Vermont Merits Stipulation is a legal standard used in civil and criminal cases in the state of Vermont. The purpose of this standard is to determine if a claim should be accepted or dismissed. Generally, it is applied to the plaintiff's pleadings and the defendant's answer. The Vermont Merits Stipulation requires that the complaint must have sufficient detail to put the defendant on notice of the claim and that the defendant must plead sufficient facts to put the plaintiff on notice of the defense. There are two main types of Vermont Merits Stipulation: the "no evidence" and the "some evidence" standard. The no evidence standard requires that no evidence of any kind is available to support the claim, while the same evidence standard requires that there is some evidence that supports the claim. Depending on the case, either standard may be used.