Category: Q&A

NH Circuit Court judge recognized for innovative approach

The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges has named Judge David D. King, Chief Administrative Judge of the New Hampshire Circuit Court, its 2021 Innovator of the Year, an award that recognizes one judge in the U.S. who has exhibited exceptional innovation in their state’s courts. King talked about the honor and what’s next for him and the Circuit Court.

What is the Circuit Court and your role within it?

In 2011, we took three courts — the district court, the probate court and the family division — and we collapsed them into one gigantic court, which is the New Hampshire Circuit Court. It has 34 locations … and about 90 percent of the case filings in the state. As the administrative judge, I’m sort of the manager of this piece of the court system. … The Circuit Court is like a giant rowboat, and my job is to get everybody — the judges, the clerks of court, the staff of the courts — rowing in the same direction. When everybody rows in the same direction, we’re able to do a lot of great things.

How did it feel, being named Innovator of the Year?

It was a particularly special honor to receive this award coming out of a pandemic, when every court and judge in the country had to be innovative just to keep the doors open. … By giving me the award, the Council is also recognizing all of the judges … clerks and staff that I work with … so I accept it on their behalf. They’re the ones who made me look good enough to get nominated.

How has the Circuit Court demonstrated innovation?

With ever-increasing restraints on our budget, we’ve really had to think outside the box. … We’ve done a lot of things that are new and innovative [among courts] around the country. For example, we started a call center … which answers every single phone call that comes into the court. … It’s taken over 4 million calls since we started it. I think it’s still the only court call center in the country.

How did the Circuit Court handle the pandemic?

Our highest priority was children … in abuse or neglect situations and delinquency situations … and people, mostly women, who needed protective orders in domestic violence cases … whose cases couldn’t be put on the back burner. Early on in the pandemic, our filings in domestic violence cases and cases of abuse and neglect of children were down; that would seem like a good thing, but we knew it was … only because our courthouses were essentially closed, so we started a system where domestic violence petitions could be filed by email — something we hadn’t done before. Our filings went back up. We also started doing abuse and neglect hearings by telephone, which, ironically, increased the attendance, because parents who hadn’t been active in cases, probably because they couldn’t take a day off from work or didn’t have transportation, all of a sudden were able to participate because they could call into a hearing. … We did over 150,000 hearings during the pandemic, most of them either by video or telephonically. … People were, in some ways, getting better access to justice during the pandemic.

What is the Circuit Court’s biggest challenge now?

Some of the case types, like small claims and civil cases, had to be put on the back burner during the pandemic, so we have thousands of cases backed up. Trying to figure out how we’re going to attack this backlog [while] not letting the priority cases slip at all is a huge challenge. … We’re also [expecting] to get hit with a tsunami of eviction cases, so we’ve been working closely with … New Hampshire Housing and New Hampshire legal systems to make sure that, before people get to the point of being evicted, every attempt has been made for them to access the federal funds that are available to both landlords and tenants so that they can stay in their housing.

What do you find fulfilling about your work?

I enjoy the challenge of dealing with a huge volume of cases … and figuring out ways to make sure that everyone who needs access to justice has a way to get to the Circuit Court; … prioritize our resources; handle cases efficiently; and triage the most important cases so that no one waits an inordinate amount of time for a decision from a judge when there’s a very important or emergent issue before the court.

What is your next goal?

Our goal this year was to increase our judicial positions, and we did get [funding for] four more judges. … My goal in the next budget cycle … is to address the staffing issue in the Circuit Court. … The Circuit Court is authorized to have 45 full-time judges, and today we have 33. … We’re losing people [to] the private sector because they can make more money there. We even lost someone who decided to go work at Dunkin’ Donuts because it paid more. I don’t like that. … We really need to address the compensation structure of our court system.

Featured photo: Judge David D. King. Courtesy photo.

Local farmers contend with heavy rain, dip in demand

Every sumShawn Jasper, Commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Agriculture, Markets & Food, gave an update on the current growing season and how local farms are doing.

How is the summer growing season going so far?

It’s sort of a mixed bag as to what’s going on out there. … Things started out very dry for much of the state. There was enough moisture that many of the farms, particularly the ones that were growing hay for forage, had a very good first crop, but then they were very concerned about the second crop. To a large degree, in the areas where a lot of the hay is grown, we never really got into a drought, but we were in dry conditions. Now the problem for most of our farms is that things are too wet. … We’re getting a lot of rain and just enough sunshine that the corn is shooting up like crazy, but for some of the other crops in some areas, like tomatoes, it’s not enough sunshine. … The other problem is we’re not having three days of dry weather to really be able to get out into the field. That’s a concern at this point, because second cutting should be well underway and almost wrapped up in most areas, but farmers can’t [work]. I’ve heard of some farmers who are out in the field trying to do various things and getting stuck, and that’s never a good thing. … Still, it’s certainly a lot better than where we were last year, when everyone was running out of water or their irrigation ponds were going dry and it was just one thing after another.

What conditions would be ideal for farmers for the rest of the season?

We’re praying for some sunshine at this point, for an extended period of time. Four or five days without any rain would really allow the vegetables and crops to take advantage of the moisture that’s in the soil. We could be poised for a very good remainder of the year, and all the fruits and vegetables are probably going to do pretty well if things dry out and don’t just immediately go back into another drought. Ideally, we should have a rainstorm about once a week, not once every other day.

How are local farms doing business-wise?

During the pandemic, our farmers markets and farm stands did very well. I hoped that people would continue to buy from our local farms, but that’s one case where things have gone back to normal. We need more people to buy more local products if agriculture is going to expand in New Hampshire. We’re all a lot healthier when we’re eating local food and getting those fresher products into our systems. It’s going to be a little bit more expensive, but as we’re seeing, [food] is getting more expensive anyhow, even at the grocery store.

What are farmers doing to protect their livelihood?

There’s no question [farming] is a challenge in New Hampshire, and it probably always will be, but New Hampshire farmers are smart. We’re seeing a lot more innovative farming methods. A lot more people are using high tunnel greenhouses; they don’t require any heat because they allow natural heat to be trapped within the greenhouse, which means farmers can start their seasons earlier. We had local corn on the Fourth of July because [the crops] were started under black plastic, which, again, traps heat and allows the corn to get a great start. Farmers are trying all the methods that are out there.

What is the best thing people can do for their home gardens right now?

Be aware of their soil conditions. A lot of the nutrients are leaching out of the soil with this large amount of rain, so putting in some extra fertilizer is going to be helpful.

Featured photo: Shawn Jasper. Courtesy photo.