Glossary.md

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Court's Glossary of USTC Terminology: https://www.ustaxcourt.gov/taxpayer_info_glossary.htm

A

• Action/Status - a part of a docket entry indicating what action (Granted, Denied, Order issued) was taken in response to that docket entry; also includes the date of the associated docket entry

• Activity Log - cumulative log of all user-initiated activities in a case, including new filings, message forwarding (to/from users), edits made by users, and status changes

• admissionDate - The date the practitioner was admitted to the Tax Court bar.

• admissionStatus - The Tax Court bar admission status for the practitioner.

• Associated Judge - Judge assigned to this case. Defaults to Chief Judge

• Automatic Block - Case is temporarily blocked from trial due to a pending item or due date.

• Audit Log - Cumulative log of all activity in a case, including user and system generated changes, filings, message forwarding, edits, status changes.

B

• Bar number - A unique identifier comprising of the practitioner initials, date, and series number

• birthYear - The year the practitioner was born.

• Block - Case is prevented from being set for trial. Case will not display as eligible for upcoming trial sessions and cannot be manually added to a trial session until block is removed (See also Automatic Block)

• Blocked Cases Report - list of all blocked cases with a specific requested place of trial

C

• Calendar Call - Calendar call occurs on the first day of a trial session (normally Monday) and provides the Judge with the opportunity to ensure that all cases listed on the docket are ready for trial or other disposition. All parties are required to attend.

• Caption — See "case caption."

• Case - A dispute between two parties, in our case the petitioner and the IRS, that must be resolved by a judge

• Case Caption - The name of the party bringing the case, e.g. "Carol Williams, Petitioner," "Mark Taylor, Incompetent, Debra Thomas, Next Friend, Petitioner," or "Estate of Test Taxpayer, Deceased, Petitioner." This is the first half of the case title.

• Case Detail Page - Central summary page for an individual case and all case activity.

• Case Information Tab - One of the tab options on the Case Detail page, displaying petition details such as Petition Details, Trial Information, and all Party Information

• Case Inventory Report - a list of all cases within the system, filterable by judge and with the ability to print

• Case - Level Pending Messages - Messages that have been added to a case but not yet completed

• Case-Level Completed Messages - Messages that have been added to a case and have been completed

• Case Title - The description of the party bringing the case against the IRS, formatted as e.g. "John Hernandez, Petitioner v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Respondent". See also: "Case Caption."

• Case Note - general note associated with a single case; this note can be created/edited/viewed by all internal users

• Case Status - attribute on a case that indicates a case's current stage in its lifecycle; cases statuses can be automatically updated depending on meeting specific requirements or can be manually updated by a Docket Clerk

• Case Type - the type of dispute/deficiency the petitioner is petitioning (e.g. Deficiency, Whistleblower, Surviving Spouse, etc.)

• Certificate of Service - A “Certificate of Service” is used to show that you have sent or delivered documents to another party, typically the opposing counsel. During the e-filing process, external parties are prompted to indicate whether their filing contains a Certificate of Service

• Closed Trial Session - trial session with no “Open cases (all cases are inactive) independent of date

• Consolidated Case - a group of related cases with similar attributes that have been linked together to be treated as one; filings can be associated with one or multiple cases in the consolidated group

• Contact Primary (or Primary Contact) - the first petitioner of record on a case

• Contact Secondary (or Secondary Contact) - the second petition of record on a case; applicable only to party type of Petitioner and Spouse / Petitioner and Deceased Spouse where the spouse is the secondary contact

• Court-Issued Document - a document that is initiated by the Tax Court and is used to communicate information or request an action from a party; examples include Orders, Notices, and Opinions

• Coversheet - a system generated first page applied to all externally filed documents at the time of submission (except paper Petition documents, where the coversheet is applied when served); the coversheet contains the Case Caption, Document Title, Received Date, Filed Date, Served Date, indication of a Certificate of Service (if applicable), Lodge date (if applicable), Mailing Date

D

• Deadline - case-level due date; deadlines are manually added and removed from a case; deadlines will add an automated block to prevent a case from being set for trial

• Deadlines Report - report inclusive of all case deadlines by a single date or date range

• Docket Entry - a single, unique line item on the Docket Record, including external filings, court-issued documents, or can be system generated

• Docket Number - A identification number assigned to a USTC case in XXXXX-YY format, including any applicable docket number suffix

• Docket Number Suffix - a letter indicating a specific case attribute (general case type or procedure type); the suffix is appended to the numeric docket number

• Docket Record - List of all documents filed and served in a case, as well as system generated entries generated by party or Tax Court actions in the system

• Docket Section - Group of employees within the court that acts as quality and traffic control for all party filings and court-issued documents. Sometimes referred to simply as "Docket."

• Docket Record Tab - Displays on the Case Detail page. The Docket Record tab displays a list of documents that have been filed in a case.

• Document Detail Page - Displays details for a specific document, including document type, filing and service information, and the document in .pdf form.

• Document QC - the process of quality control completed by the Petitions Section (for petition documents) and Docket Section (for all other filings); this process involves confirming the case and document information is accurate and allowable to be filed in the case

• Document Type - a unique, categorized description of a document; the document type is the foundation of the Document Title

• Document Title - the concatenated name of a document, including the document type, and any associated required fields based on document type; the document title is the linked portion of the Filings and Proceedings

• Draft Document - a court-issued document that has not been added to the Docket Record; draft documents can still be edited and signed/unsigned; they are accessible from the Draft Documents tab on the Case Detail screen

E

• Electronic Filing (E-file) - a document filed by a party through the EF-CMS system; these filings are routed to the Petitions Document QC Inbox (for petitions) or Docket Document QC Inbox (for all other documents)

• Eligible Cases - list of cases that are ready to be set for trial for a certain trial session; these cases have satisfied all the required criteria for eligibility and are in the case status of General Docket (At Issue) - Ready for Trial

• Practice type - The practice type designation for the practitioner.

• Event Code - alphanumeric Code associated with the event that resulted in this item being added to the Docket Record; each document type has a unique Event Code for reporting purposes

• External filing (document) - a document that is filed by a party on a case

F

• File - verb. In our case, to submit a document to the court.

• Filed by - the party that filed a document

• Filings noun. Documents that have been submitted to the court.

• Filing date - the date a document/filing was submitted to the Tax Court

• firmName - The firm name for the practitioner.

G

H

I

• Index number - unique, sequential number identifying the order docket entries were added to the docket record

• IRS Attorney - an attorney employed by the IRS and representing the IRS as the respondent in a case (Se also Respondent Counsel)

J

• Judge's Note - a note associated with an individual case; this note is only visible to the Judge who added it; and appears on the Case Detail screen as well as the Session Copy

K

L

• Lead Case - the case with the lowest docket number in a consolidated group of cases

• Lodged document - A lodged document is awaiting action by the judge to enact or refuse. This document can be submitted by an external party, will appear on the Docket Record, but will show "Lodged" on the coversheet and the Filings and Proceedings

M

• Mailing Date - the date a paper document was postmarked/post-metered as visible on the original envelope; this is a required field for Petitions and optional for all other documents

N

• New Trial Session - a trial session that has been created but not set

O

• Open Trial Session - trial session that has been set and contains any “Open” cases independent of date

• originalBarState - The state in which the practitioner passed their bar examination.

P

• Paper Petition - a petition that has been received by the Court in physical paper

• Party Type - the type of petitioner creating a case

• Pending document - a document that requires an action/response, or any document that the Court wants to track; examples include Motions, Applications, etc.

• Pending Report - a list of all pending documents for all cases, which can be filtered by judge and printed

• Petition - The case-initiating document containing the petition form and IRS notice(s) submitted by the petitioner or practitioner and recorded as an entry in the Docket Record.

• Petitioner - The taxpayer bringing a case before the Tax Court.

• Petitioner Counsel - An attorney/non-attorney admitted to the Tax Court who represents the petitioner in the case (see also Private Practitioner)

• Petitions Section - Group of employees within the court that handles all incoming petitions. Sometimes referred to simply as "Petitions."

• Practitioner - The Tax Court is the only court that allows an individual who is not an attorney to represent a party in a case; therefore, the representation on both sides of a case are referred to as practitioners. A private practitioner is the person representing the petitioner in the case. A practitioner representing the respondent is an IRS attorney.

• Practitioner Database - a database containing all practitioners admitted to practice at the Tax Court, including both Private Practitioners and IRS Attorneys

• practitionerType - The type of practitioner - either Attorney or Non-Attorney.

• Preferred Trial Location - the trial city requested by the petitioner to be the place of trial; this may differ from the final trial location

• Printable Docket Record - a print optimized PDF view of a case Docket Record, including party contact information

• Private Practitioner - An attorney/non-attorney admitted to the Tax Court who represents the petitioner in the case (see also Private Practitioner)

• Procedure Type - refers to the rules that will be adhered to during the course of a case; the Tax Court allows for regular and small tax case procedures, each with a different set of rules and requirements

• Pro-Se Petitioner - A citizen who submits a petition to the court without legal representation.

Q

R

• Respondent A defendant in a lawsuit. In our case, always the IRS.

• Respondent Counsel - an attorney employed by the IRS and representing the IRS as the respondent in a case (Se also IRS Practitioner)

S

• ** Sealed Case** - a case that is restricted to the public; public users do not have access to view sealed cases; only parties associated with the case and internal users can view sealed case information

• Serve - To deliver a document in a formal manner. Every time a party in a case files a document, it is served to all other parties in the case.

• Served Parties - the parties who were served a filing; this is indicated on the docket record by P (Petitioner), R (Respondent), or B (Both)

• Service Stamp - data that displays on the first page of a filing after service, indicating if the document was "Served" or "Entered and Served" and the date of service

• Session Copy - a list of all cases scheduled on a trial session, with abilities to filter by trial status, and add individual case notes; the Session Copy is independent of the standard Trial Session detail and is available to Judges, Chambers Administrators, and Trial Clerks only

• Session Note - A note that is associated with an individual Trial Session

• Supporting Document - a document that is filed in support of the primary document (examples include Affidavits, Memorandums, etc.); a supporting document can be filed by external parties in the same transaction as the primary document; each supporting document generates its own, individual docket entry

T

• Title - See "case title."

• Trial Location - the city a trial session is scheduled to take place; a case set for trial is also associated with a specific trial location

• Trial Session - A period of time (one week) in which a USTC judge and trail clerk will visit a city (trial location) and hold trial for cases.

• Trial Session Planning Report - a report consisting of number of eligible small cases, number of eligible regular cases, whether a session was held in the previous 3 terms, and the judge assigned for each previous session for each trial location; this report is used to plan what trial locations need to be visited for an upcoming trial term; the Tax Court is required to hold a session at each trial location every year

• Trial Status - the status of an individual case on a trial session in regards to the likelihood of that case to actually be brought to trial; trial statuses are used for planning purposes for the Calendar Call and do not effect the Case Status

• Trial Term - an approximate 3 month period of scheduled trial sessions; general terms are Winter, Spring, and Fall; only special trial sessions are scheduled during the Summer term

U

V

W

• Work Queue - List that displays all open work items for a user

1. Section Work Queue - Displays work items for a section, such as petition or docket
2. Inbox - Work items that have been received
3. Sent Box - Work items that have been sent

• Work Item | Message - A pending message associated with a document, initiated when a new document is uploaded by a party or when a message is sent by an internal court user

1. Message Thread - Message thread related to a specific work item
2. Completed Work Item / Message Thread - Message - A work items that has been read

X

Y

Z