Paolini No Title

• Jurisdiction: Vermont,United States
• Citation: Vol. 2002 No. 06
• Publication year: 2002

Vermont Bar Journal 2002.

June 2002. Paolini No Title

FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR...

Robert F. Paolini, Esq.

I know you have read a lot recently about the VBA's becoming part of the Casemaker Consortium. So why I am writing about the same thing? Perhaps it is because we are all so excited about the changes that are coming and how we think they will enhance your practice, save you money, and make your membership more valuable than ever. We know you will agree.

Lawriter, LLC, owner of Casemaker, will bring you online research access to its Vermont state database in January.

Beginning on Friday, September 27th, at our Annual Meeting, you will gain access to all materials in the VBA Casemaker Web Library, except the Vermont materials (which will not yet have been fully loaded into the online database). So, VBA members can begin to use the service and become proficient with it before all Vermont's cases, statutes, rules, etc., are available.

This much access will cost you only $25 per year! That is amazing considering the costs of online legal research. By a vote of 182 to 5, you said you wanted such a service to be made available to you. We heard, and the Board of Managers acted. My goal, and the goal of the VBA's Board and staff, has always been to provide you with the tools you need to excel at what you do. Sometimes, it is health insurance; sometimes it is working on the bench-bar relationship. In this case, it is online access to legal research.

Recently the VBA presented a seminar on Client Trust Accounts. Many of the attendees were office administrators who handle your trust accounts. Many of them left the seminar confused and, in at least one case, annoyed by the panelists' inability to answer some questions or contradictory answers given by panelists. I presented the concerns of at least two attendees to the VBA's Professional Responsibility Committee and the Professional Responsibility Board respectively, seeking an Advisory Ethics Opinion in the first case and action in the second.

Because the rules governing trust accounts in Vermont are few and not specific, real guidance in certain areas is lacking. For example, since the rules prohibit commingling of funds, can a firm keep any of its money in its trust account to cover bank service charges? Keeping money there may be commingling. But keeping no...