SECTION 185:10-1-3. Definitions

  The following words and terms, when used in this Chapter, shall have the following meaning, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

"Allowable expenses" means:

(A)   charges incurred for needed products, services and accommodations, including, but not limited to, medical care, wage loss, rehabilitation, rehabilitative occupational training, and other remedial treatment and care.

(B)   any reasonable expenses related to funeral, cremation or burial, up to the statutory limit.

(C)   reasonable costs for counseling family members of a homicide victim, and

(D)   reasonable costs associated with homicide crime scene clean up.

(E)   reasonable cost of vehicle impound fees associated with the collection and security of crime scene evidence.

"Board" means the Oklahoma Crime Victims Compensation Board, hereinafter referred to as the Board.

"Claimant" means any of the following persons applying for compensation under this act:

(A)   a victim,

(B)   a dependent of a victim who has died because of criminally injurious conduct, or

(C)   a person authorized to act on behalf of any of the persons listed above. The Board has the discretion to require sufficient proof of authority to act on behalf of a victim.

"Collateral source" means a source of benefits or advantages for economic loss for which the claimant would otherwise be eligible to receive compensation under this Act which the claimant has received, or which is readily available to the claimant from the sources identified by statute.

"Criminally injurious conduct" means a misdemeanor or felony which occurs or is attempted in Oklahoma, or against a resident of this state in a state that does not have an eligible crime victims compensation program, as such term is defined in the Federal Victims of Crime Act of 1984, Public Law 98-473; that results in bodily injury, threat of bodily injury or death to a victim.

(A)   "Criminally injurious conduct" results in personal injury or death to a victim which is:

(i)   punishable by fine, imprisonment or death, or

(ii)   if the act is committed by a child, could result in such child being adjudicated a delinquent child.

(B)   Pursuant to 21 O.S. 142.11, an award may be made whether or not any person is prosecuted or convicted as an adult offender or adjudicated a delinquent child. Proof of conviction of a person whose acts give rise to a claim or a copy of the adjudication order for a delinquent child whose acts give rise to a claim is conclusive evidence that the crime was committed. The Board or administrator may continue a claim pending disposition of a criminal prosecution or delinquent child adjudication that has been commenced or is imminent, but may make a tentative award.

(C)   The term "criminally injurious conduct" shall not include acts arising out of the negligent maintenance or use of a motor vehicle unless the vehicle was:

(i)   operated or driven by the offender while under the influence of alcohol, with a blood alcohol level in excess of the legal limit, or any other intoxicating substance or,

(ii)   operated or driven by the offender with the intent to injure or kill the victim or,

(iii)   operated in a manner imminently dangerous to another person and evincing a depraved mind, although without any premeditated design to injure or effect the death of any particular person or the offense involved willful, malicious or felonious failure to stop after being involved in a personal injury accident to avoid detection or prosecution, provided the victim of the accident was a pedestrian or was operating a vehicle moved solely by human power or a mobility device at the time of contact.

(iv)   one or more vehicles that results in the death of the victim due to the reckless disregard for the safety of others by the offender. As used in this division, reckless disregard for the safety of others is defined as the omission to do something which a reasonably careful person would do, or the lack of the usual and ordinary care and caution in the performance of an act usually and ordinarily exercised by a person under similar circumstances and conditions.

(D)   The term "criminally injurious conduct" shall include an act of terrorism, as defined in Section 2331 of Title 18, United States Code, committed outside the United States.

"Dependent" means a natural person wholly or partially dependent upon the victim for care or support, and includes a child of a victim born after the death of the victim where the death occurred as a result of criminally injurious conduct.

"Economic loss" means monetary detriment consisting only of allowable expense, work loss, replacement services loss and, if injury causes death, economic loss and replacement services loss of a dependent, but shall not include non economic loss.

"Economic loss of a dependent" means loss after death of the victim of contributions of things of economic value to the dependent, not including services which would have been received from the victim if he or she had not suffered the fatal injury.

"Non-economic detriment" means pain, suffering, inconvenience, physical impairment and nonpecuniary damage.

"Replacement services loss" means expenses reasonably incurred in obtaining ordinary and necessary services in lieu of those the victim would have performed, not for income, but for the benefit of self or family, if the victim had not been injured or died.

"Replacement services loss of a dependent" means the loss reasonably incurred by dependents after death of the victim in obtaining ordinary and necessary services in lieu of those the deceased victim would have performed for their benefit had the deceased victim not suffered the fatal injury, less expenses of the dependent avoided by reason of death of the victim and not subtracted in calculating the economic loss of the dependent.

"Victim" means a person victimized within the State of Oklahoma who suffers personal injury or death as a result of criminally injurious conduct and shall include a resident of this state who is injured or killed by an act of terrorism committed outside the United States.

"Work loss" means loss of income from work the victim would have performed if such person had not been injured or died, reduced by any income from substitute work actually performed by the victim or by income the victim would have earned in available appropriate substitute work that he or she was capable of performing but unreasonably failed to undertake, or loss of income from work the victim's caregiver would have performed if the injuries of the victim sustained as a result of criminally injurious conduct had not created the need for the caregiver to miss work to care for the injured victim.

[Source: Amended at 11 Ok Reg 1157, eff 2-28-94; Amended at 19 Ok Reg 2646, eff 7-25-02; Amended at 22 Ok Reg 1064, eff 5-26-05; Amended at 25 Ok Reg 1900, eff 6-26-08]