The decision of the secretary shall be final unless, within ten days from the date of receipt thereof, the complainant or financial institution files a written request with the secretary for a formal administrative hearing. Upon receipt of such a written request, the secretary shall file a copy thereof with the Office of Administrative Hearings. Within 20 days of receipt of the copy of such request, the Office of Administrative Hearings shall commence a hearing on the merits pursuant to the provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act, Chapter 5 (commencing with Section 11500), Part 1, Division 3, Title 2 of the Government Code, except that the decision of the hearing officer shall be a final decision and binding upon the secretary. The decision shall be in accordance with the provisions of Section 35822 and shall be rendered within 45 days of receipt of the copy of the request for a hearing by the Office of Administrative Hearings. The secretary shall represent the complainant at such hearing if the secretary’s decision rendered pursuant to Section 35822 was in favor of the complainant.

Judicial review may be obtained by the complainant or the financial institution by filing a petition for writ of mandate in accordance with the provisions of Section 1094.5 of the Code of Civil Procedure. In any such judicial proceeding, the court may exercise its independent judgment on the evidence included in the record of the administrative hearing and may additionally consider evidence which was improperly excluded by the hearing officer and any other relevant evidence not included in the record of the administrative hearing which the court finds the offering party could not, in the exercise of reasonable diligence, have produced at the administrative hearing. The court may in its discretion award costs or reasonable attorney fees, or both, to the complainant if the complainant is the prevailing party, without regard to whether such judicial action is brought by the complainant or by the financial institution.

(Added by Stats. 1977, Ch. 1140.)