Legal Inquiries
Four LGC attorneys are available to answer inquiries and provide general legal assistance to elected and appointed officials from member towns, cities and village districts. Inquiries may be made on the full range of legal issues that arise in the operation of local government. However, LGC’s attorneys can best assist you by answering questions of general municipal law, especially questions that can be answered by reference to state statutes or court opinions.
Questions that hinge on detailed local facts, documents or the peculiarities of local ordinances or charters should be referred to your regular legal counsel. LGC does not represent member municipalities in court; therefore, your regular municipal attorney is your best advocate in situations that are likely to lead to litigation.
Due to the volume of legal inquiries received, LGC attorneys cannot provide comprehensive drafting or legal review of contracts, ordinances, warrants or charters, or complete review of specific applications before local boards. We do not have a library of “model” ordinances, contracts, or forms. We can, of course, answer general questions you may have about any of these matters.
The scope of any attorney/client relationship is up to the client. Therefore, the local governing body of any LGC member municipality is free to ask us to limit our legal services to that municipality. For example, a municipality could ask us not to respond to particular officials or boards, or types of inquiries, or to respond only to inquiries directed through the governing body or town administrator or manager. We must, and will, scrupulously honor any such request. To avoid misunderstandings, the request for service limitations must be confirmed by a majority vote of the local governing body and provided to us in writing, signed by the governing body.
As you prepare to submit an inquiry, please be sure to review important considerations of the attorney/client relationship.