21-P:13 Bureau of Hearings. –
I. There is established within the department the bureau of hearings under the supervision of an administrator of hearings, who shall be directly responsible to the assistant commissioner, and who shall be a classified employee.
II. The bureau of hearings shall be responsible for holding all adjudicative hearings on behalf of the commissioner of safety or any division of the department. The bureau of hearings shall have authority to take disciplinary action in the name of such division against any holder of a license, permit, or registration issued by such division in accordance with law.
II-a. Unless otherwise provided by law, all appeals of a decision of the commissioner of safety or the bureau of hearings shall be pursuant to RSA 541.
III. The commissioner of safety or designee is authorized, whenever the commissioner deems it feasible, upon giving timely written notice to the parties, to provide to the parties to an administrative hearing the opportunity to hold the hearing and take testimony by video teleconference, provided that testimony is limited to the matters relating to hearings that are open to the public in accordance with RSA 541-A. Either party shall have an opportunity to file a timely written objection to the introduction of testimony by video teleconference, stating its reasons for the objection, and the commissioner or designee, upon determining that one or more of the parties would be substantially disadvantaged in presenting their case by video teleconference, may order live testimony. For purposes of this section, "video teleconference" includes the use of any technology that provides live, interactive aural and visual communication.