Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws > Chapter 42-35 - Administrative Procedures

• agency: means a state agency, authority, board, bureau, commission, department, district, division, institution, office, officer, quasi-public agency, or other political subdivisions created by the general assembly or the governor, other than the legislature or the judiciary, that is authorized by law of this state to make rules or to determine contested cases. See Rhode Island General Laws 42-35-1
• Agency action: means :

  (i)  The whole or part of an order or rule;

  (ii)  The failure to issue an order or rule; or

  (iii)  An agency's performing, or failing to perform, a duty, function, or activity or to make a determination required by law. See Rhode Island General Laws 42-35-1

• Agency head: means the individual in whom, or one or more members of the body of individuals in which, the ultimate legal authority of an agency is vested. See Rhode Island General Laws 42-35-1
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• 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.
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Contested case: means a proceeding, including but not restricted to, ratemaking, price fixing, and licensing, in which the legal rights, duties, or privileges of a specific party are required by law to be determined by an agency after an opportunity for hearing. See Rhode Island General Laws 42-35-1
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Electronic: means relating to technology having electrical, digital, magnetic, wireless, optical, electromagnetic, or similar capabilities. See Rhode Island General Laws 42-35-1
• 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.
• Final rule: means a rule promulgated under Rhode Island General Laws 42-35-1
• Guidance document: means a record of general applicability developed by an agency which lacks the force of law but states the agency's current approach to, or interpretation of, law or describes how and when the agency will exercise discretionary functions. See Rhode Island General Laws 42-35-1
• Index: means a searchable list in a record of subjects and titles with page numbers, hyperlinks, or other connectors that link each index entry to the text to which it refers. See Rhode Island General Laws 42-35-1
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• License: includes the whole or part of any agency permit, certificate, approval, registration, charter, or similar form of permission required by law, but it does not include a license required solely for revenue purposes. See Rhode Island General Laws 42-35-1
• Licensing: includes the agency process respecting the grant, denial, renewal, revocation, suspension, annulment, withdrawal, or amendment of a license. See Rhode Island General Laws 42-35-1
• Oral argument: An opportunity for lawyers to summarize their position before the court and also to answer the judges' questions.
• Order: means the whole or a part of a final disposition, whether affirmative, negative, injunctive, or declaratory in form, of a contested case. See Rhode Island General Laws 42-35-1
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Party: means each person or agency named or admitted as a party, or properly seeking and entitled as of right to be admitted as a party. See Rhode Island General Laws 42-35-1
• Person: means any individual, partnership, corporation, association, the department of environmental management, governmental subdivision, or public or private organization of any character other than an agency. See Rhode Island General Laws 42-35-1
• Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
• Pleadings: Written statements of the parties in a civil case of their positions. In the federal courts, the principal pleadings are the complaint and the answer.
• Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
• Presiding officer: A majority-party Senator who presides over the Senate and is charged with maintaining order and decorum, recognizing Members to speak, and interpreting the Senate's rules, practices and precedents.
• Reasonable charge: means the lowest, customary charge for a service. See Rhode Island General Laws 42-35-1
• Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form. See Rhode Island General Laws 42-35-1
• Remand: When an appellate court sends a case back to a lower court for further proceedings.
• Rule: means the whole or a part of an agency statement of general applicability that implements, interprets, or prescribes law or policy or the organization, procedure, or practice requirements of an agency and has the force of law. See Rhode Island General Laws 42-35-1
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• Sign: means , with present intent, to authenticate a record:

  (i)  To execute a tangible symbol; or

  (ii)  To attach to or logically associate with the record an electronic symbol, sound, or process. See Rhode Island General Laws 42-35-1

• State register: means the publication required under Rhode Island General Laws 42-35-1
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Transcript: A written, word-for-word record of what was said, either in a proceeding such as a trial or during some other conversation, as in a transcript of a hearing or oral deposition.
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Website: means a website on the internet or other similar technology or successor technology that permits the public to search a database that archives materials required to be published or exhibited by the secretary of state or an agency under this chapter. See Rhode Island General Laws 42-35-1
• 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.
• Writing: means a record inscribed on a tangible medium. See Rhode Island General Laws 42-35-1