Last month, the NH Judicial Branch announced it was canceling one month in each of nine Superior Court locations. It is part of the judiciary’s response to an overall budget-cutting effort to avoid a deficit in the state budget in the current fiscal year.

The cancellations to be implemented are:

Trials that were to go forward during those periods will be rescheduled. The jury trial schedule remains unchanged in Sullivan and Coos Counties, where jury trials are currently held every other month.

At press time, NH Supreme Court Chief Justice John T. Broderick, Jr. was in discussions with representatives of the executive and legislative branches regarding further cuts, as the state budget picture, along with the sagging economy, continues to look grim.

The letter mentions that at the present time:

• Six percent of the non-judicial workforce (36 positions of 614 permanent, full-time positions) are vacant;
• Seven judicial vacancies exist (12 percent of the full-time judiciary), including three in the superior court, three in the district court, and one in the probate court. The judicial branch is not asking for any of these positions to be filled before the start of the new fiscal year.
• Other reductions have been made in areas such as continuing legal education for judges, legal library expenditures, expenditures for the bureau of court facilities, and security screening equipment installations, to name a few;
• The vacancy on the NH Supreme Court to be created in February by the retirement of Associate Justice Richard Galway will not be filled right away, per request of the judicial branch. In addition, the Supreme Court justices remaining on the court will be providing fill-in service in the superior court. Both the vacancy and the trial court service by Supreme Court justices will slow the operation of the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Broderick’s letter notes.