Summer 2006

 

Special Focus Issue:

 

Disabilities & Civil Rights. . . . Reinert

 

The disability civil rights movement is seen as occurring within a more recent time frame than other civil rights movements.

 

Emotional Support Animal or Service Animal for ADA and Vermont’s Public Accommodations

Law Purposes Does it Make A Difference? . . . . Danon

 

Federal and Vermont anti-discrimination laws do not differentiate between physical and mental disabilities.  The purpose of these laws is to eliminate discrimination of individuals with disabilities, whether physical or psychiatric in nature.

 

The End of Seclusion and Restraint. . . . Cramer, McGrath & Ruben

The article will discuss the growing trend towards the elimination of violence and coercion on in-patient, locked psychiatric units around the country and in Vermont in terms of the substantive due process rights of involuntarily committed psychiatric patients to be free from arbitrary and harmful use of coercion against them.

 

No Exit for Patients Confined at the Vermont State Hospital. . . .  Bergquist

 

“Exit sign: The exit sign in the main corridor has an arrow on it that points to the day room.  However, there is not exit to the outside of the building in the day room.”

 

Guardianship Reform in Vermont. . . .  Reinert

 

Thousands of adult Vermont residents currently have no right to make their own decisions about where they live, how they spend their money, their medical treatment, and many other areas of their life.

 

The Importance of the Right to Representation in a Guardianship Proceeding. . . . Beyranevand

 

Not so long ago, I was interviewed by what felt like the entire staff of the Vermont Legal Aid for a position as a staff attorney with the Disability Law Project.  Among the questions asked were: Had I ever worked with disabled clients? Did I have any disabled relatives? Was I accustomed to being around people with disabilities?  At the time, I found myself asking, what difference does it make?

 

Representation of Clients Who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing. . . .  Jacobs, McClintock & Scanlon, L.P.C, edited by Robert Appel

 

Consider This: A prospective client who is deaf or hard of hearing comes to your office for an initial consultation, requests an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter and asks you to pay for the interpreter’s services.  You agree to the request, and meet your prospective client with an ASL interpreter present.  After considering the facts of the case, you decide not to take the matter.  Do you have to pay for the interpreter?

 

Special Education: Will the “Improvements” Decrease Protections for Parents and Students? . . . .  Blackwood

 

This article will look at several areas in which the new Act purports to “improve” the education of individuals with disabilities.

 

 

DEPARTMENTS

 

President’s Column. . . Gallagher

 

Should Lawyers Be Required To Disclose Whether They Have Malpractice Insurance?

 

Ruminations: The Extradition Trial of Bennett Young, The Twelfth Annual Vermont Judicial

History Seminar. . . Gillies

 

E.D. Fuller, owner of a livery stable in St. Albans, returned to his shop, unaware that rebel raiders had taken over the town, robbed three banks, and were in the process of gathering horses to escape to Canada.

 

Yankee Justice: The Lighter Side of the Law, John Swainbank: Memories of a County. . . . Downs

 

“I went to Amherst College, graduated in 1937, and tried to find a job.  Lever Brothers offered me one for $19 a week, and I had an offer fro W.R. Grace, but I had to agree to go to South American for ten years and not marry during that time.”

 

On Life and Practice, Eight Ways to Skyrocket Your Bottom Line and Live in Your Legal Niche. . . . Romano

I advocate for attorneys to live happily and prosper in their chosen field of work within the legal profession.

 

Book Review ~ The House the Jim Crow Built: A Seminal Case in the Struggle for Racial Equality. . . Clark

In 1925 a young black physician name Ossian Sweet and his wife, Gladys, bought a house in an affluent neighborhood in Detroit. The Sweets were welcomed to the neighborhood with a volatile, rock-lobbing mob of two hundred.

 

Book Review ~ Keeping the Right Company: A Journey Into Small Business and Textbook for

Advising Clients. . . O’Dea

John Abrams dropped out of Marlboro College and built his first house in Vermont in 1972.  The story of his career and the details of his accomplishments turned out to be a profound educational experience that I recommend to every Vermont Practitioner.

 

Book Review ~ Interpreting Authoritative  Texts: A Noted Scholar Explores the Similarities Between Constitutional and Biblical Interpretation. . . Dembinski

Interpreting the Bible & the Constitution is pioneering work on what could be a whole new field of American studies.  It may also be the first and last, an “alpha and omega,” of its kind.

 

 

In Memorandum