Tom Bolt, American Bar Association Delegate at Large, announced on Wednesday that the The American Bar Association Division for Public Education’s National Online Youth Summit. The program offers students in the Virgin the chance to study, research, and analyze an issue, and discuss it online with high school students throughout the United States. The theme of this year’s Youth Summit is “Environmental Law & Public Policy: From Grassroots to Government”. 

Bolt who has served as a member of the ABA’s House of Delegates for over twenty years said “This topic is of great interest to all people, especially today’s youth in the Virgin Islands.  The program will focus on grassroots and government efforts to create a national environmental policy, current environmental laws, and some of the political and social responses to resource management and environmental change across time.  Our students will have the opportunity to analyze key legislation and Supreme Court decisions dealing with the environment, and global warming in particular, as well as the role of the Executive branch in administering environmental laws."

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The importance of a Living Will made headlines again on Monday evening during remarks from Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson. Last month, Thompson sidestepped a question about the Terri Schiavo right-to-die case. However, on Monday Thompson said he did so because he had to face a similar situation in his personal life with the death of his own daughter. Thompson’s remarks indicated that his daughter had been on life support and ultimately died on Jan. 30, 2002, six days after being brought unconscious to a hospital emergency room.

Thompson went on to say, "These things need to be decided by the family, and I was at that bedside, and I had to make those decisions with the rest of my family. I will assure you one thing, no matter which decision you make, you will never know whether or not you made exactly the right decision, Thompson said. " He added, "should be decided by families. The federal government and the state government, too — except for the court system — ought to stay out of it, as far as I’m concerned."

While Thompson’s remarks did not indicate whether his daughter Elizabeth Thompson Panici had a Living Will, it is reasonable to assume that the excruciating decisions the Thompson’s had to make as a family could have been avoided if Ms. Thompson, then age 38, had prepared a Living Will addressing the possibility of her permanent incapacity and shared her feelings with her family.

A Living Will, also referred to as an Advanced Health Care Directive, is a legal document that expresses specific instructions as to the course of medical treatment that is to be taken by caregivers, or, in some cases the refusal of certain types of medical treatment. Once executed, the Living Will does not have any force or effect until the individual is unable, due to their incapacity, to personally provide a caregiver informed consent to proceed with certain medical treatments.

An executed Living Will may declare that when a client is certified to be permanently unconscious, as is usually determined by the client’s attending physician and a second examining physician, that artificial life-support systems be disconnected or withheld altogether. The client may also elect to discontinue or prevent artificial nutrition and hydration through feeding tubes or intravenous methods.

I am the first to acknowledge that on the best of days, it is hard to conceive the issues concerning our own mortality, and understandably more difficult to talk about them. But I suggest that if you are able to set aside time to explore your own feelings about the end of your life or the potential for unexpected injury that could result in a terminal condition, and then express those wishes in a meaningful and legal document, the comfort and peace of mind you will bring — not only to yourself, but also to those closest to you — will greatly offset its difficulty.

The Salvation Army commemorated an “International Day of Prayer for Victims of Sexual Trade Trafficking” this past Sunday at the call of General Shaw Clifton, its international leader.  “I called the Army to prayer once again for those exploited and irreparably damaged as victims of this dreadfully evil trade. The matter is a core issue for the Salvation Army today, just as much as it was in our early days.” Clifton said.

 

St. Thomas Salvation Army Advisory Board Chairman, local attorney Tom Bolt, noted to those gathering at the local corps headquarters on Sunday, “The United States government has declared one of the greatest threats to human dignity is human trafficking: the commodification of human beings.  Human trafficking is a term used to describe all forms of modern-day slavery. No longer is this a term from the past, but a horrific reality in our present and, unfortunately, our future.  The forms of trafficking are many and varied, but commonly involve victims entrapped in commercial sexual exploitation such as prostitution, or labor exploitation in sweatshops, domestic servitude, construction and agriculture.” Bolt said.

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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.

Continue Reading NCCUSL President Taps Virgin Islands Attorney

Tom Bolt, Managing Attorney of Tom Bolt & Associates, PC and Chairman of the Advisory Board for the Virgin Islands Corps of the Salvation Army, met Friday in Chiciaco with Carol Garrity Komon, Vice President of Field Services, and Stephanie N. Dragatsis, Director of Field Services, for America’s Second Harvest – "The Nation’s Food Bank Network".

Currenty the St. Thomas Corps of the Salvation Army provides a feeding program for the homeless on St. Thomas.  "In addition to the Salvation Army, currently there are over 1000 meals served daily on St. Thomas and St. John." Bolt said.  "There is a tremendous amount of waste in the food service industry.  One large hotel on St. Thomas takes over a truck load of good food to the Bovoni Landfill every day.  What couldn’t we do if we could rescue this food, repackage it and get it to those in need.  Just think of all of the food that is disposed of daily by the hotels, restaurants, and grocery stores, not to mention the cruiseships." Bolt said.  "With all this food, there is no reason for anyone to go hungry in St. Thomas."

Continue Reading Salvation Army Advisory Board Chair Meets with America’s Second Harvest

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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Tom Bolt, Managing Attorney of Tom Bolt & Associates, P.C., in St. Thomas, was among the 250 attorneys, judges, law professors, legislators and other state officials – all lawyers – participating in the 2007 Annual Meeting of the Uniform Law Commission (ULC), recently concluded in Pasadena, California. Mr. Bolt was first appointed a U.S. Virgin Islands Uniform Law Commissioner in 1988 and serves as Chair of the Virgin Islands Bar Association’s Committee on Legislation and Law Reform. He is currently Co-Chair of the ULC Committee on Liaison with the American Bar Association, and a member of the ULC Legislative Committee. He was also Chair of the drafting committee on the Uniform Money Services Act.

Now in its 116th year, the Uniform Law Commission is comprised of more than 300 commissioners appointed by every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands to draft and promote enactment of uniform laws that are designed to solve problems common to all the states and territories of the United States. Commissioners donate their time as a pro bono public service.  Bolt has served as Division Chair for the Conference for the past two years and is a member of the Conference’s Legislative Council.

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For the first time in nearly a decade the federal minimum wage will increase Tuesday, July 24, 2007 from $5.15 per hour to $5.85.   The $0.70 increase is scheduled to continue each summer for the following two years and will stop at $7.25 per hour in 2009.

           

Attorney Ravinder S. Nagi, Chair of the Labor and Employment Practice Group at Tom Bolt & Associates P.C., noted that most Virgin Islands employers and employees are not affected by the increase this year, because since January 1, 2007 the Virgin Islands’ minimum wage was increased to $6.15 per hour- higher then the impending $5.85 federal minimum wage increase. 

Continue Reading Federal Minimum Wage Increase Will Not Immediately Impact VI

William Neukom, President Elect of the American Bar Association, announced Monday the appointment of Virgin Islands attorney Tom Bolt to the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Legal Education.  Bolt has served the legal profession in the area of continuing legal education in the past,  having served for more than 12 years as a member of the ALI-ABA Committee on Continuing Legal Education.

Bolt has been at the forefront of legal education in the United States Virgin Islands, having sponsored several CLE events in the Territory and having drafting the original MCLE rule for the Territory’s legal profession.  "I look foward to working with the other members of the ABA Standing Committee," Bolt said.  "It is my sincere hope that we can bring continuing legal education to attorneys in the more remote and rural areas throughout the country."

 

Continue Reading ABA President Elect Appoints Virgin Islands Attorney to National CLE Committee