(a)  The administrator of the division of motor vehicles shall notify an applicant for a driver’s school or instructor’s license of the denial of his or her application and a licensee of the proposed suspension or revocation of his or her license by mailing to the applicant or licensee, postage prepaid, a written notice stating the ground or grounds for the denial or proposed suspension or revocation and designating the place and a time not less than five (5) days later for a hearing thereon before the administrator of the division of motor vehicles, if a hearing is requested by the applicant or licensee. The administrator of the division of motor vehicles may adopt reasonable rules and regulations governing the procedure to be followed in any matter that may come before him or her for hearing, may administer oaths, subpoena and examine witnesses, compel the production of documents and other evidence, take depositions of witnesses residing without the state, and order payment of witness fees and mileage, all in the same manner as in civil actions in the superior court. The administrator of the division of motor vehicles, however, shall not be bound by technical rules of evidence.

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Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws 31-10-42

  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
  • person: may be construed to extend to and include co-partnerships and bodies corporate and politic. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-6
  • Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
  • Writ: A formal written command, issued from the court, requiring the performance of a specific act.
  • Writ of certiorari: An order issued by the Supreme Court directing the lower court to transmit records for a case for which it will hear on appeal.

(b)  Any person aggrieved by the denial of an application or the suspension or revocation of a license may, within thirty (30) days from the date the notice is mailed to that person, file in the supreme court a petition, duly verified, for a writ of certiorari, setting forth that the decision is illegal in whole or in part and specifying the grounds of illegality. Upon presentation of that petition, the court may allow a writ of certiorari directed to the administrator of the division of motor vehicles to review the decision of the administrator of the division of motor vehicles and shall prescribe in it the time within which return must be made. The allowance of the writ shall not stay proceedings upon the decision or the effect of them, but the court, upon application of the person aggrieved, may stay those proceedings or the effect of them.

History of Section.
P.L. 1964, ch. 224, § 2.