(a)  After consultation with the insurance companies authorized to issue automobile liability and/or physical damage policies in this state, the insurance commissioner shall approve a reasonable plan or plans, fair to the insurers and equitable to their policyholders, for the apportionment among the companies of applicants for motor vehicle liability and/or physical damage insurance who are in good faith entitled to but are unable to procure insurance through ordinary methods.

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Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws 31-33-8

  • Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
  • Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
  • Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. Source: U.S. Courts
  • person: may be construed to extend to and include co-partnerships and bodies corporate and politic. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-6
  • United States: include the several states and the territories of the United States. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-8

(b)  The plan or plans shall provide coverage for liability imposed by law for damages arising out of the ownership, maintenance, or use of the vehicle or vehicles within the United States or the Dominion of Canada, up to a limit of two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000) because of bodily injury to or death of one person in any one accident and, up to a limit of five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) because of bodily injury to or death of two (2) or more persons in any one accident.

(c)  When any plan or plans have been approved, all the insurance companies shall subscribe to it or them and participate with respect to those types of insurance which they write in the state. Licensed non-resident insurance producers shall be allowed to submit applications to the plan or plans, provided that the state in which they hold a resident brokers license allows Rhode Island resident producers access to their respective plan or plans, or similar residual market mechanism.

(d)  Any applicant for insurance, any person insured under the plan, and any insurance company affected, may appeal to the insurance commissioner from any ruling or decision of a manager or committee designated to operate the plan or plans. Any order or act of the insurance commissioner under the provisions of this section shall be subject to review on petition filed by an aggrieved party in the superior court for the counties of Providence and Bristol within ten (10) days after notice of it is given. The court shall determine whether the filing of the petition shall operate as a stay of any order or act of the insurance commissioner, and the court shall summarily hear the matter. The court may, in disposing of the issue before it, modify, affirm, or reverse the order or act of the insurance commissioner in whole or in part.

History of Section.
P.L. 1952, ch. 3002, § 35; G.L. 1956, § 31-31-9; P.L. 1962, ch. 204, § 2; G.L. 1956, § 31-33-8; P.L. 1982, ch. 378, § 1; P.L. 1989, ch. 207, § 1; P.L. 1989, ch. 337, § 1; P.L. 1992, ch. 265, § 1; P.L. 2011, ch. 158, § 1; P.L. 2011, ch. 274, § 1.