10-144 C.M.R. ch. 1, § IV - DEFINITIONS

A. Adjudicatory Hearing - Any proceeding before a Hearing Officer of the Department in which the legal rights, duties, or privileges of specific persons are required by law to be determined after an opportunity for hearing.

B. Agency - The Maine Department of Health and Human Services, or any other instrument of state government for which the Division of Administrative Hearings serves as impartial administrative hearing authority.

C. Appellant - Any person, institution, business organization, or other entity requesting an adjudicatory hearing regarding action or inaction of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, or of any agency for which the Division of Administrative Hearings serves as impartial hearing authority.

D. Applicant - A person, household or family who has applied or attempted to apply for a benefit program administered by the Department of Health and Human Services or for license, certificate or a status regulated by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.

E. Assistance - Any financial or medical assistance provided by the Department.

F. Authorized Representative - Any person, such as legal counsel, a relative, or a friend, who is authorized by a party to represent that party at a hearing. Except by special leave granted by the Hearing Officer, no party may have more than one authorized representative at any one time. If the Hearing Officer allows for more than one representative of a party, only one representative may question a particular witness and only one representative can provide a closing or opening statement.

G. Benefit Program - Any program in which funds, services, or goods are provided or intended to be provided, at least in part, on the basis of limited financial resources of applicants or recipients. "Benefit Program" includes vocational rehabilitation programs.

H. Chief Administrative Hearing Officer - The person who is responsible for the operation and management of the Division of Administrative Hearings including supervision and assignment of Hearing Officers to cases.

I. Commissioner - The Commissioner of Health and Human Services as provided for in 22-A M.R.S. § 204.

J. DAH - Division of Administrative Hearings.

K. Department - The Department of Health and Human Services of the State of Maine.

L. Hearing - An adjudicatory hearing.

M. Hearing Officer - A person designated by the Department to conduct hearings.

N. Hearing Record - Those materials required by 5 M.R.S. § 9059 and these regulations to be compiled and prepared in the course of an adjudicatory hearing.

O. Hearing Report - A memorandum addressed to the Division of Administrative Hearings, prepared in response to an appellant's hearing request, consolidating information necessary for scheduling, and clarifying the responses to issues raised by the appellant. Hearing Reports shall be submitted on a form provided or approved by the staff of the Division of Administrative Hearings.

P. Irrelevant evidence - Evidence that does not make the truth of a disputed fact more likely than it already is without the evidence or the disputed fact is not of consequence in deciding the issues presented in the hearing.

Q. Order of Reference - A document in which the Department's Commissioner gives specific instructions to the Division of Administrative Hearings regarding: the issues to be addressed at hearing and the handling of a hearing request. This may include, but is not limited to, an instruction for the Hearing Officer to issue recommended findings and a recommended decision and reserving the authority to make the final findings and decision to the Commissioner.

R. Party - A participant in a hearing such as an appellant, a respondent, the Department, an intervenor, or other person or entity who has an interest in the outcome of the hearing.

S. Preponderance of the evidence - Evidence which, in light of the record as a whole, leads the Hearing Officer to believe that the finding is more likely to be true than not true.

T. Recipient - A person, household, or family who is receiving or has received assistance under a benefit program.

U. Regulation - The term regulation means:

1. The whole or any part of a regulation, standard, code, rule, or other agency statement of general applicability to an agency's operation including the amendment, suspension, or repeal of any prior regulation, that is intended to be judicially enforceable and implements, interprets or makes specific the law administered by the agency or describes the procedures or practices of the agency.

2. Regulation does not include: Policies or memoranda concerning only the internal management of the agency or the State Government and are not judicially enforceable; advisory rulings; decisions rendered in adjudicatory proceedings; or any form or instruction or explanatory statement of policy that in itself is not judicially enforceable but is intended solely as advice to assist persons in determining, exercising or complying with their legal rights, duties, or privileges.

V. Respondent - In the case of a hearing requested or initiated by an agency, any person whose legal rights, duties or privileges are at issue.

W. Rules of Privilege - Those legal doctrines that define what communication no party or witness can be legally compelled to divulge.

X. Stipulation - An agreement that a certain fact is not in dispute and is established as fact without the necessity of any other evidence. Once stipulated to, a fact is considered uncontested.

Y. Unduly Repetitious Evidence - Evidence that tends only to prove the same point to which other evidence has been offered, without adding to the weight of the already presented evidence

Notes

10-144 C.M.R. ch. 1, § IV