined in: 001.1; 010; 019. Related: Protected activity.

Berman hearing. The Labor Commissioner's informal hearing on a wage claim, producing an order, decision or award that becomes a judgment if not appealed within the statutory period. Defined in: 001.1; 126. Related: Wages.

Corporate practice of medicine. California's rule, grounded in the Medical Practice Act, that corporations and other artificial legal entities have no professional rights, privileges or powers (Bus. & Prof. Code § 2400; AR-030-S01), and that lay persons and entities may not control physicians' professional judgment. A concern under the doctrine does not by itself create a private damages claim. Defined in: 001.1; 004; 030. Related: Professional corporation; Management services agreement.

Direct threat. An employer's defense that an employee posed a significant risk of substantial harm to the health or safety of the employee or others that could not be eliminated or reduced by reasonable accommodation; it must rest on an individualized assessment. Defined in: 001.1; 018; 133. Related: Reasonable accommodation.

Essential functions. The fundamental duties of a position, as distinct from marginal ones; the measure of whether an employee is qualified with or without accommodation. Defined in: 001.1; 012; 013. Related: Reasonable accommodation.

Interactive process. The timely, good-faith exchange between employer and employee about accommodation that FEHA requires, whose failure is a separate violation. Defined in: 001.1; 015. Related: Reasonable accommodation.

Joint employer; integrated enterprise; client employer. Doctrines under which more than one entity may be the employer for a particular statute's purposes. Each statute has its own test: control over wages, hours or working conditions for California wage law; the totality of the relationship with emphasis on control for FEHA; interrelation of operations, common management, centralised control of labour relations and common ownership for the integrated-enterprise test; and shared civil responsibility for wages and workers' compensation where a client employer obtains workers from a labor contractor (Lab. Code § 2810.3; AR-094-S02). Defined in: 094 (controlling); 004; 001.1; 133; 137. Related: Employer (more than one meaning).

Legitimate business reason. An employer's lawful, non-discriminatory or non-retaliatory reason for an adverse action — performance, misconduct, restructuring, budget, position elimination. Defined in: 133; 139. Related: Pretext; Same decision.

Personnel-matter lawsuit. A lawsuit relating to a personnel matter; while it is pending, the statutory right to inspect the personnel file ceases. Defined in: 001.1; 033. Related: Records key.

Position statement. The employer's written response to an EEOC charge or CRD complaint, which fixes the employer's stated reason in writing. Defined in: 001.1; 036. Related: Pretext.

Pretext. Evidence that an employer's stated reason is not its real reason, shown by timing, inconsistency, deviation from policy or comparators. Defined in: 001.1; 010; 036. Related: Legitimate business reason.

Protected activity. Conduct a statute protects from retaliation: requesting accommodation, complaining of discrimination, reporting a legal violation, participating in an investigation, taking protected leave. Defined in: 001.1; 019–023; 133. Related: Adverse action.

Reasonable accommodation; undue hardship. A change to the job or workplace that enables a qualified employee with a disability to perform essential functions, which the employer must provide unless it would impose undue hardship — significant difficulty or expense judged against the employer's size and resources, which the employer must prove. Defined in: 001.1; 014; 133. Related: Interactive process; Direct threat.

Right-to-sue notice. An agency-specific notice governing a particular statutory route, not a universal end to all administrative proceedings or a single combined federal/state clock. For a private Title VII (and generally ADA Title I) action, the EEOC notice is ordinarily a prerequisite and Title VII §706(f)(1), 42 U.S.C. §2000e-5(f)(1), specifies a 90-day period after the notice is given; notice receipt, equitable doctrines and the charge's actual coverage need case-specific examination. California CRD employment right-to-sue practice is governed separately by Government Code §12965(c) and related tolling provisions: current CRD guidance says one year from the CRD notice for an individual employment suit, subject to statutory exceptions and tolling, including qualifying EEOC/CRD worksharing circumstances. A CRD notice does not itself substitute for a federal EEOC notice. ADEA claims generally need a charge but not an EEOC right-to-sue notice; Equal Pay Act claims have a different route. Counsel must preserve both documents and independently calculate each clock. Defined in source A: 001.1; 125; 125.1 [held namespace]. Related: Administrative prerequisite; Exhaustion.

Same decision. Under the FEHA mixed-motive framework discussed in Harris v. City of Santa Monica (2013) 56 Cal.4th 203, where unlawful discrimination was a substantial motivating reason but the employer proves it would have made the same decision at the same time without discrimination, that showing limits remedies: damages, back pay and reinstatement are not available on that theory, while appropriate declaratory or injunctive relief and reasonable fees/costs may still be available; it does not make the discrimination lawful. The employee's protected-trait theory, the statutory cause of action and applicable causal standard must be identified before applying that rule; it is not a generic defense to all retaliation, accommodation, whistleblower, ADA, or wage claims. Defined in source A: 001.1; 013; 133. Related: Substantial motivating reason.

Substantial motivating reason. FEHA's causation standard, distinct from the ADA's but-for standard and Labor Code § 1102.5's contributing-factor standard. Defined in: 001.1; 012; 013; 021. Related: Same decision.

Wages. Under the Labor Code, all amounts for labor performed, however measured. Whether a bonus or deferred amount is a wage has consequences for forum, penalty and deadline. Defined in: 001.1; 026. Related: Berman hearing.

Bankruptcy and entity identity#

Alter ego. The doctrine under which California disregards a corporation's separate existence, requiring both such unity of interest and ownership that the separate personalities no longer exist and an inequitable result if the acts are treated as the corporation's alone. Shared branding, officers or addresses do not establish it by themselves. Defined in: 004; 137. Related: Corporate separateness; Direct participation.

Automatic stay. The statutory injunction that arises on the filing of a bankruptcy petition and stops most actions against the debtor and efforts to recover pre-petition claims (11 U.S.C. § 362(a); AR-096-F01). It protects the debtor; governmental police-and-regulatory proceedings are excepted. Whether a court extended stay protections to any non-debtor is read from the docket, not assumed. Defined in: 091 (controlling); 001.1. Related: Debtor; Discharge.

Bar date. The deadline the bankruptcy court set for filing proofs of claim against the debtors. In the Wellpath cases, the general bar date was April 7, 2025 and the governmental bar date May 12, 2025; both have passed and are described as history (AR-090-E03). Defined in: 090; 001.1. Related: Proof of claim.

Confirmation; effective date. The court's approval of a Chapter 11 plan, and the later date on which the plan's provisions take effect. In the Wellpath cases, May 1, 2025 and May 9, 2025 (AR-090-E05). Defined in: 090; 001.1. Related: Discharge.

Corporate separateness. The starting rule that each corporation is its own legal person; a parent is not liable for a subsidiary's acts merely because it owns it. A parent can be liable derivatively only if the corporate form is disregarded, or directly for its own conduct. Defined in: 003; 004. Related: Alter ego; Direct participation.

Debtor; non-debtor. A debtor is an entity listed, by exact legal name and case number, as having filed in the bankruptcy case; a non-debtor is any other entity, however closely related or similarly named. The discharge of a debtor does not affect the liability of any other entity for the same debt (11 U.S.C. § 524(e); AR-096-F02). Debtor status is read from the debtor list, never from branding. Defined in: 090; 091 (controlling); 001.1; 146. Related: Entity precision; Discharge.

Derivative claim; estate property. A claim that belongs to the bankruptcy estate rather than to an individual creditor: in the Wellpath cases, the bankruptcy court applied the test that a claim is estate property if it existed when the case began, the debtor could have asserted it, and it is general — depending on facts about the relationship between the defendant and the debtor available to any creditor — rather than personal and particularised (AR-090-C01). Such claims may be settled and released by the estate even over an individual creditor's objection. Defined in: 090; 091; 137. Related: Third-party release.

Direct participation. Liability of a related company for its own conduct — its own decision, policy or employment of the person who acted — rather than for a subsidiary's or affiliate's conduct. It is often the simplest route and does not require disregarding the corporate form. Defined in: 004; 137. Related: Corporate separateness.

Discharge (bankruptcy). The release of a debtor from debts arising before confirmation, on confirmation of a Chapter 11 plan, except as the plan, the order or the statute provides (11 U.S.C. § 1141(d)(1); AR-090-F01). It operates as an injunction against collecting the debt as the debtor's personal liability, and it does not discharge non-debtors (AR-096-F02). Defined in: 091 (controlling); 090; 001.1. Related: Plan injunction; Debtor.

Entity precision. The series' rule that every organization is identified by its exact legal name, for a stated period and role, from a document; that liability is never inferred from branding; and, in particular, that California Forensic Medical Group, Inc. is never merged with Wellpath CFMG, Inc. Defined in: 003; 004; 094; 137; 146. Related: Relationship labels; Debtor.

Joint administration; substantive consolidation. Joint administration runs related debtors' cases under one lead case number for procedure only; each debtor keeps its own assets, creditors and case. Substantive consolidation, which pools the assets and liabilities of separate debtors, is a different and exceptional remedy. Defined in: 004. Related: Debtor.

Liquidating trust. The trust created by the confirmed plan to administer and pay claims after the effective date. In the Wellpath cases, federal courts describe recovery on discharged personal-injury and wrongful-death claims as running through the Wellpath Liquidating Trust, by nonbinding alternative dispute resolution or litigation against the trust as a nominal defendant, limited to a pro rata distribution (AR-090-C02); post-effective-date matters are docketed in No. 24-90566. Defined in: 090; 001.1; 137. Related: Nominal defendant.

Management services agreement. An agreement under which a company supplies non-clinical services — billing, enrollment, software, purchasing, hiring support, administration — to a physician-owned professional corporation. It shows the services contracted for; it does not by itself show that every power it grants was exercised, or that the company controlled clinical judgment. Defined in: 004; 090; 094. Related: Professional corporation; Corporate practice of medicine.

Nominal defendant. A defendant named not to collect from it but to establish a liability that someone else — an insurer, or a trust limited to a pro rata distribution — may have to pay. Whether and how a claimant may name a discharged Wellpath debtor nominally to reach insurance has been contested; the Roadmaps grade the question Unsettled. Defined in: 090; 091; 137. Related: Liquidating trust; Discharge.

Opt-out. A documented plan-specific procedure for declining a proposed release, not proof that everyone who did not use it legally consented. Source-A materials reference a 60-day post-confirmation provision and a July 30, 2025 date for certain incarcerated claimants, but those are historical descriptions, not an independently authenticated current bar-date ruling or advice to a claimant. Assess the applicable notice, claimant category, actual operative deadlines, compliance, later orders and enforceability of any deemed-consent provision before drawing conclusions. A valid opt-out can affect nondebtor release defenses but cannot by itself reverse a debtor's statutory discharge; preserved claims still face their own defenses, limitations and other orders. Defined in source A: 090; 091; 001.1 [held]. Related: Third-party release; Released Parties.

Plan injunction. The provision of a confirmed plan that enforces the discharge and releases, typically by barring claimants from suing on discharged or released claims. A court may hold a person in civil contempt for violating a discharge order when there was no fair ground of doubt that the order barred the conduct (AR-091-C02). Defined in: 091; 090. Related: Discharge; Third-party release.

Professional corporation. In California law, a corporation organized under the Moscone-Knox Professional Corporation Act; for a medical corporation, each shareholder, director and officer must, with stated exceptions, be a licensed person (Bus. & Prof. Code § 2408; AR-030-S03). In the Wellpath plan documents, "Professional Corporations" is also a defined class: the debtors described them as physician-owned non-debtors managed under management services agreements (AR-090-E01; AR-090-E02), and the plan's Related Party definition excludes them and their owners and employees (AR-090-E04). Which entities are in that class is not shown in the documents read. Defined in: 004; 030; 090; 137. Related: Related Parties; Management services agreement.

Proof of claim. The form by which a creditor asserts a claim against a debtor in the bankruptcy case. Under the Wellpath bar-date notice, each proof of claim stated a claim against no more than one debtor, incarcerated persons could file against the lead debtor identifying their facility, and a claim filed without identifying a debtor was deemed filed only against Wellpath LLC (AR-B17; AR-090-E03). Defined in: 090; 003. Related: Bar date; Debtor.

Related Parties; Released Parties. Defined terms in particular Wellpath plan materials, not synonymous with corporate ownership, actual employer, insured party or an objectively validated liability shield. The source-A register (AR-090-E04) describes broad affiliated-person categories and a stated Professional Corporations carve-out; the precise version and applicability must be checked against the operative plan, confirmation order, later amendments and any definition-specific provisos. A creditor/claimant opting out or objecting is not thereby necessarily excluded from the plan-defined class of potential release beneficiaries; whether the claimant is bound by or entitled to object to a release is a separate issue. Do not conflate released persons, releasing persons, creditor categories, claimant consent or beneficiary identity. No specific CFMG/Wellpath professional corporation is assigned a status by this glossary. Defined in source A: 090; 091 [held]. Related: Third-party release; Opt-out; Entity precision.

Relationship labels. The labels the series uses in place of ownership diagrams: "debtor in," "identified as employer in," "contracted with," "described by X as," and "former name of a debtor" or "name used by the debtors." Each supports only the statement its record supports. Defined in: 004; 146. Related: Entity precision.

Third-party release. A proposed release of claims against a nondebtor, analytically separate from discharge of the debtor and disposition of claims belonging to the bankruptcy estate. In Harrington v. Purdue Pharma L.P. (2024), the Supreme Court held that the Bankruptcy Code does not authorize the nonconsensual extinguishment, in the plan context there, of affected creditors' direct claims against nondebtors. That holding did not decide what constitutes legally valid consent, every estate-owned derivative claim or the special statutory asbestos mechanism of 11 U.S.C. §524(g). Section 524(e) likewise does not itself resolve those questions. The inherited Wellpath references describe an opt-out or deemed-consent mechanism and claimed exceptions, but the actual plan text, confirmation order, later orders, claimant-specific notices and release definitions must be authenticated before determining any particular claimant's rights. Non-response alone is not conclusively established here as informed, enforceable consent. Defined in source A: 091; 090; 137 [held namespaces]. Related: Opt-out; Released Parties; Derivative claim.

Records, evidence, privilege and defenses#

Causation (medical). In negligence, the requirement that the breach caused the injury, measured against the natural course of the disease; in the constitutional standards, the final element. A defense that the outcome would have been the same, that delay did not change the result, or that the condition was not treatable goes to this element. Defined in: 066; 075; 133. Related: Moving force; Expert.

Comparative fault. A defense that the patient's own conduct — refusing care, not reporting symptoms, non-adherence — contributed to the harm and reduces recovery. Defined in: 133. Related: Causation.

Expert. A qualified witness whose opinion proves the standard of care, breach and causation in professional negligence, which ordinarily cannot be proved without one. Defined in: 066; 074; 133. Related: Standard of care.

Litigation privilege. California Civil Code §47(b) may protect qualifying communications sufficiently connected to authorized judicial or quasi-judicial proceedings against certain tort theories; it is not a universal privilege for every complaint, board report, allegation, disclosure or every cause of action. The proceeding, speaker, communication, statutory exceptions and asserted claim must be identified. The separate evidentiary attorney-client and work-product doctrines, mandated-report immunities and regulatory confidentiality rules have distinct elements. The §47(b) text and controlling exceptions were not authenticated on the California Legislature site in this pass (access blocked), so any application here is source-limited and counsel-dependent. Defined in source A: 133 [subject to index hold]. Related: Peer-review protection.

Peer-review protection (Evid. Code § 1157). Protection from discovery for the proceedings and records of organized medical-staff committees, and of peer review bodies as defined in Bus. & Prof. Code § 805, that have responsibility for evaluating and improving the quality of care, together with a bar on requiring an attendee to testify about what transpired at a meeting, subject to the statute's exceptions (AR-032-S04). It does not protect the underlying facts, the medical record, or documents created in the ordinary course of care, and it does not automatically reach every document labelled "quality" or "peer review"; the party asserting it must establish that the review body qualifies. Defined in: 066 (controlling); 085; 133. Related: Records key (P and X).

Preservation. The duty to keep evidence, which runs in two directions: the reader's duty to preserve what the reader has, and the other side's duty, which arises under statute or regulation once certain complaints or charges are made, and under the common law of spoliation once litigation is reasonably anticipated. Defined in: 007; 002.1. Related: Records key (K).

Clinical and operational terms#

Clinical settings (constitutional framework). The settings in which the Roadmaps organise custody medical events: intake and screening; withdrawal; medication interruption; specialty referral; acute deterioration; and mental-health or suicide risk. The list identifies evidence categories; it does not establish that a violation occurred in any setting. Defined in: 042; 051–063. Related: Denial, delay and interference.

Custody status record. The records that fix a person's legal status on the date and time of each challenged medical decision: booking record, charging status, plea or verdict, judgment, sentencing, and any remand or post-conviction custody order. A jail classification code is supporting evidence, not controlling. Defined in: 041. Related: Detainee; Prisoner.

Staffing measures. The distinct quantities the Roadmaps separate when "staffing" is at issue: budgeted FTE (positions funded on paper); authorized positions (positions the organization permits itself to fill); filled positions (employees assigned to them); scheduled staffing (people on the roster for a shift); actual worked staffing (who worked after call-outs and reassignment); productive hours (hours providing the relevant clinical function); licensed mix (RN, LVN, physician, advanced-practice and mental-health mix); agency or overtime coverage; and acuity or workload (number and complexity of patients). Contractual minimums are evidence, not the constitutional test. Defined in: 050. Related: Policy of inaction; Pattern; denominator.

Title 15 minimum standards. The state regulations that set minimum health-care standards for local detention and juvenile facilities (Cal. Code Regs., tit. 15, div. 1, ch. 1). Like contract and accreditation standards, they are evidence of expected practice and of available measures, not the constitutional or negligence standard itself. Defined in: 050; 088; 097. Related: Standard of care.

Forums and the matrix#

Administrative prerequisite. The series' umbrella term for any step that must come before suit: an EEOC charge or CRD complaint; a PAGA notice; a Government Claims Act claim; a § 364 notice of intent; an ERISA plan appeal; PLRA exhaustion of a jail grievance. The steps are different in kind — exhaustion of an administrative remedy, presentation of a claim to a public entity, notice to a prospective defendant — and each has its own rules and consequences. Defined in: 001.1; 096.1; 133; 135. Related: Exhaustion (more than one meaning).

Matrix family. One of the twelve groups, A through L, into which Roadmap 096.1 organises every forum the project has found to have real jurisdiction: A — employment and civil rights; B — wages, payroll and employee records; C — EDD and the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board; D — professional licensing and medical regulation; E — corporate practice of medicine and professional independence; F — medical malpractice and professional negligence; G — the California superior court pleading system; H — the federal district court pleading system; I — correctional health-care civil rights; J — the Government Claims Act; K — federal and state regulatory pathways; L — bankruptcy and entity complications. Families overlap by design. Defined in: 096.1. Related: Pathway elements; Fact gateway.

Pathway elements. The ten questions the matrix and the regulator pages answer for every forum: jurisdiction; who may complain; what conduct is within scope; what evidence matters; what the forum can do; what it generally cannot award; confidentiality and public-record issues; exhaustion consequences; the source of any deadline; and the official filing source. Defined in: 096.1; 097–099. Related: Matrix family.

Terms with more than one meaning#

Employer. There is no single definition. Each statute asks its own question: California wage law (control over wages, hours or working conditions, suffering or permitting work, or the common-law relationship); FEHA (its own definition and a totality-of-circumstances test emphasising control); the ADA (fifteen or more employees); unemployment insurance (the code's general definition, except that a qualifying leasing or temporary services employer is the employer of supplied workers; AR-094-S03); PAGA (the "alleged violator"); and the Government Claims Act, whose "employee" excludes independent contractors (AR-078-S02). A record that settles one question may be strong, weak or irrelevant evidence under another. Defined in: 094 (controlling); 003. Related: Joint employer; Employee (Government Claims Act).

Exhaustion. In the PLRA, completing available jail or prison grievance remedies before a prisoner's federal action (Roadmap 080). In employment law, completing the EEOC or CRD charge process before suit. In the series' controlling usage, presenting a Government Claims Act claim and serving a § 364 notice of intent are not called "exhaustion"; they are "claim presentation" and "notice," grouped with exhaustion under the umbrella "administrative prerequisite." Defined in: 080; 078; 066; 096.1. Related: Administrative prerequisite.

Health care provider. Defined differently in different MICRA statutes; see the entry under "Negligence, professional negligence and MICRA."

Prisoner. Three senses. Constitutional: a person convicted and serving a sentence, protected by the Eighth Amendment (Roadmaps 041, 043); a pretrial detainee is not a prisoner in this sense. PLRA: "any person incarcerated or detained in any facility who is accused of, convicted of, sentenced for, or adjudicated delinquent for, violations of criminal law or the terms and conditions of parole, probation, pretrial release, or diversionary program" (42 U.S.C. § 1997e(h); AR-096-F04) — which includes pretrial detainees held on criminal charges, but, as the Ninth Circuit has read it, not civil detainees or persons released before the operative complaint is filed (Roadmap 080). Government Code immunities: an inmate of a prison, jail or penal or correctional facility, including a lawfully arrested person upon initial entry into such a facility for booking (Gov. Code § 844; AR-077-S05) — so a pretrial detainee is a "prisoner" for §§ 844.6 and 845.6. Defined in: 041; 066; 080. Related: Detainee; Civil detainee.

Standing. Used only in technical senses. Article III standing is the federal constitutional requirement of injury, causation and redressability, which matters only in federal court. Statutory standing is whether a statute gives a particular person a right to sue under it (the wrongful-death statute, for example, lists who may sue). Otherwise the Roadmaps use role vocabulary and the related concepts of real party in interest and administrative complainant eligibility. Defined in: 001.1; 002.1; 096.1. Related: Role vocabulary; Real party in interest.

Related roadmaps#

001.1, 002.1, 003, 004, 007, 008, 040, 041, 042, 043, 044, 045, 046, 047, 048, 049, 050, 066, 077, 078, 080, 081, 090, 091, 094, 096.1, 133, 144, 145, 146, 148, 150.

About these references: Some of the roadmap numbers listed above were recorded before the full series was published and checked. They are kept as written; confirm a page in the Roadmaps directory before relying on it.

What this glossary cannot do#

A glossary compresses, and compression loses nuance. These definitions explain how the Roadmaps use each term; they do not state the full law of any claim, they do not decide whether any term applies to any person's facts, and they do not replace the authorities each Roadmap cites and grades. A definition here never makes an authority more certain than its grade, never states a deadline for any reader, and never says that any organization or person did anything. Where the law changes or a court gives a term a new meaning, authenticated primary authority controls; a disputed serial number or inherited Roadmap title does not settle which manuscript version is operative. A final glossary can only be generated after authoritative body-level reconciliation, complete legal and subsequent-history checks, contextual privacy/privilege clearance, editorial deduplication, LEAP integration review and independent human/counsel/clinical signoff where applicable. A reader whose situation turns on what a term means — whether a person was a "prisoner," whether an entity was an "employer" or a "debtor," whether a document was a "claim as presented" — should take the question to a licensed attorney.