Section 18. (a) Any insurer or rating organization aggrieved by any order or decision of the commissioner made without a hearing, may, within thirty days after notice of the order to the insurer or organization, make written request to the commissioner for a hearing thereon. The commissioner shall hear such party or parties within thirty days after receipt of such request and shall give not less than fifteen days' written notice of the time and place of the hearing. Within thirty days after such hearing the commissioner shall affirm, reverse or modify his previous action, specifying his reasons therefor. Pending such hearing and decision thereon the commissioner may suspend or postpone the effective date of his previous action.

(b) Nothing contained in this chapter shall require the observance at any hearing held under authority thereof of formal rules of pleading or evidence.

(c) Any order or decision of the commissioner under authority of this chapter shall be subject to review, which shall be on the basis of the record of the proceedings before the commissioner, by appeal to the supreme judicial court at the instance of any party in interest. The order or decision shall be reviewed in accordance with the standards for review provided in paragraph (8) of section fourteen of chapter thirty A.

The court shall determine whether the filing of the appeal shall operate as a stay of any such order or decision of the commissioner. The court may, in disposing of the issue before it, modify, affirm or reverse the order or decision of the commissioner in whole or in part.