Although the General Assembly continues to focus on global warming issues, the Judiciary Committees are moving slowly into substantive work on issues important to all of us. So far this week, we’ve seen bills dealing with patient control at the end of life (H.44) and an innocence protection bill to protect against wrongful criminal convictions (H. 50). A bill of interest to our Juvenile Justice Section, as well as the criminal and family bar, is H. 52, a proposal to require all criminal charges against minors to be commenced in family court.

At the beginning of every biennium appointments are made to crucial legislative committees: the Joint Legislative Committee on Judicial Retention and the Legislative Committee on Judicial Rules. The Senate this week appointed its members and we’re awaiting House action, hopefully next week. Senate appointees to the Retention Committee are: Senators Campbell, Flanagan, Nitka, and Mullin. The House will also appoint four members. Senate members on the Judicial Rules Committee are: Senators Sears, Nitka, Campbell, and Illuzzi. The final committee, not strictly a legislative committee, is the Judicial Nominating Board. Elections are underway in the Bar for the three attorney seats on the JNB. The House and Senate each appoint three members, not more than one from each body that can be an attorney. On Wednesday the Senate appointed Senators Kittell, Scott, and Campbell. The Governor will appoint two members, neither of whom can be an attorney. That should occur by the end of the month.

Speaking of retention, this year we’ll see six trial judges go through the retention process: Judges Katz, Manley, Cohen, Joseph, Crucitti, and Zimmerman. Interviews with those judges and the opportunity to offer public input will take place in February. I’ll post the dates of those meetings as they become available.

Other items of interest: I presented an overview of the VBA to the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday and the Chief Justice is doing a presentation on the Judiciary on Thursday. The Governor’s Commission on the Marketability of Title presented its final report to the Governor last Thursday. I can make a copy available to anyone who wants it. On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee is beginning a series of roundtable discussions on the topic of domestic violence. There is no set agenda yet; it seems only to be an opportunity to collectively explore possible responses to the problem.

VBA member attorney Representative Willem Jewett of Ripton introduced two bills Thursday that should interest many of you. The first, H. 66, proposes to require all state agencies to publish proposed rules, final proposed rules, and adopted rules on their websites and to require the secretary of state to publish all adopted rules of state agencies on the Internet in a comprehensive and searchable database. The second, of particular interest to real estate practitioners is H. 68, which proposes to permit the mortgage recording requirement to be satisfied with respect to mortgages that exceed six pages in total length by recording a notice of mortgage instead of recording the entire mortgage document. The language that would be added to 27 VSA 341 is:

d)  A mortgage on real property which exceeds six pages in total length need not be recorded at length if a notice of mortgage, which is executed, witnessed, and acknowledged as provided in subsection (a) of this section, is recorded in the land records of the town in which the mortgaged property is situated.  The notice of mortgage shall contain at least the following information:

(1)  the names of the parties to the mortgage, including identification of the mortgagor and mortgagee, as set forth in the mortgage;

(2)  a statement of the rights of a party to assign the mortgage;

(3)  any addresses set forth in the mortgage as those of the parties;

(4)  the date of the execution of the mortgage;

(5)  the amount, term, and due date of the mortgage;

(6)  the property address and a description of the property as set forth in the mortgage;

(7)  whether the mortgage contains a future advances clause;

(8)  whether the mortgage is a first mortgage, and, if it is not a first mortgage, the recording information of any prior mortgage; and

(9)  the location of an original mortgage.

The VBA has established a task force to explore the notion of certifying as a specialty the practice of real estate law. Following on the example of Connecticut’s certification of workers’ compensation as a specialty as explained during the October NEBA Annual Meeting, a Real Estate Specialty Certification Committee began work in December. The Committee is comprised of twenty two practitioners and is advised by Tori Jo Wible, counsel to the ABA’s Standing Committee on Specialization. The Committee was purposely constituted with supporters and opponents of certification, at least at the outset. The Bar’s regulatory arms of the Vermont Supreme Court—the Board of Bar Examiners, the Mandatory Continuing Education Committee, and the Professional Responsibility Board—are all represented. A final report is expected by the Annual Meeting on October 5, 2007.

VBA President Sam Hoar has established the “Roundtable on the Profession” as a way to invite Bar leaders to exchange ideas on issues and challenges facing the legal profession. The Roundtable has a varied membership including representatives from the Supreme Court, the trial bench, legislators, the Governor’s legal counsel, the Bar’s regulatory agencies, government/non-profit, corporate, and private practitioners in small to large firms. Quarterly dinner meetings are scheduled throughout the state and a CLE presentation is planned for the Annual Meeting in October. Initial topics for consideration, selected by the members, include: Professional Practice, Access to Justice, Helping Lawyers, Public Image of the Profession, and The Future: The Impact of Technology.

I am always seeking lawyers who would be willing to contact their legislators if called upon by the VBA. In particular, we are seeking lawyers with an established relationship with one or more legislators. Now that you know who serves on the two Judiciary Committees, if you would be willing to be called upon as needed in this regard, please let me know at bpaolini@vtbar.org. We appreciate your willingness to help!

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