(a)  When the official in charge of any facility is unwilling to certify to the discharge of an unimproved client upon request, and so certifies in writing, noting his or her reasons therefor, in the client’s record, he or she shall give a copy thereof to the person applying for the release and to the director.

Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws 40.1-22-17

  • Client: means any developmentally disabled adult who is in potential need of, or is receiving, services aimed at alleviating his or her condition of functional dependence. See Rhode Island General Laws 40.1-22-3
  • Director: means the director of the department of behavioral healthcare, developmental disabilities and hospitals or his or her designees. See Rhode Island General Laws 40.1-22-3
  • 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.
  • Facility: means any public or private facility, inpatient rehabilitation center, hospital, institution, or other domiciliary facility, the office of developmental disabilities or any part thereof, equipped to habilitate, on a residential basis, persons who are developmentally disabled and in need of residential care. See Rhode Island General Laws 40.1-22-3
  • in writing: include printing, engraving, lithographing, and photo-lithographing, and all other representations of words in letters of the usual form. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-16
  • person: may be construed to extend to and include co-partnerships and bodies corporate and politic. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-6
  • Recourse: An arrangement in which a bank retains, in form or in substance, any credit risk directly or indirectly associated with an asset it has sold (in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles) that exceeds a pro rata share of the bank's claim on the asset. If a bank has no claim on an asset it has sold, then the retention of any credit risk is recourse. Source: FDIC

(b)  If provisions for the review of the question of the client’s detention as elsewhere provided in this chapter are not available to the client, then recourse may be had to a justice of the district court for a hearing upon the matter set forth in the record provided for in subsection (a). At a hearing the burden of proving the lack of need of retention for further care and treatment shall be upon the person petitioning for the release of the client. At a hearing the court may enter such an order as the exigencies of the case, as disclosed by the evidence, may require.

History of Section.
P.L. 1970, ch. 324, § 1; P.L. 1978, ch. 195, § 1; G.L. 1956, § 23-43.1-17; P.L. 1979, ch. 39, § 1; P.L. 1995, ch. 122, § 2.