TITLE 29

State Government

General Regulations for State Agencies

CHAPTER 101. Administrative Procedures

Subchapter V. Judicial Review

§ 10141. Review of regulations.

(a) Any person aggrieved by and claiming the unlawfulness of any regulation may bring an action in the Court for declaratory relief.

(b) No action of an agency with respect to the making or consideration of a proposed adoption, amendment or repeal of a regulation shall be subject to review until final agency action on the proposal has been taken.

(c) When any regulation is the subject of an enforcement action in the Court, the lawfulness of such regulation may be reviewed by the Court as a defense in the action.

(d) Except as provided in subsection (c) of this section, no judicial review of a regulation is available unless a complaint therefor is filed in the Court within 30 days of the day the agency order with respect to the regulation was published in the Register of Regulations.

(e) Upon review of regulatory action, the agency action shall be presumed to be valid and the complaining party shall have the burden of proving either that the action was taken in a substantially unlawful manner and that the complainant suffered prejudice thereby, or that the regulation, where required, was adopted without a reasonable basis on the record or is otherwise unlawful. The Court, when factual determinations are at issue, shall take due account of the experience and specialized competence of the agency and of the purposes of the basic law under which the agency acted.

60 Del. Laws, c. 585, §  162 Del. Laws, c. 301, §  270 Del. Laws, c. 186, §  171 Del. Laws, c. 48, §  13

§ 10142. Review of case decisions.

(a) Any party against whom a case decision has been decided may appeal such decision to the Court.

(b) The appeal shall be filed within 30 days of the day the notice of the decision was mailed.

(c) The appeal shall be on the record without a trial de novo. If the Court determines that the record is insufficient for its review, it shall remand the case to the agency for further proceedings on the record.

(d) The Court, when factual determinations are at issue, shall take due account of the experience and specialized competence of the agency and of the purposes of the basic law under which the agency has acted. The Court’s review, in the absence of actual fraud, shall be limited to a determination of whether the agency’s decision was supported by substantial evidence on the record before the agency.

60 Del. Laws, c. 585, §  162 Del. Laws, c. 301, §  2

§ 10143. Mandamus for agency action.

Any person aggrieved by the failure of an agency to take action required of it, by law, may bring an action in the Court for an appropriate writ of mandamus.

60 Del. Laws, c. 585, §  162 Del. Laws, c. 301, §  2

§ 10144. Stay pending review.

When an action is brought in the Court for review of an agency regulation or decision, enforcement of such regulation or decision by the agency may be stayed by the Court only if it finds, upon a preliminary hearing, that the issues and facts presented for review are substantial and the stay is required to prevent irreparable harm.

60 Del. Laws, c. 585, §  162 Del. Laws, c. 301, §  2

§ 10145. Commencement of review.

No petition, appeal or other application for relief of the Court shall be considered as having been taken or made until it has been filed with the Prothonotary and served upon the agency in accordance with the rules of the Court.

60 Del. Laws, c. 585, §  162 Del. Laws, c. 301, §  2