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Judicial budget in court

By Maddie Hanna

Lawyers to file suit over cuts to system
In what they say is a last resort to force the state to restore $6 million to a backlogged and understaffed
court system's budget, a group of lawyers will sue the state today, arguing that budget cuts have denied
the public access to justice.

Concord attorney and former state Supreme Court justice Chuck Douglas said the state has underfunded
the court system to the point where it's no longer abiding by the state Constitution, which guarantees
people the right to a trial by jury and prompt access to justice.

Across the state, civil jury trials and small claims cases have been canceled or delayed as courts struggle
with staff shortages, judicial vacancies and furlough days - reductions that have occurred as a result of
legislative cuts, Douglas said. "The other $6 billion of state spending is not, for the most part, based on
anything in the Constitution," Douglas said yesterday.

"And for those of us who still believe in the Constitution, you've got to fund the system of justice if people
are going to be able to resolve disputes in a timely manner," he added.

The lawsuit includes four plaintiffs whose cases were affected by court delays: a nine-year-old lead
poisoning lawsuit, a parental custody and visitation case, a medical malpractice lawsuit on behalf of a man
who died five years ago, and a slip-and-fall case that settled out of court after the plaintiff was told it would
be another year before he could go to trial.

Douglas said he will file the lawsuit this morning in Merrimack County Superior Court.
"We're really left with no other vehicle but to bring it forward in this county where the state (government) is
located," Douglas said.

He hopes to get a hearing within a few months on a request for temporary relief and said the state could
restore money to compensate for $4 million in cuts made in the past six months by drawing from its surplus.
Court spokeswoman Laura Kiernan declined to comment on Douglas's lawsuit when contacted by a
reporter yesterday.

But court officials have repeatedly decried the cuts from the Legislature, which they say have reduced the
judicial branch's budget by $10.5 million over the past four years.

The governor's office has responded by saying it was the judicial branch's choice to cut jury trials rather
than make other reductions, and Lynch spokesman Colin Manning made that argument again yesterday.
He also said that despite cutting state spending by 7 percent, the state had increased the court system's
funding by 2.6 percent.

"We worked hard to balance the budget, to close a $300 million shortfall, and get a significant surplus of
over $60 million," Manning said. "The use of that surplus would take legislative action.
"What we think is the courts could have made better decisions in balancing their budget," he said.
But Douglas said Manning "was not giving the full picture." After appropriating money to the judicial
branch, Douglas said, the state ordered cuts for the next two years and added a $1.2 million expense for a
new contract for court bailiffs.

In the current two-year budget cycle, Douglas said the court system has lost $6 million, whether through
cuts or appropriations the state has ordered be paid back or lapsed.

"It's a give with one hand, take with another," he said. "They apparently think there is a room filled with
money somewhere over there in the Supreme Court basement."

Court employees have taken 14 unpaid furlough days, Douglas said, "and you wouldn't do that if you had
the money."

Asked whether it was appropriate to ask a judge to decide a case that would affect the budget for the
judicial branch, Douglas cited what he called "the rule of necessity."

"You still have a dispute, someone has to decide, and we have no mechanism to bring a judge in from
Kansas, so it has to be a judge here in New Hampshire," Douglas said.