Glossary
The words you will hear.
- Petition
- The document that starts a vaccine-court claim. The person filing is the petitioner.
- Special master
- A judge at the Court of Federal Claims who hears only vaccine cases. Eight are authorized by statute.
- Table injury
- An injury listed on the Vaccine Injury Table for a specific vaccine, with a set onset window. Causation is presumed.
- Off-Table injury
- Any injury not listed for that vaccine. Compensable, but you must prove causation by a preponderance of the evidence.
- Onset window
- The period after vaccination in which a Table injury's first symptom must appear for the presumption to apply.
- Entitlement
- The first phase of a case: whether the vaccine caused the injury. Damages come second.
- Respondent
- The Secretary of Health and Human Services, represented by the Department of Justice. You are not suing your doctor.
- Trust Fund
- The Vaccine Injury Compensation Trust Fund, funded by a $0.75 excise tax on every dose of a covered vaccine. Awards are paid from it.
- CICP
- The Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program — a separate HHS program covering COVID-19 vaccines and other emergency countermeasures. Not the vaccine court.
- SIRVA
- Shoulder Injury Related to Vaccine Administration. The most common claim in the program — caused by injecting too high on the shoulder, into the bursa or joint capsule.
- GBS
- Guillain-Barré Syndrome, an autoimmune attack on the peripheral nerves. On the Table for the seasonal flu vaccine, 3 to 42 days after the shot.
- Preponderance of the evidence
- The standard of proof: more likely than not. Not "beyond a reasonable doubt."