Vt. Admin. Ord. Of. Sup. Ct. 1
The purpose of these rules is to assure the availability of counsel to all persons adjudged in need thereof, confronted by proceedings which may involve potential loss of personal liberty, irrespective of their ability to pay for such representation, and under conditions in which persons having their own counsel would be entitled to be so represented. Courts should be diligent to recognize the need for counsel, and notify the public defender or assign counsel at the earliest time when persons providing their own counsel would be entitled to be represented by an attorney, unless a waiver is furnished and accepted. Notification of the public defender of expected assignment may precede the determination of financial ability to employ counsel. The circumstance that statutory authority of the right to representation by counsel does not appear to reach the matter involved is not to bar the exercise of the inherent power to provide counsel where it may be constitutionally required.
Vt. Admin. Ord. Of. Sup. Ct. 1