Bonk!By Andy DelaneyThree opinions issued this Friday the 13th. First up is a likely future bar exam question dealing with real estate. Back in the ‘50s, some folks deeded property to the Town of Albany for the purpose of “4-H recreational and forestry purposes.” There was a clause in the deed that said, arguably,
Weekly-ish Update April 23 to May 7, 2022
Think the opposite in opinion twoBy Andy DelaneyI’ve actually got the ‘rona right now, so I have a good excuse for skipping last week’s update. SCOV issued two opinions yesterday, May 6, 2022. The first is about the terms of a proffer agreement. Now, I must say—even though I used to do criminal defense, I’ve never…
Weekly Update: April 15-22
There’s a bad Spanish lawyer joke here–not quite a pun but closeBy Andy Delaney Hmm. I thought I was going to write about one opinion today, but there are two, so I’ll halve my effort. This means two mediocre summaries for the price of one. There was a criminal entry order—presumably issued the Friday before…
Legal Authority Imposters
The legal authority imposter scam has presented itself as one of the more common scams state-wide. In 2021, CAP recorded 277 reports of the Legal Authority Imposter Scam and nearly $200,000 in cumulative loss by six Vermonters. In this scam, a call comes in unexpectedly, claiming to be someone of legal authority: a sheriff, police…
California Adds Requirements for Compostable Marketing Claims
The California legislature recently added new requirements for products sold in the state that claim to be “compostable” or “home compostable” in AB 1201. As of the beginning of this year, these products must now: have a total organic fluorine concentration less than 100 parts per million (to reduce the presence of perfluoroalkyl or polyfluoroalkyl…
Recycling Is Rubbish: Four Concrete Steps Congress Must Take to Reimagine Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle by Reinventing, Reformatting, and Restructuring the Way the United States Manages Packaging Materials
James D. Brien—The United States uses and disposes of materials at an alarming and unsustainable rate. The EPA estimates that in 2018 the U.S. generated over 292 million tons of household waste.[1] Between 30% and 65% of this waste comes from one source: containers and other packaging materials.[2] The U.S. then incinerated or landfilled more…
Weekly Update: April 8, 2022
Now here’s a homonymBy Andy DelaneyOne case on April 8th. It involves comity, which I’m not embarrassed to admit, I had to look up. In this context, comity means respecting the authority of or deferring to other courts—even family courts in Massachusetts—to issue orders and dispose of assets located in Vermont. Let’s back up.…
Weekly Update Last Week of March 2022
A different kind of “bale”By Andy Delaney One off-schedule published entry order a week seems to be the late-March theme at SCOV. This case is also an appeal from a hold-without-bail order—or as I understand they call it in the biz, a “HWOB.” This particular HWOB results from an incident where defendant went to complainant’s…
2021 Scams with Loss Reported to the Consumer Assistance Program
By L. Jense
Reports of scams to the Attorney General’s Consumer Assistance Program (CAP) totaled 5,154 in 2021, up just slightly from the previous year’s 5,021 reports. As imposter scams are of ongoing concern in Vermont, CAP recently distributed a video imposter scam prevention project, highlighting three concerning imposter scams with high dollar loss: the Romance Imposter scam, the Family Emergency/Imposter…
Weekend Update: March 26, 2022
“And that’s why we NEVER talk tothe police without counsel present.”By Andy DelaneyOne entry order squeezed in on March 21. It’s a bail appeal. Defendant is charged with sexual assault. He was originally released under a 24-hour curfew to live with his mom. She moved and he got a modification to allow him to…
