Terms Used In Vermont Statutes Title 13 Sec. 5233

  • Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
  • Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
  • Person: shall include any natural person, corporation, municipality, the State of Vermont or any department, agency, or subdivision of the State, and any partnership, unincorporated association, or other legal entity. See
  • Probation: A sentencing alternative to imprisonment in which the court releases convicted defendants under supervision as long as certain conditions are observed.

§ 5233. Extent of services

(a) A needy person who is entitled to be represented by an attorney under section 5231 of this title is entitled:

(1) to be counseled and defended at all stages of the matter beginning with the earliest time when a person providing the person’s own counsel would be entitled to be represented by an attorney and including revocation of probation or parole;

(2) to be represented in any appeal; and

(3) to be represented in any other postconviction proceeding which may have more than a minimal effect on the length or conditions of detention where the attorney considers:

(A) the claims, defenses, and other legal contentions to be warranted by existing law or by a nonfrivolous argument for the extension, modification, or reversal of existing law or the establishment of new law; and

(B) the allegations and other factual contentions to have evidentiary support, or likely to have evidentiary support after a reasonable opportunity for further investigation and discovery.

(b) A needy person’s right to a benefit under this section is not affected by having provided a similar benefit at the person’s own expense, or by having waived it, at an earlier stage. (Added 1971, No. 161 (Adj. Sess.), § 6, eff. date, see note; amended 2003, No. 157 (Adj. Sess.), § 10, eff. June 8, 2004; 2015, No. 137 (Adj. Sess.), § 6, eff. May 25, 2016.)