25 Administrative Order No. 25. Uniform Fire Prevention Tickets

For the purpose of instituting uniform administrative procedures in those courts handling fire prevention violations, the Supreme Court, under the authority of the Vermont Constitution Chapter II, § 37 and 10 V.S.A. § 2676, issues the following order:

§ 1. All prosecutions of violations of 10 V.S.A. § 2645(a) or § 2648(a), hereinafter known as fire prevention violations, shall be instituted by means of the Vermont Uniform Fire Prevention Ticket, hereinafter known as the fire prevention ticket. For purposes of this order, law enforcement officers shall include town fire wardens.

§ 2. The fire prevention ticket shall consist of four parts:

(a) The court’s copy. This shall also be known as the complaint. It shall contain:

(1) information necessary to specify the fire prevention violation, the time and place of the offense, the individual accused of committing the offense and any other information pertinent to the commission of the offense. It shall also contain the name of the complaining law enforcement officer;

(2) the permanent court record, including all proceedings and the final disposition of the case.

(b) The prosecutor’s copy. It shall also be known as the prosecutor’s record. It shall contain all information specified in § 2(a)(1).

(c) The officer’s copy. This shall also be known as the police record. It shall contain all information specified in § 2(a)(1). It shall also contain information concerning the offense that would be helpful to the officer in the preparation of testimony in case of trial.

(d) The defendant’s copy. This shall also be known as the citation. It shall contain all information specified in § 2(a)(1). It shall also contain instructions to return the ticket within fifteen days of its issuance and information concerning pleading for the defendant.

§ 3. Each fire prevention ticket shall contain the following two paragraphs which shall be prominently displayed in bold-faced type on the defendant’s copy:

(a) If you fail to follow the instructions on this ticket, the court may issue a summons requiring you to appear before it. Failure to obey that summons shall result in a fine of up to $100 or imprisonment up to 90 days, or both. 12 V.S.A. § 701(b).

(b) If you admit you have committed a fire prevention offense or are judged to have committed the offense you may be subject to a fine of up to $25.00 for each day of noncompliance.

§ 4. Pursuant to agreement, the commissioner of forests, parks and recreation will be responsible for the issuance of and accounting for the fire prevention tickets. The commissioner may promulgate procedures, rules and regulations for the issuance of and accounting for the fire prevention tickets with the approval of the court administrator.

§ 5. The court administrator shall make periodic inspections of issuing and accounting procedures of the commissioner.

§ 6. All fire prevention tickets shall be numbered in sequence. A record shall be kept of the law enforcement agency or town to which the fire prevention tickets are issued and the numbers of the fire prevention tickets that have been issued to that agency or town. All law enforcement agencies, towns, and law enforcement officers shall be responsible to account for each and every ticket issued to them.

§ 7. Any fire prevention ticket which is spoiled for any reason, including but not limited to error or faulty ticket, and not served upon a defendant, shall be voided by the issuing law enforcement officer and returned to the agency responsible for the issuance of the prevention ticket as specified in § 4, supra.

§ 8. Three district court judges appointed by the court administrator shall establish schedules, within the limits prescribed by law, of the amount of fines to be imposed for violations of fire prevention offenses.

§ 9. If a defendant fails to answer or respond as directed on the fire prevention ticket, the defendant may be summoned to appear before a district judge by a summons in such form as prescribed by the court administrator, stating the time when, and the place where, the defendant shall appear.