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Bennington County state's attorney: home-improvement statute changes have reduced prosecutable fraud; recommends AG/consumer-protection referral
Summary
Bennington County State's Attorney Erica Marthage told the Judiciary committee that changes to the home-improvement statute have left many cases as civil contract disputes, making prosecution difficult; she recommended shifting appropriate matters to the attorney general's consumer-protection functions.
Erica Marthage, the Bennington County state's attorney, testified to the Judiciary committee about S.183 and its relationship to prosecutions under the home-improvement statute.
Marthage said changes to the statute over time narrowed the criminal focus and that many cases prosecutors now see are better characterized as contract disputes than crimes. "I decline a fair number of these cases that I get now because they really are contract disputes," she told the panel, adding that courts have questioned how the…
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