BEGINNING JULY 1, litigants in Merrimack County Superior or any of the county’s district courts can veto, without cause, a judge or master assigned to their case under a pilot project mandated by the Legislature. NH Superior Court Chief Justice Walter L. Murphy said Merrimack was chosen as the pilot county to provide a "fair test" for the concept. "It would be unfair to try it in a one-judge county, and it also wouldn’t be a real test if it was tried in a five-judge court, where a judge could be too easily switched," said Murphy.

The court has issued rules to implement the pilot project, including time limits and the inclusion of all non-criminal cases so that the challenge rule applies as well to marital masters. The rules, published in this issue on page 21, state that:

• a written request by a party to remove a judge from a case must be filed no later than 30 days after the return date in a non-criminal case, or three days before the first hearing, whichever date occurs first;
• the parties are limited to one challenge per party in each case;
• in the event that no judge sitting in Merrimack County can hear the case, the case can be assigned to a court in another county.

The original legislation, passed by the House, called for statewide implementation of the concept, but in the Senate, the bill was amended to create a one-county pilot project that will be evaluated by a legislative study committee. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Tony Soltani, an Epsom attorney and a member of the House Judiciary Committee.

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