The new rules also allow the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office to reject the administrator’s settlement offers. In a 25-page ruling Merrimack County Superior Court Judge Daniel St. Hilaire acknowledged the last-minute changes had broken survivors’ trust and had caused them trauma. Still, he wrote, the Legislature has the legal authority to change policies, including those regulating its Youth Development Center Settlement Fund. Attorney David Vicinanzo, whose firm represents over 1,000 abuse survivors, said they will ask St. Hilaire to reconsider. For reasons he has not explained publicly, Formella changed course earlier this year and supported the changes that gave him and the governor more control over the settlement process and payments.