Connecticut Attorney General Opinions
Free plain-English summaries of attorney general opinions issued in Connecticut, with full citations and the original source on every page.
No Connecticut opinions match these filters
Try a different search term or clear the filters.
Did part-time prosecutor work and Korean War service count toward a Connecticut state's attorney's longevity pay?
Yes for the prosecutor in this 1991 opinion. His municipal court and assistant state's attorney terms counted by time holding office rather than hours worked, and his documented Korean War service…
After a Connecticut nurse pronounced a patient's death, did a physician still have to examine the body before signing the death certificate?
Yes, under the 1991 opinion. A nurse could pronounce an anticipated death in the circumstances specified by statute, but a physician still had to personally view and examine the body before signing…
Could Connecticut's Comptroller require OPM to provide the forecasts and analyses behind state revenue estimates?
Yes. The Attorney General said § 3-112 let the Comptroller request finance reports and inspect OPM records, including budget forecasts and analyses, despite 1991 changes to monthly reporting duties.…
Did Connecticut liquor permit holders lose a fee rebate if the qualifying event happened before the 1991 repeal but they applied afterward?
No. The Attorney General said a qualifying event before September 19, 1991 created a vested rebate claim that could still be processed after repeal, if the application met the former statute's…
Did Connecticut's tax department have to report a taxpayer on a current payment plan for an offset against state contract payments?
No. The Attorney General said the 1991 offset statute did not require Revenue Services to notify the Comptroller that taxes were due when it had accepted a payment plan and the taxpayer was…
Could Connecticut's governor keep essential state services running by executive order during the 1991 budget lapse?
The Attorney General said the governor lawfully ordered government operations to continue during the 1991 gap. Existing statutes and constitutional duties authorized necessary expenditures; the…
Who was exempt from Connecticut's 1991 firearm sale waiting period, and could dealers use plastic ties as gun locks?
The AG said officers listed in the statute avoided the two-week wait but still had to meet its other requirements; specified permit holders, military members, hunting-license buyers of long guns,…
Did a Connecticut store using UPC scanners have to mark the selling price on each product in 1991?
Yes, under the 1991 opinion. A retailer that used universal product coding to total a customer's purchases had to mark each covered, UPC-bearing consumer commodity with the price the customer would…
Could a Connecticut teacher buy retirement service credit for time spent on disciplinary suspension?
No on the facts considered. The teacher's signed agreement and the school board's records described an unpaid disciplinary suspension, not a formally granted leave of absence, so he could not make…
Could a correctional officers' private gun club use a state prison range for recreational shooting?
The Attorney General said the club's long use and privately built range building gave it no ownership or leasehold interest. Without a specific legislative authorization or a properly arranged state…
Could Connecticut DOT cancel a bridge contractor's existing orders or choose another firm for future work?
DOT could recommend cancellation, but DAS held final authority over the existing Hartford Paving orders. DOT could choose another eligible firm for future projects after considering performance and…
Could Connecticut's consumer protection agency garnish DOT payments owed to a contractor to collect restitution?
No. The Attorney General said DOT's payments to Hartford Paving could not be attached or garnished under the general statutes because the state had not been made subject to that process. Another…
Did two Connecticut community service grantees qualify as eligible entities for federal block grants in 1991?
Yes. The Attorney General found that CAFCA and ATEP qualified as eligible entities through their 1981 limited purpose agency status and continued designation. A separate possible route based on 1981…
Could Connecticut's emergency management director set training and qualification standards for local civil preparedness volunteers?
Yes. The Attorney General said the state director could set minimum qualifications and training standards for local civil preparedness personnel, including volunteers. Statewide orders and…
Which 1990 census counts did Connecticut use to decide how many package store permits a town could have?
The Attorney General said the official town counts Connecticut received on January 24, 1991 were the completed 1990 census for the package store permit ratio. Possible later corrections did not…
Were occupational injury reports confidential when Labor or Workers' Compensation collected them for a joint health study?
Yes, under the 1991 opinion, if those agencies collected the reports as substantive partners in a morbidity-and-mortality study with the Department of Health Services. The Attorney General said the…
Would Connecticut have to stop all state payroll and services if lawmakers missed the 1991 budget deadline?
No. The Attorney General said a missing budget did not bar every payment: essential government operations and statutory duties could continue under the rule he drew from State v. Staub. He warned…
Could Connecticut's chief medical examiner issue a disinterment permit for a second autopsy?
No. The Attorney General said the chief medical examiner's subregistrar powers covered burial and removal permits, not disinterment permits. For a suspicious death with improper death certification,…
Which Connecticut sheriff fees did the state have to report for Social Security coverage?
The Attorney General said Connecticut had to report sheriffs' and chief deputy sheriffs' state salaries and fees for employee duties, including specified court and security work. It did not report…
Could a Connecticut injury lawyer keep the insurer's no-fault fee contribution on top of a fee from the whole recovery?
No. The Attorney General said a lawyer who took the agreed fee from the whole personal-injury recovery could not also keep the insurer's contribution toward the cost of recovering basic reparations…
Could Bridgeport reset its property tax rate after the state review board rejected its budget?
Yes, if the Bridgeport Financial Review Board approved an interim budget that required a different rate to balance it. The Attorney General said the Common Council then had to reset the rate, even…
Were Connecticut's contracted rehabilitation medical consultants protected from personal liability as state employees?
Yes, for the physicians and psychologists in this opinion. The Attorney General found that the agency directed their regular file-review work, bringing them within the statutory state-employee…
Could Connecticut require Wesleyan's campus special constables to complete basic police training?
Yes. The Attorney General and Chief State's Attorney said municipal appointees who retained and used special-constable powers to serve criminal process and make arrests were police officers under…
How was a Connecticut judge paid while called to active military duty during Desert Storm?
Under the 1991 act, the Attorney General said the judge kept full judicial pay for the first 30 calendar days. After that, the Judicial Department paid the difference between judicial base pay plus…
Did Connecticut's Department of Housing qualify as a public housing agency for federal Section 8 assistance?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that the department met the federal definition because Connecticut law authorized it to administer and support low-income housing programs, including development…
Did Connecticut liquor control commissioners still serve staggered six-year terms after the 1977 reorganization?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the later executive-branch statute superseded the inconsistent six-year term provision. Liquor control commissioners served with the Governor's term, or until…
Did Connecticut need its own warrant to hold an out-of-state probationer for return to the sending state?
No. The Attorney General said Connecticut could briefly confine the probationer without a Connecticut court warrant when the sending state had issued an arrest warrant and requested the temporary…
Could Bridgeport file for Chapter 9 bankruptcy without state permission in 1991?
No. The Attorney General concluded that Connecticut law gave Bridgeport no express authority to file and that the Bridgeport Financial Review Board's statutory control of city finances precluded…
Can a Connecticut town vote as a property owner on a proposed local historic district?
Usually no. The Attorney General said a town could have at most one owner ballot, or a fractional ballot, only when property it now owned met the statute's prior-owner assessment and tax-liability…
Do Connecticut property tax exemptions for blind, veteran, or disabled owners lower a home's value when calculating a property tax relief credit?
No. In this 1990 opinion, the Attorney General said those exemptions reduced the taxes qualifying owners paid, but did not change the property's fair market value used in the relief-credit formula.
Could UConn trustees set faculty travel policies outside the statewide travel rules and contract?
Yes, under the 1990 act the Attorney General said constituent-unit trustees could approve faculty and professional-staff travel policies and rates for expenses paid from sources other than the…
Could Connecticut change a teacher's loan-forgiveness terms after the teacher signed a state loan note?
No, for the amendments the Attorney General analyzed in 1990. Changes to interest, repayment, or forgiveness conditions applied prospectively and did not alter promissory notes signed before the…
Did Connecticut have to indemnify private serving officers collecting unemployment taxes?
No statutory indemnification applied to the designated nonemployee serving officers described to the Attorney General. The opinion treated them as independent contractors, not state officers or…
Did Connecticut's 1990 condominium management law invalidate existing contracts or wait for regulations?
No. The Attorney General concluded that Public Act 90-306 did not retroactively invalidate existing condominium management contracts. Provisions already effective could be enforced before the Real…
Which Connecticut police officers had to take legal-update training for managerial duties?
The Attorney General said the 1990 training requirement turned on actual work: officers who directed or supervised other officers or administered programs counted, regardless of rank. Lieutenant…
Which school board counted as a retired Connecticut teacher's last employer for health insurance, and which got the subsidy?
The Attorney General said the last employing board was the most recent board to pay the teacher for work, even temporary work after retirement. The health-insurance subsidy went to the board…
Could Connecticut's Medicaid agency charge long-term-care insurers for binding asset-protection rulings?
Yes, conditionally. The Attorney General said the Department of Income Maintenance could contract to provide paid, binding advance determinations if program regulations authorized that mechanism.…
Did Connecticut's narrower structural-engineering review rule apply to building permits filed before it took effect?
Yes, for review not already performed. The Attorney General treated the 1989 act as a clarification limiting independent consultant review to structural plans, even for threshold-building…
Did any past Connecticut emergency telecommunicator qualify for automatic certification under the 1990 law?
No. The Attorney General read the grandfather provision as covering people employed permanently as telecommunicators on January 1, 1990, not everyone who had held that job earlier. Other…
What liquor brand-registration fee applied when a Connecticut wholesaler imported a brand from abroad?
The Attorney General said a wholesaler importing under an out-of-state shipper's permit owed the then-applicable $100 per-brand fee, not the $3 Connecticut-manufacturer fee. The department could…
Could Connecticut's 1990 parole law cover people already incarcerated or in community release?
Yes, if they met the law's other criteria. The Attorney General said people imprisoned before October 1, 1990 but still incarcerated on that date could be considered for parole. Inmates transferred…
Could Connecticut lawyers use NOW accounts for short-term client funds in the IOLTA program?
Yes, where the funds were in practice available on request without delay. The Attorney General said the statute's withdrawal language did not demand a noninterest-bearing demand deposit account,…
Could Connecticut use a Medicaid applicant's support assignment to pursue a community spouse's assets?
The Attorney General said no under the Connecticut statutes and regulations then in force: they allowed support claims based on the community spouse's income, not assets. A standard Medicaid…
Could Connecticut renew Hartford's special general-assistance work program contract after its two-year pilot authorization expired?
No. The Attorney General concluded in 1990 that the statute authorized one municipality's special program for two years, and the legislature had not extended it. Hartford and the state could still…
Could a Connecticut police commissioner hold a liquor permit as permittee or backer?
No. The Attorney General concluded that police commissioners were covered by the statutory bar on permits for members of a police force, whether they sought to be permittees or backers. The opinion…
Could a Connecticut town require a special zoning exception for a registered family day care home?
No. The Attorney General concluded that state law barred towns from imposing a special exception or special permit on registered family day care homes. The opinion still recognized local codes and…
Could Connecticut's Codes and Standards Committee hear an appeal of a state building inspector's decision about where a wheelchair lift may be installed?
No, for the building-eligibility approval under section 29-200. The Attorney General concluded that the committee had no authority to review that joint decision, although it did have jurisdiction…
Could Connecticut's State Insurance Purchasing Board buy surety bonds for Convention Center Authority directors?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the Authority was a public body separate from the state, outside the Purchasing Board's authority to insure the state. The Authority's own board chair was…
Did Connecticut's 1987 increase in crime-victim compensation limits cover a homicide that happened before the amendment took effect?
No. The Attorney General concluded that the higher limits and new dependent-claim rule were substantive changes that applied only to injuries or deaths on or after October 1, 1987. Filing a claim…
Could vacant college or hospital land count toward Connecticut's payment-in-lieu-of-taxes grants?
Usually not if vacant indefinitely: the Attorney General said the Branford parcels did not qualify. Yale's Woodbury land could qualify under a distinct exemption for named colleges, but only if its…
Could a weakly capitalized Connecticut bank replace withdrawn municipal deposits with new public deposits?
No. The Attorney General interpreted the 1990 statute to bar any further municipal or school-district deposits once a public depository's net-worth-to-assets ratio fell below three percent.…
Did Connecticut state employees keep group life insurance during disability compensation or after retirement?
The Attorney General said section 5-257 covered employees retired under the state retirement act, including disability retirees. It also applied to the specified employees receiving duty-injury…
Could a Connecticut commission make binding decisions at a regular meeting held somewhere other than the place its chair announced?
No. The Attorney General concluded in 1990 that the commission's Hartford meeting was not duly called when the chair had noticed the regular meeting for Westbrook. A quorum in Hartford did not make…
Could a Connecticut town assign its resident state trooper to enforce a junked-car removal ordinance?
No. The Attorney General said the statute allowed a town to designate a local board or officer, and a resident state trooper remained a state officer. The opinion left the separate question of…
Could a Connecticut university student senate choose its president as the student representative on the university foundation board?
No, not under the 1990 law the Attorney General analyzed. The students had elected that person as senate president, not as foundation-board representative; the senate's interim selection did not…
Did a retired Connecticut state employee's life insurance payout depend on receiving the Comptroller's coverage-reduction letter before death?
No. In 1990, the Attorney General said the payout depended on the retirement date, the group policy's 31-day conversion window, and whether the retiree converted coverage. Receipt of the…
Did Connecticut's resource recovery authority legally award the Mid-Connecticut plant contract after negotiating with one vendor?
Yes. The Attorney General concluded that CRRA opened the project to multiple vendors and selected Combustion Engineering only after other finalists left the process, satisfying the open-bidding…
Did Connecticut's pension-fund investment in Colt assets require a federal antitrust notification filing?
No, for the transaction described in the opinion. The Attorney General concluded that the state treasurer's investment of five state retirement funds was a transfer to or from the state, qualifying…
Could Connecticut require the governor to appoint a department commissioner on a council's recommendation?
Yes. In 1990, the Attorney General concluded that requiring the governor to appoint the Commissioner of Mental Retardation on the Council's recommendation was constitutional. Connecticut's…
Were Connecticut veterans' benefit waiting periods and enlistment-time residency rules constitutional?
The Attorney General concluded in 1990 that the two- and five-year waiting periods for veterans' benefits were unconstitutional, as was the rule requiring residence in Connecticut when entering…
Browse Connecticut opinions by topic
Attorney general opinions in Connecticut are written by the Connecticut Attorney General's office in response to questions from state agencies, legislators, and prosecutors. They are not binding like court decisions, but courts and agencies treat them as persuasive guidance on how state law applies. Every opinion above has a plain-English question and short answer, plus a link to the full original text.