Your state’s pack. New issues arrive periodically on Mondays. Bookmark it. I built this for the Vermont T&E solo who knows Title 14 (Vermont’s own Decedents’ Estates and Trusts code, non-UPC) cold but still loses an afternoon a week hunting the current homestead number, the Green Mountain Care / Choices for Care slot posture, whether the latest Vermont Judiciary AI guidance changes how you scope an engagement, or whether a recent Vermont Supreme Court decision just moved the law on capacity, undue influence, or a trustee’s duties. What’s below is what mattered in Vermont lately — the week’s developments and the recent rulings from the bench.
For licensed attorneys. This pack is general legal information and professional commentary for practicing attorneys — it is not legal advice, does not apply to any specific matter, and creates no attorney-client relationship. Verify every authority against the cited primary source before relying on it with a client. Published by Mike Moss, a Utah-admitted attorney, as an AI-enablement information product; it is not an offer of legal services and is not a representation that the author is admitted to practice in your jurisdiction.
Three developments from the last seven days that I think actually matter to a Vermont T&E solo. Each one has a read that lands on your practice specifically — and each one comes with the citation so you can verify the detail yourself before you use it with a client.
The Vermont Judiciary Committee on Artificial Intelligence and the Courts released its First Annual Report (March 1, 2025), concluding that no amendments to the Rules of Professional Conduct or court rules are warranted, but issuing competence, confidentiality, communication, and fee guidance for lawyers using generative AI (and recommending the MCLE Board weigh a technology CLE credit). The VBA President’s designee sits on the committee.
This is judiciary guidance, not a bar ethics opinion — so don’t wait for a Vermont AI-specific RPC to tell you the rules apply. If you use generative AI to draft, your competence, confidentiality, and fee duties already attach today, and the committee read them onto AI use directly. Treat the report as the operative standard of care and paper your AI workflow against it.
Vermont Judiciary Committee on AI and the Courts, First Annual Report (Mar. 1, 2025) · VTCOURTS.GOV
27 V.S.A. § 101, as amended by 2023 Act No. 6, § 314 (eff. July 1, 2023), remains in force in the 2025-2026 statutes session with the homestead exemption set at $125,000.00 in value, exempt from attachment and execution.
A stale brochure or an older form library may still carry a pre-2023 number. The $125,000 figure is the one to cite in any Vermont creditor-exemption analysis or homestead-protection conversation right now — verify it against the legislature’s statutes page before you rely on it with a client.
27 V.S.A. § 101 · LEGISLATURE.VERMONT.GOV · eff. July 1, 2023
S.71, ‘An act relating to consumer data privacy and online surveillance,’ passed both chambers and was delivered to the Governor on June 10, 2026. Once enacted it creates new data-handling and de-identification obligations relevant to how a firm uses client data and AI tools.
For a solo, the live question is whether your intake forms, document-management, and any AI vendor you feed client data into will meet new de-identification and data-handling duties. Track the Governor’s action on S.71 and re-scope your data-processing posture before the obligations attach — verify the bill’s final status before advising a client on it.
Vermont General Assembly · S.71 (2026 Sess.) · LEGISLATURE.VERMONT.GOV
Decisions from the courts that bind a Vermont practitioner — the Vermont Supreme Court, the U.S. District Court for Vermont, and the Second Circuit — read for what actually changes how you draft, advise, and plan. Trusts and estates broadly, not Medicaid alone: wills and capacity, undue influence, fiduciary duty, trust construction, and estate recovery. One read, the holding, and the official cite.
Across the Vermont Supreme Court, the U.S. District Court for Vermont, and the Second Circuit, no qualifying trusts-and-estates or estate-recovery decision has been logged at a verified primary source in the trailing window. Per the lane’s no-invent rule, this row says so plainly rather than inflating a holding — CourtListener is used for discovery only, never cited as authority.
Nothing to re-paper from the bench this period; controlling Vermont T&E authority is unchanged. When a qualifying decision is verified against its official reporter, it lands here with the holding and the cite.
Awaiting verified weekly signal — official reporter / court source only, never courtlistener.com.
This slot holds the next significant trusts-and-estates or estate-recovery decision from Vermont’s courts or the federal courts covering Vermont. The lane reads each opinion before it lands here, and reads-and-discards Medicaid program/provider litigation as not T&E. When the trailing window has no new ruling, this row says so plainly rather than inventing one.
Nothing to re-paper from the bench this period; controlling authority unchanged.
Official reporter · court · date — never courtlistener.com.
This week in Vermont for the T&E solo with Vermont Medicaid clients: the developments from the Vermont Bar Association and the Department of Vermont Health Access (Vermont Medicaid) that actually moved your practice this period — each one primary-source verified.
Bar and Medicaid changes land on different schedules and aren’t indexed by practice focus. Every item here was checked against its primary source, with the link, so you can verify before relying on it.