Case Title: In re L.G.

Citation: 

Docket Number: 

State: vermont

Court: Vermont Supreme Court

Date: 1991-12-01T00:00:00Z

Document:
ENTRY ORDER

                      SUPREME COURT DOCKET NO. 91Ä488

                            DECEMBER TERM, 1991


In re L.G.                        }          APPEALED FROM:
                                  }
                                  }
                                  }          Washington Family Court
                                  }
                                  }
                                  }          DOCKET NO. 163Ä91-Wy-MH-AIT


             In the above entitled cause the Clerk will enter:

     Appellant, appealing an order of involuntary hospitalization, seeks to
proceed in forma pauperis and to have the transcripts of lower court pro-
ceedings prepared at state expense.

     Because appellant receives Supplemental Security Income of $472 per
month and does not receive income from any other source, she may proceed in
forma pauperis.  V.R.C.P. 3.1(b).  An appellant proceeding in forma pauperis
is entitled to all or part of a transcript at state expense "when required
by law."  V.R.A.P. 24 (d).  The relevant legal requirements are the equal
protection and due process clauses of the fourth amendment to the United
States Constitution.  Reporter's Notes to V.R.A.P. 24.

      Ordinarily, civil litigants are not entitled by law to a transcript on
appeal.  Audet v. Koier, ___ Vt. ___, 595 A.2d 279 (1991).  In this case,
however, a recognized liberty interest is at stake: freedom from restraint
is protected by Chapter I, Article 1 of the Vermont Constitution.  Appellant
has been involuntarily committed to the state hospital.  Such confinement is
"'a massive curtailment of liberty,'" In re W.H., 144 Vt. 595, 597,