The Vermont Statutes Online

Title 13 : Crimes and Criminal Procedure

Chapter 163 : Public Defenders

Subchapter 002 : Notice and Nature of Rights

• § 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.)