52:14B-2 - Definitions
52:14B-2. Definitions
2. As used in this act:
(a) "State agency" or "agency" shall include each of the principal departments in the executive branch of the State Government, and all boards, divisions, commissions, agencies, departments, councils, authorities, offices or officers within any such departments now existing or hereafter established and authorized by statute to make, adopt or promulgate rules or adjudicate contested cases, except the office of the Governor.
(b) "Contested case" means a proceeding, including any licensing proceeding, in which the legal rights, duties, obligations, privileges, benefits or other legal relations of specific parties are required by constitutional right or by statute to be determined by an agency by decisions, determinations, or orders, addressed to them or disposing of their interests, after opportunity for an agency hearing, but shall not include any proceeding in the Division of Taxation, Department of the Treasury, which is reviewable de novo by the Tax Court.
(c) "Administrative adjudication" or "adjudication" includes any and every final determination, decision or order made or rendered in any contested case.
(d) "The head of the agency" means and includes the individual or group of individuals constituting the highest authority within any agency authorized or required by law to render an adjudication in a contested case.
(e) "Administrative rule" or "rule," when not otherwise modified, means each agency statement of general applicability and continuing effect that implements or interprets law or policy, or describes the organization, procedure or practice requirements of any agency. The term includes the amendment or repeal of any rule, but does not include: (1) statements concerning the internal management or discipline of any agency; (2) intraagency and interagency statements; and (3) agency decisions and findings in contested cases.
(f) "License" includes the whole or part of any agency license, permit, certificate, approval, chapter, registration or other form of permission required by law.
(g) "Secretary" means the Secretary of State.
(h) "Director" means the Director and Chief Administrative Law Judge of the Office of Administrative Law, unless otherwise indicated by context.
L.1968,c.410,s.2; amended 1980,c.166; 1981,c.27,s.10; 1981,c.511,s.21; 1993,c.343,s.1.