As you know by now both Judges Kupersmith and Levitt made it through the retention committee with unanimous votes of 8-o. Judge Keller, however, decided to withdraw his request for retention after losing the support of the committee in its 6-2 vote against his retention. The joint assembly vote will be held on Wednesday, March 30th beginning at 1PM.
Although I was attending our Mid Year Meeting last Thursday and Friday and therefore away from Montpelier I can report on what took place on matters of interest to VBA members. First the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced a committee bill on child support that does contain language for study of child support enforcement. It should appear on the Senate Calendar this week.
The Uniform Collateral Consequences of Conviction Act has passed second reading in the Senate and may see final action there tomorrow. Then it’s off to the House.
I know members of our Property Law Section are concerned about restrictions in the licensed lender law against holding mortgages on residential property unless you hold a license. S. 98 addressed some of the problem but it excludes residential property. BISHCA has successfully argued that adverse consequences would result if the Vermont licensed lender changes to be in conflict with the federal SAFE Act. The bill was pulled off the calendar at the end of the week at the request of the Chair of the Senate Finance Committee Ann Cummings. The Committee considered it briefly and reported it back to the full Senate without amendment. It seems that any further changes, at least in the Senate, will not happen.
Also of interest to property lawyers is S. 77 on the Senate Action Calendar. It is a bill that requires testing of water wells after initial construction. So I’m sure the first question readers will ask is what will happen if this requirement is not complied with; here’s the answer (note the delayed effective dates of parts of the bill):
Sec. 3. 27 V.S.A. § 616 is added to read:
§ 616. PRIVATE WELL TESTING; DISCLOSURE OF EDUCATIONAL
MATERIAL
(a) Prior to the execution of a purchase and sale agreement for a property
not served by a public community water system, the seller shall provide the
buyer with informational materials developed by the department of health
regarding:
(1) the potential health effects of untreated well water; and
(2) the buyer’s opportunity under the agreement to test the potable water
supply.
(b) Noncompliance with this section shall not affect marketability of title.

Sec. 4. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH; EDUCATION AND OUTREACH
ON SAFE DRINKING WATER
The department of health, after consultation with the agency of natural
resources, shall revise and update its education and outreach materials
regarding the potential health effects of contaminants in private sources of
drinking water in order to improve citizen access to such materials and to
increase awareness of the need to conduct testing of private water sources. In
revising and updating its education and outreach materials, the department
shall update the online safe water resource guide by incorporating the most
current information on the health effects of contaminants, treatment of
contaminants, and causes of contamination and by directly linking users to the
department of health contaminant fact sheets.

Sec. 5. EFFECTIVE DATES
This act shall take effect upon passage, except that 10 V.S.A. § 1981(a)
(testing of new wells) and 10 V.S.A. § 1981(d) (well test reports) shall take
effect on January 1, 2013.
After having spoken with Judge Tim Tomasi at the Mid Year Meeting last week I was reminded that he and Judges Mello and Gerety are still awaiting confirmation hearings in the Senate. I’m going to ask this week when the Senate Judiciary Committee plans to hold those hearings.
So this is a short update; I’ll add to it as I get caught up on last week’s events. As always thanks for reading.