A bill working its way through the New Hampshire Legislature that will establish a new Circuit Court system to consolidate the existing 32 District Courts, 10 Probate Courts, and 25 Family Courts. House Bill 609 was passed by the House will hit the Senate Floor on April 20th. If approved, it will be sent to the Finance Committee and if the Senate version of the bill has no changes then it will be forwarded to the Governor for signature. Most insider in NH expect no changes.
To see the bill, visit www.gencourt.state.nh.us/bill_status/quick_search.html
The purpose of the reorganization is to save management money and to operate more efficiently. Overall there are now 42 clerks and 10 registrars of probate positions that would be converted to 18 clerks, 3 deputy clerks, and 23 court assistants. 8 full-time positions would be eliminated. Under the new rules, each county will have a Circuit Court with three Divisions: District, Family, and Probate. All current District Court locations will remain open. In most counties, the probate case records will be maintained in the District Court located at the county seat.
The District Division will continue to handle misdemeanor, traffic, civil actions under $25,000, small claims, and landlord-tenant cases. The Probate Division will still have jurisdiction over wills, trusts and estates, guardianships and involuntary commitment proceedings, adoptions, name changes and partition of real estate. Family Division cases include divorce/parenting action, child support, domestic violence petitions, guardianship of minors, termination of parental rights, abuse/neglect cases, children in need of services, juvenile delinquency, and some adoptions.
At present, District Courts are organized by town and not by county. Each District Court maintains its own database of records and most case records have not been placed into electronic format; they are in paper format. The new law does not provide for a centralized Circuit Court repository for the existing or future District records. The assumption is that a search of District level records in a county will still require a search at each of the District Divisions in that county, unless the Circuit Clerk decides to consolidate the records. Also keep in mind there can be District Courts that cover portions of two counties. For example the Franklin District Court jurisdiction includes towns from two counties - Merrimack and Belknap.
In NH the Superior Court is the court of general jurisdiction and handles criminal, domestic relations, civil cases over $25,000, and provides the only forum in this state for trial by jury. Also in NH, if a Small Claim case is over $1500, the defendant may request a jury trial. If such a request is filed, the case is transferred to the county Superior Court.
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