Judiciary of Vermont
courts of U.S. state
The Judiciary of Vermont is the state court system of Vermont, charged with Vermont law.
Vermont Constitution
The Vermont courts are established in the Vermont Constitution in sections 28-41 (Judiciary Department). The justices of the Vermont Supreme Court and judges of all lower courts except assistant judges and probate judges serve for six-year terms, which are renewable following a majority retention vote in the Vermont General Assembly.
All Vermont Constitution provides for a mandatory retirement of Supreme Court justices and lower court judges at 90 years of age, as prescribed by law by the General Assembly, or if the General Assembly has not so provided by law at the age of 70 or at the end of the term of election during which they attain the age of 70. The constitution also provides that justices and judges be given a pension as provided by law and that the chief justice "may from time to time appoint retired justices and judges to special assignments as permitted under the rules of the Supreme Court."
Supreme Court
The Vermont Supreme Court is the state supreme court, based in the state capital of Montpelier. Because Vermont has no intermediate appellate courts, it is the sole state appellate court, mainly hearing appeals on questions of law from lower courts, although there are a few instances in which the Court has original jurisdiction. The Supreme Court also is responsible for administration of the Vermont court system; it makes state court procedural rules.
The Supreme Court is established in the Vermont Constitution which provides in section 29 that the court shall consist of a chief justice and four associate justices and in section 30 that:
The Supreme Court shall exercise appellate jurisdiction in all cases, criminal and civil, under such terms and conditions as it shall specify in rules not inconsistent with law. The Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction only as provided by law, but it shall have the power to issue all writs necessary or appropriate in aid of its appellate jurisdiction. The Supreme Court shall have administrative control of all the courts of the state, and disciplinary authority concerning all judicial officers and attorneys at law in the State.
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This entry incorporates text from “Judiciary of Vermont” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.