Rhode Island General Laws 12-25-22. Limitations upon awarding compensation
(a) Actions for compensation under this chapter shall be commenced within three (3) years after the date of the injury or death, and no compensation shall be awarded for an injury or death resulting from a crime that was not reported to the appropriate law enforcement authority within fifteen (15) days of its occurrence; provided, that the office shall have the authority to allow a claim that was not reported pursuant to this section when the victim or secondary victim was below the age of eighteen (18) years of age, or of unsound mind, or for good cause shown.
Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws 12-25-22
- 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.
- Court: means the superior court. See Rhode Island General Laws 12-25-17
- Dependent: means a person wholly or partially dependent upon the income of the victim at the time of his or her death or would have been so dependent but for the incapacity due to the injury from which the death resulted. See Rhode Island General Laws 12-25-17
- Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
- Office: means the office of the general treasurer. See Rhode Island General Laws 12-25-17
- Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
- Relative: means a spouse, parent, grandparent, stepfather, stepmother, child, grandchild, brother, sister, half-brother, half-sister, and a spouse's parents. See Rhode Island General Laws 12-25-17
- Secondary victim: means a child who suffers an emotional injury as a direct result of witnessing a homicide or incident of domestic violence. See Rhode Island General Laws 12-25-17
- Treasurer: means the general treasurer of the state of Rhode Island or his or her designee. See Rhode Island General Laws 12-25-17
- Victim: means a person who is injured or killed by any act of a person or persons that is within the description of any of the offenses specified in § 12-25-20 and which act occurs in the state of Rhode Island. See Rhode Island General Laws 12-25-17
(b) No compensation shall be awarded under this chapter to the victim, or in the case of death to dependent relatives or to the legal representative, in a total amount in excess of twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) plus any attorney fees awarded upon appeal to the treasurer or to the superior court pursuant to § 12-25-25.
(c) No compensation shall be awarded under this chapter to a secondary victim in a total amount in excess of one thousand five hundred dollars ($1,500).
(d) No compensation shall be awarded when the office, in its discretion, determines that unjust enrichment to or on behalf of the offender would result. Compensation under this chapter shall not be awarded to any victim or dependent relative or legal representative if the award would directly or indirectly inure to the benefit of the offender.
(e) No interest shall be included in or added to an award of compensation under this chapter.
(f) When the plaintiff is the victim’s estate, it shall only be awarded compensation for the victim’s actual medical, hospital, funeral, and burial expenses for which the victim or his or her estate is not compensated by any other source and for the loss of support to the dependents of the victim.
History of Section.
P.L. 1996, ch. 434, § 3; P.L. 1999, ch. 125, § 2; P.L. 1999, ch. 128, § 2; P.L. 2017, ch. 110, § 1; P.L. 2017, ch. 174, § 1; P.L. 2017, ch. 341, § 1; P.L. 2017, ch. 350, § 1.