IN THE AFTERMATH of a $9 million cut in the judicial branch’s requested budget of $59.3 million, court leaders are meeting to formulate plans to operate within that reduced figure.

Although in gross terms the budget is slightly higher than last year’s spending, Donald Goodnow, executive director of the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC), said all of the additional funds will be consumed by inflation and step increases in salaries. Three-quarters of the court’s budget is related to personnel, severely restricting the flexibility of administrators to trim costs. Compounding the court’s operating budget difficulties, the Legislature also has made two other significant changes affecting court spending:

• The court security budget was cut by $861,000 in year 1 and $951,000 in year 2. These cuts are intended, legislators said, to bring spending for district court security in line with the reduced amounts spent for the Superior courts, where part-time county sheriffs’ deputies provide security. The judicial branch’s security officers are full-time personnel.
• SB 197 has been passed, creating an independent Judicial Conduct Commission. If this bill is signed by the governor, the judicial branch will have to absorb the loss of $375,000 over the biennium ($125,000 in the startup year and $250,000 for a full operating year) to fund the administration of a separate JCC. The JCC currently has no dedicated staff and receives administrative support from the Supreme Court.

The brightest spot in the court’s financial picture was the success of its technology initiative, which has been funded in the capital budget in the amount of $3.5 million over the biennium. The funds are to acquire a Windows-based case management system and Windows-compatible computers. The court’s current software is an obsolete Wang-based operating system and most of its computers are neither Windows nor Internet compatible. (However, a document-intensive tobacco litigation case is being tried in NH Superior Court using an Internet-based filing system paid for by the parties. See related story on page 1.)

Superior Court Chief Justice Walter Murphy said that because of the decrease in available funds this year, rearrangements or possible cuts in services might be necessary because it is difficult to wring economies from budget so dominated by personnel.

Murphy said that attrition and a hiring freeze have already depleted key personnel in a number of Superior courthouses around the state. "There are some courts where it takes six to eight weeks to get orders out," said Murphy when asked how the hiring freeze has already affected the court system.

"There are lots of ideas being floated about, but there is no easy way to make up what will be a shortfall," he said, adding that while court personnel are straining to compensate for unfilled vacancies, court users – especially pro se litigants – are expecting more in services from the courts.

Under budget legislation passed at the end of June, the judicial branch was due to report to the Division of Administrative Services on July 1 how it intended to meet the budget figure it had been allotted. Goodnow said he did not know when that report would be ready. Goodnow is working on plans with administrative judges from the Superior, probate and district courts, as well as the Supreme Court, which would have final approval of the plan.

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