Bridges and Judges: Treated Poorly By Concord.

Bridges and judges: inadequate Infrastructure.

So what about a point system...where we could figure out per population, say if Concord crimes are worse than Keene...

How about a point system where we could evaluated the outcome of a court case...are the sentences or found not guilty amount comparable ?

I just got a feeling the slow Superior court and the Hinsdale bridge is the same problem. We are not respected like other areas.

But I have little evidence that this areas roads are worse than the more populated and eastern areas of the state...

Criminal cases take more time to resolve in Cheshire County than others; solutions explored

By Kyle Jarvis Sentinel Staff
SentinelSource.com

Posted on August 20, 2013

by Kyle Jarvis

Criminal cases take more time to resolve in Cheshire County Superior Court than in most other counties in the state, according to recent statistics from the N.H. court system.

But one court official has her eye on some changes that could improve things, including adding additional judges to the system and offering a different way to resolve cases.

It takes an average of 284 days to resolve criminal cases in Cheshire County, about 28 days longer than the statewide average of 256. And it’s 104 days longer than the standard of 180 days set by the American Bar Association, according to the association’s website.

The county with the quickest resolutions is Sullivan County, where criminal cases take an average of 111 days.

Based on the average lengths of cases heard this year between Jan. 1 and June 30, Cheshire ranks eighth — out of 11 superior courts in the state (Hillsborough County has two superior courts). Only Rockingham (289 days), Hillsborough North (296 days), and Carroll (302 days) counties have longer averages for closing out criminal cases.

Paul G. Schweizer, a Keene-based defense attorney who has practiced law in the region since 1982, said he was surprised to hear where Cheshire County ranks.

“If someone wants to have a trial in a quicker-than-normal fashion, the county will always accommodate that,” he said. “I’ve never been exposed to a situation where I felt like I was not getting a court date or a trial as quickly as I wanted one or thought it was fair to have one.”

Schweizer said it’s important to provide context when examining the numbers.

“Oftentimes cases get continued for one reason or another by one side or the other,” he said. “If a motion to continue is filed, it’s normally accommodated.”

Sometimes, Schweizer said, the prosecution and the defense in a criminal case are able to reach a plea deal well before a final court date.

“Since that’s already done, nobody’s pushing hard” to get the case closed out, he said. “A lot of times cases seem like they’re going longer, but they’re already settled.”

Cheshire County’s ranking, and the larger, statewide problem, is one Superior Court Chief Justice Tina L. Nadeau is well aware of.

“When I started a couple years ago as chief, I was looking at the numbers, and thought, ‘OK, we do need to pay attention to this,’ ” she said.

Nadeau said the counties near the bottom — Carroll, Cheshire, Hillsborough and Rockingham — typically have larger case loads than other counties, and therefore longer resolution times are expected.

But while New Hampshire’s superior court system has performed well compared to other states, Nadeau believes it can do better.

“It’s an opportunity to see how we can improve,” she said.

Richard Guerriero, also a Keene-based defense attorney, believes the state’s primary problem is the lack of available judges, “which is another way of saying there’s a funding issue,” he said.

“I’m sure there are new efficiencies that can be found, but the reality is you can only do so much with one judge,” he said.

Nadeau agreed.

“One piece of the picture is we’re supposed to have 22 judges, based on number of cases we’ve had,” she said. “We only have 18. We definitely have been operating with fewer judges than when I started in 1996, (when) I was the 29th judge.”

Nadeau said recent conversations with Gov. Maggie Hassan showed the two were in agreement that 18 superior court judges is “probably just barely enough to keep our heads above water,” and that Hassan and the Legislature “agreed we need at least two more.”

But reaching a 20-judge total is still a ways out; one new position is budgeted for the current fiscal year, while the other is slated for next fiscal year, Nadeau said.

In the meantime, she has other ideas for streamlining the process, including possibly implementing “early case resolution,” which has worked effectively in Strafford County, she said.

Early case resolution occurs when the prosecution and defense consistently work together on a case where a defendant is likely to admit guilt, Nadeau said.

Nadeau said 95 to 98 percent of criminal cases end in the defendant admitting guilt, so there’s no need to come to court repeatedly for hearings with early case resolution, she said.

Under this format, a prosecutor obtains relevant facts in a case within 24 hours of an arrest and works with a defense attorney to come up with an agreeable result, Nadeau said.

“It’s really different from the sort of posturing and negotiating in plea negotiations,” she said.

The prosecutor pitches a “final best offer,” with the understanding from the defense attorney that “if his client doesn’t take it that day, it’s off the table, and the judge knows, too, so everybody knows the rules of the game,” she said.

Nadeau likes this idea because studies show offenders who begin serving sentences faster are less likely to re-offend, she said.

Guerriero likes it, too, as long as attorneys can opt out if they “feel the full process is necessary at any point.”

Nadeau also favors using “settlement judges.”

Nadeau said settlement judges act more like mediators for prosecutors and defense attorneys, and can get more involved than a trial judge by meeting with parties in a case to hear its strengths and weaknesses in an informal setting.

“I think it’s another good idea to get a good look at cases early on,” she said.

Nadeau also said she’s also in favor of pushing felony cases straight to superior court, instead of starting them in district court, where judges have no authority to act on them. In the current setup, criminal cases start with a district court arraignment and probable cause hearing, before they are forwarded to superior court. The system is designed to ensure prosecutors have enough evidence to move forward with a case.

Guerriero supports the idea of streamlining this process, he said, because it makes sense for the superior court judge and county prosecutor to work on the case from the start, instead of having it handed up to them from district court officials.

But he said it’s also important to retain the probable cause hearing process to move the case along.

Nadeau said her intention is for these programs to be voluntary.

A superior court working group Nadeau recently helped form is charged with developing a felony case-flow plan, to see how and where changes might speed things up, she said.

It’s going to take this kind of creativity to solve issues in Cheshire County and beyond, Nadeau said.

“Let’s be innovative, and see what we can all live with.”