Rhode Island § 10-13-28 - Relief of Poor Debtors

§ 10-13-28. Examination of tort debtor — Assignment of property — Administration of oath.

Upon the receipt of any petition of any poor tort debtor under the provisions of § 10-13-27, the justice to whom the petition shall be addressed shall fix a time and place for the hearing of the petition, and shall issue a citation, directed to the committing creditor or to his or her attorney of record in the suit, or if the committing creditor be deceased, to the legal representative of the deceased creditor, which citation shall be served upon one of the persons to whom it is directed at least six (6) days before the return day thereof. Upon the return of the citation duly served, the justice shall cause the petitioner to be brought before him or her upon habeas corpus at the time and place named in the citation, and either then or at such other time as the justice shall appoint, shall proceed to examine the petitioner and to hear the evidence which may be properly adduced in favor of and against the granting of the prayer of the petition, and if it shall be made to appear that the petitioner has no property, rights, or credits with which to pay prison charges, or which is not exempt by law from attachment, and that the debtor has made an assignment to the warden in the manner prescribed in § 10-13-7, if the justice shall be of the opinion that the petitioner can truly take the oath prescribed in § 10-13-8, the justice may administer to the petitioner the oath, and the like certificate shall be issued thereof, and the certificate shall have the like effect in all respects with reference to the discharge of the petitioner from the correctional institution, and the issue of execution, or of alias or pluries execution, upon the judgment shall be in the form and with the like effect, as if the petitioner had been entitled to and admitted to take the poor debtor’s oath under the provisions of §§ 10-13-1 — 10-13-26.