Rhode Island General Laws

R.I. Gen. Laws § 11-9-5.1 (2026)

Investigation upon report of cruelty or neglect

✓ current as of July 2026
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In order to protect a child from cruelty or neglect, where any person has reasonable cause to believe that any child is being neglected or cruelly treated as defined in § 14-1-3 and reports such incident to the department of children, youth, and families, the department must cause an immediate investigation.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 2 cases (1 in the last 5 years), 2007–2021 · leading case: State v. Sivo, 925 A.2d 901 (R.I. 2007).
State v. Sivo, 925 A.2d 901 (R.I. 2007). “3 involves injury to a child by a person who is legally entrusted with caring for that child, much like the other provisions in the subsection over which the Family Court has exclusive jurisdiction.”
State v. Brittany Michaud (R.I. 2021). · cites it 2× “The defendant, Brittany Michaud, appeals from a judgment of conviction following a bench trial in Family Court for cruelty to or neglect of a child, in violation of G.L. 1956 § 11-9-5.1 The defendant was sentenced to a one-year suspended term of imprisonment, with probation.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.