FEATURES
Special Focus: Access to Justice
Making a Life. . . Johnson
Winston Churchill said, “We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.” This year we celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Vermont Volunteer Lawyers Project and the lawyers who have made a life by giving pro bono services through their participation in VVLP. Their example of pro bono service to individuals in need reflects well on themselves and the legal profession. It deserves both our thanks and our admiration.”
The Access to Justice Coalition. . . Hemley
" The Committee on Equal Access to Legal Services has announced that it has fulfilled the mandate given by the Supreme Court in September 2000 to examine and report on the civil legal needs of low income Vermonters."
Vermonters Join Together to Meet
the Challenge of Equal Access to Justice .
. Avildsen
“In early January of 2004, the Vermont Supreme Court and
leaders of the Vermont Bar joined together to adopt a resolution creating an
Access to Justice Coalition in
Access to Justice: The Problem of Law Student Debt . . . Wroth
"The Vermont Supreme Court’s Committee on Equal Access to Legal Services in September 2001 recommended that, to address the substantial unmet civil legal needs of low income families in Vermont, there must be increased public funding for legal services organizations and increased private bar support for and commitment to pro bono legal services."
History of the
"Twenty years ago
the Vermont Volunteer Lawyers Project began with the desire of the private bar
to insure the equal administration of justice and fulfil the responsibility of
lawyers to provide legal services to those unable to pay.
Remarks Upon the Occasion of His
Retirement . . . McCaffrey
"Thank you – for your kind words and all the kind words that have been said here tonight. I accept the gift of this evening humbly and with the awareness that it represents more than what I have offered over these years.”
Collaborative Dissolution. . . Buckholz
"Family law practice in the mid-twentieth century was a battlefield upon which a wronged spouse sought vengeance against a transgressing partner. The stakes were high: a finding of fault could, and often did, lead to a lopsided distribution of the parties’ financial assets.”
Collaborative Law: A Skeptic’s View . . . Apel
"During my practice of family law, I admit to dreaming of a world where my clients, perhaps with a nudge or two from me, would take responsibility for themselves and their children and clean up the mess that divorce often brings. I believed that the legal process was often paternalistic and disempowering, although not always, and that private ordering was usually preferable to judicial fiat."
Jets and Sharks – A Mediation “Rumble”
. . . Winokur
"The meeting of the two “gangs” – professional mediators and attorneys – was to begin soon. This was to be the second organized event between the Vermont Mediators Association (VMA) and the Vermont Bar Association’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee (ADR Committee) purposefully to bring the groups together for informal dialogue about our shared passion: conflict resolution."
Restorative Justice in
" The previous article on restorative justice,
“Restorative Justice, Vermont State Policy,” in the winter issue of the Vermont Bar Journal discussed the
genesis of Vermont’s restorative justice policy, as promulgated in 28 V.S.A.
2(a), and restorative justice philosophy in general. Two of the questions posed at the outset of
the article were never addressed at large.
How is restorative justice being done in
"Last summer, Judge Colleen A. Brown, the United States Bankruptcy Judge for the District of Vermont, decided that she wanted candid feedback (a “Judicial Performance Appraisal”) from lawyers concerning her performance and that of the Court’s staff. Judge Brown was concerned that if she directly solicited such input from the bar, she might not receive the honest critique she desired. She worried that lawyers who appear before her might hesitate in providing constructive criticism, fearing that their comments might not be well-received or might negatively impact on their (or their clients’) future interactions with the Court.”
DEPARTMENTS
President's Column: Access to Justice. . . Saxman
Access to justice is the central concern of this issue of the Journal. As lawyers and judges, we work to improve our system of justice in many different ways. In your own practice, you are probably aware of improvements that could make a difference in how legal problems are handled. Two improvements I would like to highlight concern children who need access to justice in certain situations: children whose parents are pro se and engaged in a custody struggle; and children who have emotional and learning disabilities in the juvenile and criminal justice systems.
Lex Et
Ratio: Remembering and Forgetting Brown
. . Ryan
"On May 17, 1954 – fifty years ago this spring – the Supreme Court
decided Brown v. Board of Education,
putting an end in law, if not in fact, to state-supported segregation in
education. The anniversary of Brown has drawn considerable attention,
as it should, not only from the legal profession, but also from a diversity of
political, social, professional, and religious groups, all intent on
demonstrating their continued commitment to the ideal of racial equality
enunciated in Brown. Justly called “the defining event of modern
American constitutional law,”[i]
Brown not only struck down laws
segregating public schools but also, through its progeny, sounded the death
knell for government-sanctioned segregation generally.”
Ruminations:
Sleeping Roads. . . Gillies
"We were two fathers, waiting for our kids to finish a birthday
party, standing by the road, kicking pebbles.
He said, “You know, that is a town road,” and following his nod I looked
at a field that did not show it had ever known a road over it. “Except,” he added, “they haven’t thrown it
up on paper.”
Yankee
Justice: Robert Larrow: Vermont’s Last
Elected Supreme Court Justice. . . Downs
“Identifying myself, as we say
in court ‘for the purposes of the record,’ I was born in 1916 in Vergennes –
one of those rare animals that qualify in state government as a native
Vermonter. I went to high school in
Vergennes, graduating in 1932. I took my
A.B. degree from
Book Review One: The Death
Penalty: An American History.. . . Palmer
Book Review Two: When the State
Kills: Capital Punishment and the American Condition . .
Book Review Three: First Among
Equals: The Supreme Court in American Life . . Wolfe
Book Review Four: Intellectual
Property and Computer Crimes . . Tower-Pierce
Book Review Five: ABC’s of
Arbitrage . . Giuliani