Virgin Islands Lawyer & Attorney : Tom Bolt & Associates Law Firm : St. Thomas, St. John, St. Croix, Water Island, US Virgin Islands

St. Thomas attorney Tom Bolt, Chairman of the Virgin Islands Uniform Law Commission testified before the 27th Legislature's Committee on Rules and the Judiciary on Wednesday regarding Bill 27-0161, "The Virgin Islands Unclaimed Property Act".  Bolt noted that the legislation which is sponsored by Senator Terrence "Positive" Nelson, Chair of the Committee on Finance is revenue positive.  "The Territory will generate funds from this bill." Bolt noted.

"What is unclaimed property?" Bolt retorically asked the Committee.  "It is bank accounts, insurance proceeds, old traveler's checks, stock holdings, and even the proceeds from winning parimutuel tickets. What unites these different kinds of property is the fact that the person to whom they are owed has never come forward to collect them and cannot be readily found. If the owner does not come forward or is not found, the holder gets to keep the property, and worse, may dissipate the property through service charges and the like." Bolt said

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Two weeks ago, when residents of several East End housing communities got wind of plans to locate a floating restaurant and bar in Christmas Cove, the reaction was, "You've got to be kidding me!" according to Robert Fagenson.
     Since then, Fagenson and dozens of others have not just rallied to protest the plan, but have with the assistance of Tom Bolt & Associates, PC, formed a non-profit organization, commissioned a study by the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) and are circulating petitions in anticipation of a public hearing on Tuesday.
      The group, known as the Friends of Christmas Cove Inc., formally announced its establishment at a news conference Sunday, March 2nd at Robert's American Grille in Cowpet Bay. Group president Fagenson, and others outlined their objections to the bar and restaurant plan by WT Enterprises LLC and distributed a summary document of the UVI study they commissioned on the Christmas Cove ecosystem. 
    

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Martha I. Walters, President of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, a 116 year old legal organization that advances laws common to all states and territories, has appointed Attorney Tom Bolt, a Uniform Law Commissioner from the U.S. Virgin Islands, to assist her and the national leadership in advancing a legislative strategy for the organization.

Bolt, who serves as a member of NCCUSL's Legislative Council, met with its officers and other leaders this past weekend in Chicago to review current legislative strategy, as well as various other aspects of the work of the Conference including working with drafting committees and reporters, developing a public information program for NCCUSL, establishing a working relationship with various external organization and with state and territorial drafting adgencies.

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Attorney Tom Bolt, Chairman of the Children's Trust led a delegation from the Trust on Tuesday to meet Commissioner of Education Nominee Lynn Spampinato.  The Children's Trust is a fund of the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands whose mission is to advocate on behalf of the children of the Virgin Islands.

Earlier Tuesday, Commissioner nominee Spampinato told members of the Rotary Club of St. Thomas Sunrise that of all the persons that she has met in the Virgin Islands not one of them has said that they "want to talk about the children."  Children's Trust Chairman Bolt began the meeting in Spampinato's office at Roosevelt Park on St. Thomas by saying, "We are here to talk about the children!"

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Tom Bolt, Delegate at Large to the American Bar Association House of Delegates, secured an amendment to Resolution 116B which was before the body on Monday at it Annual Meeting in San Francisco, California.  The Resolution sponsored by the ABA's Section on Individual Rights and Responsibilities urged the United States Congress to establish a panel to review the government response to Hurricane Katrina and develop programs and policies to address the needs of property owners in disaster prone areas.

"The resolution as originally presented," Bolt said, "would have only included programs and policies for persons in the Gulf States affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.  We needed to include those in the Virgin Islands where we are consistently threatened by hurricanes, as well as those in Florida and other disaster prone areas.  My amendment would extend the scope of the resolution to include all persons in disaster prone areas."

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Monica M. Howard, an attorney in the Government Relations Practice Group at Tom Bolt & Associates, PC, recently returned from Washington, DC where she had the opportunity to meet with various national goverment leaders.  Attorney Howard was attending the Annual Government Relations School sponsored by the American Society of Association Executives.  While in Washington, she also received a special invitation to attend the the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee fundraiser at Union Station's Columbia Hall.

While in Washington, Attorney Howard met Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel.  "I was particular impressed with Chairman Rangel," Howard noted.  "He is an ardent supporter of the Virgin Islands.  I was happy that I was able to express the Territory's appreciation for his advocating on behalf of the Territory."

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In a gathering of family, friends and well-wishers, St. Thomas attorney Tom Bolt announced his candidacy for the Virgin Islands 5th Constitutional Convention at a Memorial Day rally on St. Thomas.  Bolt who has served as Counsel to the Legislature of the Virgin Islands urged the supporters to "go to the polls and exercise their right to vote" at the Tuesday, June 12th Special Election.  Virgin Islands voters in each district will elect 13 district delegates and 4 at large delegates.  Of the 13 delegates from the St. Thomas-St. John district, 2 must be from the island of St. John.  Half of the at large delegates must reside in the St. Thomas-St. John district and half must reside in the district of St. Croix.

"The Virgin Islands is taking another step toward self-governance with the election of the 5th Constitutional Convention." Bolt said.  "Every U.S. state and territory has its own constitution other than Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands.  It is fundamental to our future governance that people of the Virgin Islands approve our own constitution."

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Virgin Islands Attorney Tom Bolt, Managing Attorney of the St. Thomas firm of Tom Bolt & Associates, PC, has been called back into the fray between various legal organizations to mediate a dispute relative to national standards for legal representation of children.  In August 2006, the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws adopted the "Uniform Representation of Children in Abuse, Neglect, and Custody Proceedings Act".  NCCUSL, the 115 year old state governmental organization, provides states and territories with non-partisan legislation in critical areas of the law.  Bolt has been a member of NCCUSL since 1988.

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Tom Bolt, Managing Attorney of the St. Thomas law fim, Tom Bolt & Associates, has been reappointed as Chair of the Virgin Islands Bar Association's Legislation and Law Reform Committee.  Bolt who served as Counsel to the Virgin Islands Legislature throughout the 1980's also serves as Chair of the Virgin Islands Uniform Law Commission.

"There are a number of issues that are of concern to the Virgin Islands public that the Bar Association will be addressing." Bolt said.  "Chief among these is the probate code.  Virgin Islanders are constrained by the current law.  We have homes that are abandoned due to probate.  It is taking as much as 10-12 years to probate very small estates.  This should not be." Bolt noted.

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A senior Pentagon official resigned Friday over controversial remarks in which he criticized lawyers who represent terrorism suspects, the Defense Department said.  Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said Charles ''Cully'' Stimson, deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs, told him on Friday that he had made his own decision to resign and was not asked to leave by Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

"The Deputy Assistant Secretary did the right thing." said Tom Bolt, President of the American Counsel Association, the oldest association of independent law firms.  "But this does not end here, I am confident that when the American Bar Association's House of Delegates convenes later this month that we will address the issue of detainees, their right to counsel and other issues relative to the proper administration of justice." Bolt said.

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Although this year's Omnibus Authorization Bill and Government Reform and Modernization Bill are massive pieces of legislation - 89 pages in the omnibus bill and 260 pages in the reform bill - about half of the pages are dedicated to adding new uniform laws to the V.I. Code.

Put together, the bills propose that 11 new uniform laws be added to the territory's laws. Attorney Tom Bolt, who is the chairman of the Virgin Islands Uniform Law Commission, said the U.S. Constitution sets up several laws for every part of the United States but delegates a lot of lawmaking to individual states and territories. Uniform laws are form laws agreed upon by a national commission of attorneys, then offered and passed by state and territorial legislatures.

Bolt said that uniform laws are useful because they protect people - regardless of where in the United States they may move.

"People are mobile, and you can have the same law covering several places," Bolt said.

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Virgin Islands Pollster John Boyd recently released his latest poll of registered voters in both the District of St. Croix and the District of St. Thomas-St. John of issues of importance in the General Election to be held November 7th.  The top four issues cited by voters were public safety, education, economic development and roads.  Crime has long been a concern to the Territory's voters with many pundits cited its impact on the Virgin Islands leading industry, tourism, as well as upon quality of life for residents.

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Virgin Islands Bar Association President Joycelyn Hewlett tapped St. Thomas attorney Tom Bolt to Co-Chair the Bar's Committee on Legislation and Law Reform.  Bolt Chaired the Committee from 1987-1993.  He is the former Counsel to the Virgin Islands Legislature and will Co-Chair the Committee with former Virgin Islands Senator and Attorney General, Iver A Stridiron.

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Gubernatorial candidate John P. deJongh, Jr. and his running mate, Greg Francis, were victorious in the Democratic Primary on September 9th.  The deJongh Francis team won with a two to one margin over current Lieutenant Governor Vargrave Richards and St. Thomas accountant Roy Jackson.  The distant third place candidate was former judge Edgar Ross with his running mate Lorraine Berry, the President of the 26th Legislature.

DeJongh will now face former Lieutenant Governor Ken Mapp and former Senator at Large Almando Liburd, as well as Senator Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg and Dr. Cora Christian.  Most political observers believe that the general election race will be much different that the primary race and expect Mapp to put up quite a fight.

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