I fully agree with the concept and I feel it is special to everyone who lives in The Valley.
The question I have is why the town forefathers don't seem to think that that applies to them also? Recently, I saw in The Valley Reporter that the town fired their attorney. The attorney that they fired was
from an out-of-town law firm. They then hired another attorney who
coincidentally is also from an out-of-town law firm.
I have in the past noticed that whenever the town needs counsel they
seem to hire out-of-town attorneys. I wondered if The Valley has any
local attorneys. I went to the Mad River Valley directory and guess
what? I found at least 11 attorneys listed. I know most of them and I
would have to say that I think they are all competent.
The type of work that the town is using attorneys for really requires,
in my opinion, two specialties: A. the ability to litigate and speak
before a court, either the Superior Court or the Supreme Court, and B.
the ability to be able to provide adequate and proper research for the
argument.
This certainly can be accomplished by the local attorneys, even if it
would require the retaining of two attorneys, one as trial counsel and
one as research counsel.
I personally know of at least two other cases in both the Superior Court
and the Vermont Supreme Court that the town hired out-of-town counsel
and lost both cases.
It would appear that the incentive to win would be greater if a local
attorney was involved since it's their reputation in front of local
citizens.
I cannot understand why the town doesn't even at least interview local
attorneys and make some sort of determination that their fees are too
high or they're incompetent. I believe the result would be that everyone
here is competent and I believe they would find that the fees are less
than Burlington or Montpelier.
Since it appears to be a win-win situation if everyone gets involved
with "locally made and sold" and "localvores," I would think that local
representation is just as important for the town and its citizens.
Alan M. Solomon
Waitsfield
{loadnavigation}
