54-23.4-01. Definitions

54-23.4-01. Definitions

As used in this chapter, unless the context or subject matter otherwise requires:

1. "Bodily injury" means any harm that requires medical treatment and results in

economic loss and includes pregnancy and nervous shock.

2. "Claimant" means a victim, a dependent of a deceased victim, or a representative of

either, who claims compensation under this chapter.

3. "Collateral source" means a source of benefits or advantages for economic loss

otherwise reparable under this chapter which the claimant has received, or which is

readily available to the claimant. The first twenty-five thousand dollars of a life

insurance policy are not a collateral source if they are payable to a dependent

beneficiary or to a parent, legal guardian, or conservator of a dependent victim.

4. "Criminally injurious conduct" means conduct that results in bodily injury or death, and

is punishable by fine, imprisonment, or death, or would be so punishable but for the

fact that the person engaging in the conduct was a minor or lacked capacity to commit

the crime. The term includes an act of terrorism, as defined under Public Law

No. 102-572 [106 Stat. 4506; 18 U.S.C. 2331], committed outside of the United States

against a resident of this state. The term does not include conduct arising out of the

ownership, maintenance, or use of a motor vehicle except when intended to cause

personal injury or death or when the division determines that the conduct was in

violation of section 12.1-16-02, 12.1-16-03, 39-08-01, 39-08-03, 39-08-04, or

39-08-06.

5. "Dependent" means a natural person wholly or partially dependent upon a victim for

care or support and includes a child of a victim born after the victim's death.

6. "Division" means the division of adult services of the department of corrections and

rehabilitation.

7. "Economic loss" means economic detriment consisting only of allowable expense,

work loss, replacement services loss, and, if injury causes death, dependent's

economic loss and dependent's replacement services loss. Noneconomic detriment is

not loss. The term includes economic detriment caused by pain and suffering or

physical impairment.

a. "Allowable expense" means reasonable charges incurred for reasonably needed

products, services, and accommodations required due to the injury, including

those for medical care, rehabilitation, rehabilitative occupational training, and

other remedial treatment and care. The term includes a total charge not in excess

of five thousand dollars for expenses in any way related to funeral, cremation,

and burial. The term does not include that portion of a charge for a room in a

hospital, clinic, convalescent or nursing home, or any other institution engaged in

providing nursing care and related services, in excess of a reasonable and

customary charge for semiprivate accommodations, unless the excess represents

costs of other accommodations that are medically required.

b. "Dependent's economic loss" means loss after a victim's death of contributions of

things of economic value to a victim's dependent, not including services the

dependent would have received from the victim if the victim had not suffered the

fatal injury, less expenses of the dependent avoided by reason of the victim's

death.

c. "Dependent's replacement services loss" means loss reasonably incurred by a

dependent after a victim's death in obtaining ordinary and necessary services in

lieu of those the victim would have performed for the dependent's benefit if the

victim had not suffered the fatal injury, less expenses of the dependent avoided

by reason of the victim's death and not subtracted in calculating the dependent's

economic loss.

d. "Noneconomic detriment" means pain, suffering, inconvenience, physical

impairment, and other nonpecuniary damage.

e. "Replacement services loss" means expenses reasonably incurred in obtaining

ent's benefit if the

victim had not suffered the fatal injury, less expenses of the dependent avoided

by reason of the victim's death and not subtracted in calculating the dependent's

economic loss.

d. "Noneconomic detriment" means pain, suffering, inconvenience, physical

impairment, and other nonpecuniary damage.

e. "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 the victim or the victim's family, if the victim

had not been injured.

f. "Work loss" means loss of income from work the victim would have performed if

the victim had not been injured, and expenses reasonably incurred by the victim

in obtaining services in lieu of those the victim would have performed for income,

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

the victim was capable of performing but unreasonably failed to undertake.

8. "Victim" means a person who suffers bodily injury or death as a result of criminally

injurious conduct, the good-faith effort of any person to prevent criminally injurious

conduct, or the good-faith effort of any person to apprehend a person suspected of

engaging in criminally injurious conduct. The term includes a resident of this state who

is injured or killed by an act of terrorism, as defined under Public Law No. 102-572

[106 Stat. 4506; 18 U.S.C. 2331], committed outside of the United States. The term

does not mean a person who suffers bodily injury or death as a result of operating a

motor vehicle, when, at the time of the injury or death, the person was not in

compliance with applicable state laws and rules concerning motor vehicle insurance

coverage and the person was at least partially at fault for causing the accident.