Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Last Friday Teri and I met with Rich Cassidy on  H. 206, last year's notary bill. We went through the objections you know well but it didn't appear we made any progress. He pushed back on almost everything. This Friday we're meeting at the secretary of state's office with the other stakeholders to see if we can come together on the bill. 
Tomorrow the judiciary is appearing before the Ways & Means Committee to discuss judicial fees. That was supposed to happen this morning but got moved to Thursday. I'll let you know what I hear there.
I just left House Commerce and Economic Development where Carl Lisman presented H. 35, the uniform voidable transactions act. Tom Moody spoke for our Business Associations Committee and suggested the committee bring in a bankruptcy lawyer or, better still, a creditor's lawyer, a debtor's lawyer and a trustee. That may happen as soon as mid to late next week.
The non-profit law subcommittee has finished its work and I just sent their final version of the bill to legislative counsel for clean up and submission to the Commerce Committee. The bill has already been introduced in short form and the committee is awaiting the text. 
I'm following two bills dealing with municipalities recovering costs of remediating abandoned property at tax sales. They are H. 13 and S. 13. Each has had one hearing introducing the bill and the Senate Gov Ops committee will return to it tomorrow afternoon. 
I'm also part of a group of our Property Law Section along with the Vermont Bankers Association looking at current use and the secondary market issues of priority of liens. We had an initial phone conference last Friday and we're meeting at the bankers' offices this Friday morning. 
Also, earlier today the Senate Judiciary Committee heard from Judge Grearson on the Alimony Report of the Family Division Oversight Committee. No action was taken as this was simply an introduction. The committee will return to this issue next Thursday. 
The Judicial Retention Committee is organizing later today. I think a preliminary schedule has them meeting with the four Justices next week and the remaining eight superior judges on two nights the week later. I'll post the schedule as soon as I have it after the committee approves it. 
Let's hope the groundhog sends the right message tomorrow. 
Thanks for reading. 

Friday, January 27, 2017

The Speaker of the House just appointed the House members of the Joint Judicial Retention Committee; those members are:

Rep. Conquest of Newbury
Rep. Rachelson of Burlington
Rep. Troiano of Stannard
Rep. Viens of Newport City

Now the committee can organize and begin the process of interviewing ten superior judges as well as the four supreme court justices that are seeking retention. Every six years the committee is stressed with such a large number of judges. As many of you may know, the position or seat that a judge occupies has a six year term. The individual judge does not. In the past I can recall a number of times that a judge was still in the confirmation process and was in the retention process at the same time.

As the committee posts its scheduled times to interview the judges and justices and when the public hearings will be held I will post that here and on the VBA website so any of you who wish to be heard will know when and where to appear. Usually, these hearings are held around 5 PM with the public hearings beginning at 7 PM.

We are continuing to work on a bill from last year (H.206) dealing with regulation of notaries public. Last session we identified a number of issues with the bill and it appears the Secretary of State will be proposing a similar if not identical bill this year. I will keep you informed as this moves along. It may require effort on the part of each of us to get this right.

Have a nice weekend and, as always, thanks for reading.

Tuesday January 17, 2017

Last Friday the Senate named its members of two committees of interest to the VBA. The first, the Joint Committee on Judicial Retention will contain these four senators:
Senator Nitka
Senator Flory
Senator Benning
Senator Sirotkin
The House has not yet appointed its four members.

The Senate also appointed its members to the Legislative Committee on Judicial Rules; the members will be:
Senator Sears
Senator Balint
Senator Benning
Senator Clarkson
Again, we are still waiting the House appointments.

I'll report as soon as I have other news or updates to share. Thanks for reading.

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

The Senate named its committees last Friday and they have begun working this week. I will list the membership of both the Senate Judiciary and Appropriations Committees as I did with House committees last week. 

The Judiciary committee has exactly the same members as last session:

Sen. Sears, Chair

Sen. Benning, Vice-Chair

Sen. White

Sen. Nitka
Sen. Ashe

The Appropriations Committee, a seven member committee has these members:

Sen. Kitchel, Chair

Sen. Nitka, Vice-Chair

Sen. Sears

Sen. Starr

Sen. McCormack

Sen. Ashe

Sen. Westman

It’s important to note that three of five judiciary committee members also serve on the money committee. They are very knowledgeable of the funding needs of the judiciary as well as civil justice providers such as Vermont Legal Aid.

Back on the House side things got started quickly in the Judiciary Committee as the Tuesday morning calendar opened with a presentation by the five Supreme Court Justices on the judicial branch and “results abased accountability”. All five spoke to the committee along with Court Administrator Pat Gabel and Chief Superior Judge Brian Grearson. Their handouts to the committee can be found here: http://legislature.vermont.gov/committee/document/2018/18/Date/1-10-2017

The VBA made its presentation in the afternoon with Teri Corsones and I addressing the committee about our association, its mission and its many accomplishments in advancing access to justice for all Vermonters.

Many bills have already been introduced and many more are to come. The VBA has an interest in a number of them of course and I will be circulating those to Section Chairs for distribution and discussion on our list serves.

The Judicial Retention process will soon begin when the Speaker of the House and the Committee on Committees in the Senate each name for members of the joint committee. This year, as happens every six years, all members of the Supreme Court stand for retention. Of course Justice Dooley is not up for retention having chosen to retire on March 31^st. But there are also 10 superior judges who want to continue in office. They are:

Hon. Alison Arms

Hon. Robert Bent

Hon. Thomas Carlson

Hon. Cortland Corsones

Hon. Thomas Devine

Hon. Theresa DiMauro

Hon. Michael Kainen

Hon. Mary Morrissey

Hon. Gregory Rainville

Hon. Kirstin Schoonover

This will be a busy year for the committee members who, in addition to their standing  committee, will have to interview and conduct public hearings on these fourteen judges.

I’ll end this update here but once again ask that if any of you have questions about bills or legislative process and/or want to discuss any issue please let me know.

Thanks for reading.

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

The 2017-2018 legislative session is underway. In an unusual move newly elected Speaker Mitzi Johnson announced house committee assignments today in what was in years past mostly a day of ceremony and formalities. Perhaps this early start previews an early adjournment. I am reminded that during his campaign governor elect Scott called for a three month session. That’s no doubt out of reach but an early start to committee work could shorten the usual mid May adjournment.

The two committees of jurisdiction of most import to the VBA are Judiciary and Appropriations, as the latter controls budgeting for the judicial branch and for Vermont Legal Aid, two entities the VBA has traditionally worked to support.

Here is the membership of both:

JUDICIARY

Rep.  Maxine Grad, Chair

Rep.  Charles Conquest, Vice Chair

Rep.  Thomas Burditt, Ranking Member

Rep.  Selene Colburn

Rep.  Eileen Dickinson

Rep.  Kimberly Jessup

Rep.  Martin LaLonde

Rep.  Ruqaiyah Morris

Rep.  Barbara Rachelson

Rep.  Gary Viens

Rep.  Janssen Willhoit

APPROPRIATIONS

Rep.  Catherine Toll, Chair

Rep.  Peter J. Fagan, Vice Chair

Rep.  Kathleen C. Keenan, Ranking Member

Rep.  Maureen Dakin

Rep.  Martha Feltus

Rep.  Robert Helm

Rep.  Mary S. Hooper

             Rep.  Bernard Juskiewicz

Rep.  Diane Lanpher

             Rep.  Matthew Trieber

             Rep.  David Yacovone

This is also the first time that a VBA Board member, retired Superior Judge Ben Joseph, is a member of the House. He will serve on the Education Committee. There are a number of lawyers in the general assembly. Here’s a list which I hope is complete:

In the House Ben Joseph, Carol Ode, Sue Buckholz, Janssen Willhoit, Maxine Grad, Martin LaLonde, Sandy Haas, Janet Ancel and, in the Senate Peg Flory, Joe Benning, and Michael Sirotkin.

I’ll try my best to keep up with daily (well almost daily) reporting to you as the session moves forward. For a complete list of committee assignments follow this link:

http://legislature.vermont.gov and click on Committees.

Thanks for reading.

Wednesday February 10, 2016

So I haven't reported in a few days and for that I apologize. I am just back from the ABA Mid Year Meeting where I attended my first House of Delegates meeting as a representative of our association. What a great experience. I was impressed by every aspect of the organization of the House, the sincerity and knowledge of the delegates and the seriousness with which they approach every item on the day long agenda. Many thanks to Fritz Langrock, out state delegate, who is a great mentor.

But anyway, you're probably more in what's happening in Montpelier. Las t week the four judges up for retention this year appeared before the Retention Committee. There really weren't any surprises and all four made strong arguments as to why they deserve another six year term. Judge Durkin spoke to reducing the backlog in E division cases since he came to the bench. He also let the committee know how he has sat and will continue to sit in all jurisdictions as needed to fill the needs of the judiciary. He did tell the committee about the staffing challenges the E division has faced and also responded to a question about pro se litigants in his court.

Judge Howard spoke to the committee about the eight new judges; fully 25% of the judiciary is new. That will impact operations as well as judicial college programing. He also addressed the staffing challenges and the caseload increases due mostly to opiate abuse. He did offer a suggestion about low level misdemeanors  and suggested they be diverted or deferred. The only criticism from the surveys was a comment that he could show some frustration and irritability.

Judge Toor said that working with pro se litigants is a challenge and now a large part of the job. That of course raises issues of showing compassion for the people appearing before the bench. Although a judge has to let "people tell their story" there needs to be a balance between the time that takes and the need to make  case to resolution. She talked about the pro se clinic she began in Chittenden County. She makes an effort to write in "plain english". The committee was impressed with her reaching out to jurors after the end of a trial, as well asher offering to give feedback to the lawyers. Some of the comments in her surveys went to her being very much a judge who follows or insists on following the rules. She admitted that she is critical if the parties are not prepared. There was a discussion about whether Vermont should continue to recruit "generalist judges"  and that morphed into a conversation about rotation.

Judge Mello was last; he spoke to his background and his practice before joining the bench. As this was his first retention hearing he didn't face much criticism except for one reviewer who criticized his choice of words in a sentencing hearing. Clearly, he recognized that and has been more careful about this choice of language.

Tomorrow, Thursday the 11th, the committee will hold a public hearing at 7 PM in Room 11 at the statehouse to hear from anyone who wants to be heard on any of these judges. I'll report on that after Friday. As always, thanks for reading.

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Yesterday I sat through the presentation of Vermont Auditor of Accounts Doug Hoffer's report on the judiciary's collection of public defender co-pays. If you haven't seen the news reports or read the report, it essentially concluded that the judiciary is only collecting about a third of the amount ordered. His report can be found here:

http://auditor.vermont.gov/sites/auditor/files/PD%20Fee%20Collections%20Report%20-%20Final.pdf

As the auditor said, "to the extent you folks are looking under rocks for money", every dollar not collected impacts the state's finances.His main criticisms of the judiciary is that they don't do anything to collect what the court ordered. Now, of course, this population of defendants may not have a great ability to make payments but a court did order something to be paid. Also, he criticized the court by saying, even though it does have a collection function, they don't collect this money as it isn't theirs but goes into the public defender special fund.

The court administrator and the chief superior judge are expected to reply this afternoon. Their comments to the report can be found in the link above beginning on page 20. I'll report back after that.

Also, this afternoon the judiciary will be presenting its ideas on lightening the load. I've been assured that the VBA will be able to bring in its witnesses to address those things the  court wants to pursue. If you are members of the VBA Sections on Probate, Family, Municipal, or Workers' Comp you've already read most of that through our list serves.

Tonight is the initial meeting of the Joint Committee on Judicial Retention. They will be interviewing Judges Durkin, Howard, Mello and Toor beginning at 5PM. Again, I'll report on that tomorrow.

Thanks for reading.