Section 144-400-4-6 - DecisionAfter hearing, the department shall issue a written decision. The department shall send the decision by regular mail to the person who asked for the hearing and to all other parties. The decision is sent to the last known address. The decision must tell the person who asked for the hearing of the right to appeal to Superior Court within 30 days (Rule 80C of the Maine Rules of Civil Procedure).
A. In the decision, the hearing officer shall decide only the following two questions. 1 Whether the debt was legally established.2 Whether the amount of the debt has changed since it was legally established. If so, the hearing officer shall decide the amount owed based on the evidence in the hearing record.B. For purposes of these rules, a debt is legally established, or liquidated, as that term is used in 36 MRSA5276-A, when the amount of the debt is fixed the by judicial or administrative action, agreed to in writing or owed by operation of law. Examples of legally established overpayments include the following. 1 BFI sends a notice of overpayment to a person who has gotten program benefits and the person does not ask for a hearing to contest the overpayment within the time allowed.2 The obligor agrees in writing as to the amount of the overpayment.3 A person notified of an overpayment signs a statement waiving their right to a hearing.4 A decision or court order states the amount of the overpayment. The department shall consider the mailing of an overpayment notice by BFI to be adequate prior notice if the notice is sent to the person's last known address, according to the department's records.
10- 144 C.M.R. ch. 400, § 4-6