Title 12, Title 12 Procedure

A technology surcharge shall be assessed as a cost against the defendant in accordance with § 8-15-11.

All commitments upon process issued in criminal cases by the supreme court, the superior court within and for the counties of Providence and Newport, and the district court for the second and sixth divisions shall be made by deputy sheriffs attending upon the courts respectively,…

The fees chargeable by deputy sheriffs for serving writs and executions in scire facias against bail in criminal cases shall be the same as provided for similar service of writs and executions in civil cases.

Any officer charged with the service of any precept in any criminal case, either original, intermediate, or final, shall be allowed by the court out of which the precept is issued, in a sum that the court may deem just and reasonable for the actual and necessary expense incurred …

For each criminal complaint filed in the district court by a city or town police department, the state police, or a state agency, the clerk of the district court shall assess against the defendant and remit to the city or town or the state the sum of three dollars and fifty cents…

(a) The fees of witnesses shall be: (1) For every day’s attendance before the supreme or superior court, or before any other tribunal or magistrate, including attendance in giving depositions, except that no officer or other employee of the state or of any city or town shall be e…

The costs of prosecution and conviction of persons imprisoned in the adult correctional institutions shall be paid by the state, and the payment of those costs shall form no part of the sentence of convicts. Nothing in this section shall be construed so as to prevent the impositi…

The payment of costs shall, in all other cases, be a part of the sentence of a convict who shall be sentenced to be imprisoned until the costs are paid or remitted.

The superintendent of state police, upon the petition of a private college, university, junior college, or other private educational institution of higher learning located in this state, may from time to time appoint qualified employees of those institutions as special police off…

Upon issuance of a license under § 12-2.1-1, the person so designated as a special police officer shall have the same immunities and may exercise, in and upon the lands and buildings of the institution by which he or she is employed, and upon streets and highways immediately adja…

A record of all appointments under this chapter shall be kept in the division of state police and shall be open to public inspection.

Any special police officer appointed under this chapter shall, when on duty and in uniform, wear in plain sight a metallic badge, inscribed with the words “college police,” “university police”, or “campus police” and the name or initials of the institution by which he or she is e…

Appointment of special police officers under this chapter shall in no way limit the powers, authority, and responsibility of state police and police of the various cities and towns to enforce state law and municipal ordinances on property owned by the educational institutions emp…

Any individual who has been appointed as a police officer in a sister state or one of its municipalities and who has satisfactorily completed a required course of police officer training recognized and certified by the sister state may apply, in writing, to the superintendent of …

Unless otherwise specially provided: (1) All fines of five hundred dollars ($500) and under shall be recovered by complaint and summons; (2) All fines of upwards of five hundred dollars ($500), by indictment or information; (3) All penalties and pecuniary forfeitures, by action o…

Unless otherwise specially provided: (1) All fines recovered shall be to the use of the state; (2) All penalties and pecuniary forfeitures, one-half (½) to the use of the state and one-half (½) to the use of the person who shall sue for it; and (3) All forfeitures of personal pro…

The clerk of each division of the district court, shall, between the first and fifteenth days of February, May, August, and November in each year, make an itemized return in writing to the city or town treasurer of every city or town in the division of all fines received by the c…

All costs taxed by courts in criminal prosecutions, which by law any city or town is or may be required to pay, may be paid by the clerk to the several persons entitled to them, out of fines in his or her hands belonging to the city or town; provided, that fines received by the c…

Whenever the clerk shall vacate his or her office he or she shall render account and pay over any money which may be due from him or her as clerk to the city or town within ten (10) days after vacating the office.

Every clerk who shall neglect or refuse to account with the city or town treasurer as required in this chapter, or to pay over to him or her all moneys due the city or town at the time when they ought to be paid, shall forfeit thrice the amount of the moneys so withheld or not pa…

The city or town treasurer of any city or town in the division in which the district court is situated shall have access at all times to all books and papers in the office of the division, and may examine them for the purpose of verifying the returns of the clerk.

All fines and all penalties and forfeitures to the use of the state shall be paid over to the general treasurer, unless otherwise specially provided.

All fines recovered under any statute of this state, the whole or any part of which may be due or payable to any city, town, or society, or to any person as complainant, shall be accounted for with the state controller, and be paid to the general treasurer. The general treasurer …

Whenever a fine payable in whole or in part, to any city, town, or society, or to any person as complainant, shall have been liquidated by the labor of the person fined, or paid by him or her at any jail in the state, the general treasurer shall, upon the proper order of the stat…

Whenever a fine is recovered under any statute of this state, the whole of which may be due the Rhode Island Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Children’s Friend and Service, or to any other society, or the one-half (½) of which may be due the state or any soci…

All suits or prosecutions founded upon any penal statute, which are wholly or in part for the use of the prosecutor, shall be brought within one year, and all other suits and prosecutions on a penal statute within two (2) years after the commission of the offense, unless otherwis…

(a) If, upon any complaint or prosecution before any court, the defendant shall be ordered to pay a fine, enter into a recognizance, or suffer any penalty or forfeiture, he or she shall also be ordered to pay all costs of prosecution, unless directed otherwise by law. (b) If a de…

Whenever any person who is charged with the commission of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine shall be outside the confines of this state, the defendant may, with the approval of a judge of the district court for the division in which the complaint may be pending, or with the appr…

If any recognizance shall be forfeited in any case in which, if the recognizor had been convicted, any sum might have been due to the complainant, or any person or corporation, the court in which the amount of the recognizance is, in whole or part, recovered, shall ascertain the …

Whenever any personal property shall be forfeited for any violation of law, any deputy sheriff, town sergeant, or town constable, or any person by law authorized to seize the property, may take and retain the property until he or she shall deliver it to a proper officer having a …

The person making or directing a seizure shall without unnecessary delay make complaint on oath and in writing to a judge of the district court for the division in which the offense for which the forfeiture has accrued was committed, regardless of the value of the property seized…

Upon making a complaint or filing an information for a forfeiture, a warrant shall be issued to the proper officer, requiring him or her to take the property into his or her custody and to detain it until legally disposed of.

Notice of complaint or information shall be issued by the court to the owner, if known, otherwise notice shall be published in some newspaper published in the vicinity for a period of at least two (2) weeks, that all persons interested may appear, either in person or by attorney,…

If any person shall appear and claim the property, it may be sold, by consent of parties, provided it is of such nature that it may be lawfully sold and used, and the law does not require it to be destroyed or otherwise in some special manner disposed of, or under like provision …

Unless by law the property seized is necessarily subject, upon judgment of forfeiture, to be destroyed, it shall, at the request of the claimant, be appraised by appraisers appointed for that purpose by the court and be delivered to the claimant upon his or her giving bond in dou…

The case may be tried by a jury, if in the superior court, upon the request of either party, or otherwise by the court, and the cause of forfeiture alleged being proved, the court which shall try the cause shall enter up judgment for the forfeiture and disposition of the property…

Unless otherwise specially provided, all fines of and informations founded on any penal statute shall be brought within the county in which the offense was committed, and not elsewhere; provided, that the superior court for the county of Providence shall have jurisdiction of all …

An appeal may be claimed by either party from any judgment of forfeiture rendered by the district court, to be taken in like manner as by defendants in criminal cases within the jurisdiction of the district court to try and determine, to the superior court for the same county in …

The judgment of the superior court shall be final in all cases of forfeitures, whether originally commenced in the court or brought there by appeal under the provisions of this chapter, unless a new trial is ordered, for cause shown, by the supreme court.

Costs shall be awarded to the prosecutor if a reasonable cause of seizure appear, in which shall be included the necessary expenses of the seizure and detention of the property; but in case no reasonable cause of seizure shall appear, costs and damages, as well as the restoration…

A judge of the superior or district court or the traffic tribunal may order the suspension of a person’s license issued pursuant to chapter 10 of title 31 if the person fails to pay court ordered costs, fines, fees, restitution or assessments within the time period provided for i…

All fines, penalties, and forfeitures, whether of money or property, of five hundred dollars ($500) and under or of the value of five hundred dollars ($500) and under, shall be prosecuted before a district court; if upwards of five hundred dollars ($500) in amount or value, befor…

Whenever any penalty or forfeiture, or any part of a penalty or forfeiture, shall be given to any town by any penal statute, the town council may sue for the penalty or forfeiture in the name of the town, or the proper prosecuting officer in the name of any city which shall be en…

Whenever any penalty shall be imposed for neglect during any period of time, the neglect may be alleged to have commenced at any specified time, and shall be reckoned from the time so specified.

In actions for the recovery of any penalty or forfeiture before any court, it shall be no cause of exception that any member of the court resides or has property in the city or town in which the offense was committed, or that the penalty or any part of the penalty is recoverable …

The defendant to an action for a penalty may plead the general issue, and under it give any special matter in evidence.