I’m sorry I didn’t get back here yesterday to post anything about the restructuring testimony. It actually lasted all day and continued into early today. I’ll try to bring you all up to speed in this post. Wednesday opened with a joint meeting of three house committees: judiciary, government operations, and appropriations. The Speaker of the House, Shap Smith, welcomed legislators and commission members and advised that the commission’s work will be a priority for the house. He sees the judiciary at a critical point in its history. In fact, the House Judiciary Committee has committed to working on it every Wednesday and Thursday until the bill passes the House and moves over to the Senate.
The commission members present then outlined the report to the assembled committees. The CJ opened with some general comments concluding with “our funding issues threaten the civility of the state of Vermont and access to justice”. Justice Johnson followed by saying that unifying the court system will provide better service at less cost and increase access to justice. She talked about the e-filing system which will be rolled out over the next three to five years and the use of pro se “service centers” with a trained employee ready to help self represented parties. She predicted a $1.2 million savings by reducing middle management and shifting resources. VBA President Eileen Blackwood charted the staffing of a unified court as compared to the state-county hybrid system we now use. Trial Judges Grearson and Manley then outlined the proposals for changing the probate courts and the jurisdiction of side judges respectively. Court Administrator Bob Greemore went through some budget numbers, the most significant of which may be that the five probate judges that remain will be paid at the level of a magistrate or hearing officer and not as a superior judge.
The House Judiciary Committee continued with the report of the commission in its afternoon session. By the way, the newest member of that committee is Barre Town Representative tom Koch, a long time VBA member. Tom replaced Peg Flory, now a senator. The afternoon presentation started with commission member Dick Marron, a former representative from Stowe who talked about side judges and county budgets. Tom actually asked why the commission didn’t recommend the state takeover of county courthouses. Clearly this would only add yet another landmine in the path of restructuring. Tom also questioned the cost of keeping the Grand Isle and Essex courts open with one staff person in each location. Then Justice Dooley took over and ‘walked” the committee through the bill outlining where in the bill is the language implementing the major revisions of the report.
The committee continued into Thursday as it began working up a schedule for how to proceed. It appears that next Wednesday, they want to hear from Justice Johnson and the underlying principles the commission adopted. She will be followed by testimony from Administrative Judge Amy Davenport and then I will present the VBA Board position on the commission’s recommendations. On Thursday, the committee will try to schedule time for the probate judges and the side judges to present testimony. The National Center for State Courts would like to present at the end of January. Other dates remain to be filled in and I’ll post that as soon as I know what’s planned. Tom Koch asked for testimony as to why the environmental court is not part of the restructuring recommendation. The chair concluded today’s session by saying that anything that comes out of his committee “must save $1 million”.
That same committee wants to spend some time on a military parental rights act which was mentioned by General Dubie in his briefing of the legislature on Tuesday morning. That should happen during the week of the 18th. There is no bill yet but it was drafted by the VTANG in collaboration with some members of our family Law Section. The VBA Board will be reviewing it at its meeting in Montreal next week.
Just to prove that restructuring isn’t the only show in town, yesterday Carl Lisman, one of our uniform law commissioners, spent the afternoon with the House Commerce Committee discussing changes to UCC Article 7 and to the Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act. I wasn’t there as I was across the hall doing, what else, restructuring! Anyway it appears that this is just getting started also; I’m not sure yet whether to expect action this year or next. Also today Willem Jewett introduced H. 476, a bill dealing with real property. Here is both the link and its statement of purpose:
http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2010/Bills/Intro/H-476.pdf
Statement of purpose: This bill proposes a number of changes related to the
laws governing real property. The bill proposes to:
(1) clarify that a power of attorney with respect to a real estate transaction
that is validly executed in another state is also valid in Vermont;
(2) add proper witnessing to the list of defects that is cured if an instrument
has been recorded for at least 15 years;
(3) codify the Vermont supreme court’s decision in Nelson v. Russo, 956
A.2d 1117 (2008), that in order to renew a court judgment, a plaintiff must file
a new and independent action instead of seeking to reopen the original action;
(4) require that recording of a copy of the complaint in actions to foreclose
judgment liens be in order for the action to extend the duration of the lien; and
(5) establish a 15-year limitations period after which enforcement actions
or other proceedings may not be brought relating to the failure to obtain or
comply with the terms or conditions of required highway permits, including
so-called “curb cut permits.”
On Friday morning, Rep. Donahue will present H. 461, a bill that would broaden the range of estates which can qualify for treatment as small estates by permitting the probate court to hold small estate proceedings for a decedent who dies with surviving parents but without a surviving spouse or child.
Here’s the link to that bill: http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/2010/bills/Intro/H-461.pdf
I’ll report back after the 10:30 hearing tomorrow.
Thanks for reading.
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