ALTHOUGH LEGISLATORS SPARED the district courts from significant budget cuts, inaction on judicial appointments is producing a revolving-door situation on the bench for three of the state's busiest district courts. The district court has asked the governor's office to fill the vacancies - two of them full-time - but as yet there is no sign that any progress has been made to fill them.

District Court Administrative Judge Edwin Kelly said Chris Reid, the governor's legal counsel, told him that the governor's office was still considering what process it would use to search for nominees.

Five months ago, Judge Alvin Taylor reached the mandatory retirement age and stepped down as presiding judge of the Portsmouth District Court, an "almost full-time" position, according to Kelly. Last month, two full-time judges, H. Philip Howorth of Nashua and W.H. Dale Townley-Tilson of Franklin, also retired. Only Townley-Tilson's retirement was unanticipated. (Townley-Tilson, appointed to the bench in 1986 and made full-time only a few years ago, was granted a disability retirement by the Executive Council earlier this month.)

In all three courts, Kelly said, court staff, attorneys and litigants are coping with an ever-changing cast of part-time judges from other courts presiding. Kelly acknowledges that in Portsmouth, the situation is the most stable because Sharon DeVries, the longtime Portsmouth special justice, has been able to increase her hours on the bench to accommodate most of the needs of that court. Although Nashua has a full-time justice, Thomas Bamberger, and a part-time justice, James Leary, the caseload is so large that as many as 12 or 13 different judges hear matters in a month without a second full-time justice assigned there. "In a smaller court [such as Franklin], it may not be as busy, but there is an impact on programming and administration," said Kelly. Financially, the use of per diem judges versus full-timers is financially "a wash," he added.

Meanwhile, the situation is different in the Superior Court, which currently is at full strength with 29 judges, including Chief Justice Walter Murphy. The court will see its next vacancy occur in October, when Associate Justice Peter W. Smith will retire. Smith, who currently sits most often in Coos County, will retire on Oct. 18 shortly after he turns 65. (Judge Smith's retirement will be more fully discussed in a future issue of Bar News.) However, Chief Justice Murphy said he has asked Gov. Benson not to fill Smith's vacancy in light of the difficult financial situation the state faces. "It is critical to have a judge in the North Country, but we will have to do without," Murphy said.

However, that situation might change if one of the three other judges in the Superior Court eligible to retire - Judge Murphy, 65 years old; Harold Perkins, 67; and Bernard Hampsey, who turned 65 last October - elects to step down.

Meanwhile, a new judicial retirement system that loosens retirement provisions and requires contributions from judges has been approved by the state. The plan, which is being reviewed by the Internal Revenue Service, won't go into effect until July 2004 at the earliest. Judge Murphy said that the new plan makes early retirement easier and removes the restriction on retired judges going into practice. This may trigger more retirements by some younger judges, or those with fewer years of service, but it is too soon to tell how much of an impact it will have, Murphy said.

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