A Court in Crisis
New Hampshire’s circuit courts have quietly stopped processing small-claims cases — the very cases ordinary people rely on when they’re owed money, wronged by a business or simply trying to resolve a basic dispute. The reason? Staffing shortages so severe that the Judicial Branch has effectively stalled the lowest-level court in the state. And yet, while clerks’ offices are struggling simply to function, there is a hiring freeze preventing relief.
This would be alarming on its own, but the contrast with how the Judicial Branch treats its highest-paid insiders is impossible to ignore.
A sitting Supreme Court justice, found guilty on eight charges and entering a no-contest plea, remains on the bench until retirement. Meanwhile, small-claims litigants — people without lobbyists, influence, or six-figure salaries — must wait indefinitely for their day in court.
And at the same time the courts are claiming they cannot afford to staff the front lines, the public watches as executives are quietly handed $50,000 payouts on their way out the door, only to return days later in even higher-paying positions. If the branch can fund golden parachutes for administrators, why can’t it fund the clerks who keep the courthouse running?
When the judiciary prioritizes the comfort of its top officials over the basic function of justice, confidence in the system collapses. The Judicial Branch is supposed to be the model of integrity in New Hampshire — impartial, consistent and above reproach. Instead, it is signaling that insiders are protected, while the public is placed on hold.
Greed at the top doesn’t just tarnish the judiciary’s reputation — it delays justice for everyone in the state. And justice delayed is justice denied.
New Hampshire deserves better from the people entrusted to uphold the law.