Rhode Island § 31-33-8 - Safety Responsibility Violations — General Provisions

§ 31-33-8. Assigned risk plans.

(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.

(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.