Legal Requests & Subpoenas
Last updated: May 26, 2026
This page is for legal professionals, law enforcement, and other parties who need to send formal legal requests to VTScout. For reader inquiries (corrections, story tips, general questions) please use the Contact page instead.
Where to send legal requests
Email (preferred): [email protected]
Postal: VTScout, Attn: Legal, Burlington, Vermont, USA
Email is the fastest route. Postal mail is acknowledged but reviewed less frequently. We do not accept service by fax, social media direct message, or comments on articles.
What we will respond to
- Valid subpoenas — civil and criminal, properly issued and served, accompanied by sufficient time to respond.
- Court orders — including preservation orders, gag orders (where lawful), and orders to disclose specific information.
- Preservation letters — we acknowledge receipt and preserve responsive records while we evaluate the underlying request.
- DMCA notices — see our dedicated DMCA page for the procedure.
- Defamation notices — formal demands for retraction or correction are reviewed by editorial staff against our Corrections policy.
Information about sources
VTScout asserts the Vermont reporter’s shield (the journalist’s privilege recognized under Vermont common law and state statute) and the protections of the First Amendment. We do not voluntarily disclose the identity of confidential sources, unpublished newsgathering material, or reporter notes. Requests for such material will be opposed unless compelled by a court order that has been properly issued after the protections of the shield have been considered.
Notice to users
When we receive a legal request for information about a user (commenter, tipster, account holder), our default is to notify the affected user before responding so they can seek to quash if appropriate — unless we are prohibited from doing so by court order or statute.
What information we have
VTScout retains a limited set of information about users:
- Comment posts include name, email, and IP address at the time of submission. IP addresses are hashed after 30 days.
- Inquiry, tip, and correction submissions are retained for up to 365 days unless flagged for longer retention. IP addresses are hashed after 30 days.
- Newsletter subscribers are stored in Brevo with email address and signup metadata; we do not retain reading history per subscriber.
- We do not retain reader IP addresses associated with article views beyond standard server logs (typically 12–24 months).
Cost recovery
For requests that require substantial time to fulfill (large data productions, custom queries), we may seek reasonable reimbursement for staff time and out-of-pocket costs as permitted by law.
Transparency
VTScout may publish aggregate statistics about the volume and types of legal requests we receive (a “transparency report”) on a periodic basis. Such reports do not name parties or disclose ongoing matters.