1-40-108. Hearing; findings; order.

(a) Hearings shall be held on the application and are open to the public unless the division determines that a closed hearing is necessary because:

(i) The alleged assailant or offender has not been brought to trial and a public hearing would adversely affect either his apprehension or his trial;

(ii) The victim or alleged assailant is a minor;

(iii) An open hearing would cause trauma for the victim;

(iv) A public hearing would frustrate rather than further the interest of justice.

(b) A record shall be kept of the proceedings of hearings held before the division and shall include the division's findings of fact and conclusions of the amount of compensation, if any, to which the applicant and persons dependent on a deceased victim are entitled. No part of the record of any hearing before the division may be used for any purpose in a criminal proceeding except in the prosecution of a person alleged to have perjured himself in his testimony before the division.

(c) At the conclusion of the hearing, the division shall enter an order stating:

(i) Its findings of fact;

(ii) Its decision as to whether or not compensation is due under this act and the amount of compensation due, if any;

(iii) Whether disbursement of the compensation awarded is to be made in a lump sum or in periodic payments; and

(iv) The person or persons to whom the compensation should be paid.

(d) If the division finds, in the case of an application made by a person dependent for his support on a deceased victim, that persons other than the applicant were also dependent on that victim for their support, it shall also:

(i) Name those persons in its order;

(ii) State the percentage share of the total compensation award and the dollar amount to which each is entitled; and

(iii) Order that those amounts be paid to those persons directly or, in the case of a minor or incompetent, to his guardian or conservator, as the case may be.

(e) Notwithstanding subsection (a) of this section, the division may promulgate rules providing for an expedited claims process for applications in which eligibility is clear and all information has been verified.