A PILOT PROGRAM in two NH district courts aims to shorten the arrest-to-trial time for driving while intoxicated cases, thus helping to reduce the backlog of those cases.

The pilot project is in its second year in Merrimack and Portsmouth District Courts. According to NH District Court Administrative Justice Edwin W. Kelly, the program was developed as part of the District Court's ongoing case management review, which found that in many courts, the time between a DWI arrest and trial is often "unsatisfactory" in terms of case management.

"The genesis of this project was that we found that DWI cases straggle along," Kelly said. For example, often a police department doesn't file a DWI complaint for a month to six weeks after the date of arrest; arraignment is held a month later; a trial is scheduled for a month or two after that; and "when you throw into the mix other cases" and continuances, the trial is sometimes not held until about six months after the date of arrest, according to Kelly.

Such a long span has contributed to the backlog of DWI cases in district courts, and also keeps defendants in a sort of limbo. "Those who are not guilty have a right to have their cases handled quickly," said Kelly.

So district court officials decided to work with representatives of law enforcement and the defense bar to see whether DWI cases could be moved along more quickly. Merrimack and Portsmouth were chosen as the pilot project sites, Kelly said, because their DWI caseloads are similar and each had a full-time judge available who could be dedicated to the project - Merrimack Judge Cliff Kinghorn and Portsmouth Judge Sharon DeVries. "We wanted a single judge hearing the DWI cases so that he or she could monitor the program and be consistent," said Kelly.

The goal of the program is to have complaints filed within 10 days of arrest and trials scheduled within 30 days of arraignment. In the pilot project courts, DWI cases are segregated from the rest of the docket so they can be handled in a timely fashion.

Improving case management of DWI cases will not only help to reduce the backlog of such cases, but also makes fiscal sense, said Kelly. "The longer it takes to get these matters resolved, the more it costs the courts," he said.

A second goal of the program is to encourage those who are convicted of DWI to get into the Impaired Driver Intervention Program (IDIP) more quickly - in keeping with a new statute that has the same goal. There is currently no deadline by which those convicted of DWI must take IDIP; it is a condition of reinstatement of their driver's licenses. A new law that will take effect Jan. 1, 2004, states, however, that an individual convicted of 1st offense DWI will have his or her license revoked for nine months unless IDIP is completed within 60 days, in which case the revocation will be reduced to the minimum mandated 90 days.

"Part of the rationale (of the pilot program) is that the closer in time we can get these cases resolved, the more quickly those convicted of DWI will get into IDIP, the safer for everyone," said Kelly.

Kelly said that in the pilot project courts, members of law enforcement and the defense bar have expressed some concern that the DWI cases are possibly being moved too quickly; that police departments are being forced to get discovery out quickly and defense counsel sometimes feels there isn't adequate time to prepare for trial. Overall reaction to the program so far, however, has been "generally very positive," he said.

A modified form of the program was recently instituted in Plymouth District Court, and the NH District Court is exploring the possibility of expanding the program further - in its present form or a modified one. That investigation will include determining funding needs and sources for the program.

Kelly said that similar initiatives to improve case management in the district courts are under way or planned, including a project instituted in Manchester District Court to decrease the time frames for civil cases and reduce backlog in those cases.

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