By NANCY WEST, InDepthNH.org

CONCORD – Supreme Court Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald said the state would likely have to close two Circuit Courthouses, eliminate Superior Court jury trials two months a year and not fill 31 vacant positions to reduce the judiciary budget by about 4 percent for the next two years.

MacDonald was speaking to the House Finance Division 1 committee on Wednesday about trying to cut the budget by the 4 percent that former Gov. Chris Sununu asked executive department heads to come up with last summer.

Near the end of the hearing at the Legislative Office Building, MacDonald and Mark Howard, Chief Justice of the Superior Court system, also spoke about the costs to the court associated with the lawsuits filed by adults who were allegedly sexually and physically abused while incarcerated as children in the Youth Development Center (YDC) now known as the Sununu Youth Services Center in Manchester.

The courts are separate from the YDC Victim Settlement Fund but does incur costs with the large volume of cases, some of which are also filed with the settlement fund.

Rep. Ken Weyler, R-Kingston, criticized the alleged victims who are suing the state to the point of mocking them while Howard and MacDonald were finishing up their budget presentation.

“When I looked at this it seemed like a feeding frenzy for lawyers…The average citizen keeps their nose clean, works hard to prepare themselves for a career, works hard for 40 or 50 years in a career and you’re lucky if you made $2 million in your whole career,” Weyler said.

Weyler went on: “Here’s someone who didn’t obey the rules, still doesn’t obey the rules and they come to court and they expect millions when they perhaps spent a misspent life.  I just don’t see the ridiculousness.

“Maybe we should put a limit on this….

“We can’t break the budget with this ridiculousness for people who haven’t obeyed the rules and oh you’re rewarded, rewarded for what, a misspent life? It just doesn’t make sense to me that someone who got abused, abused others and abused themselves should be rewarded and that’s the way it looks and someone on the streets says, ‘YDC, I’ll just say they abused me and I’ll become a millionaire. This is the example were setting,” Weyler said.

MacDonald and Howard didn’t respond to Weyler’s comments.

Howard said there are 1,353 such cases pending, 1,204 filed in Rockingham County Superior Court and 149 in Merrimack County Superior Court.

Howard said when an initial suit is filed, “the paperwork on that is astronomical.” Every case that’s filed has hundreds of pages of pleadings.

MacDonald said these cases are extremely complex.

MacDonald isn’t bound by the 4 percent budget reduction request because the judiciary is considered its own separate branch of government, but it customarily tries to mirror what the executive departments do relative to budgets.

The total judiciary budget for 2026 would be $128,245,976 and $130,572,483 for 2027, MacDonald told the committee.

The two courthouses that would be closed if the legislature approves the budget are the Circuit Courts in Claremont and Candia.

Ninety-two percent of the judiciary’s budget comes from the general fund. It also receives $2 million in highway funds and close to $8 million in federal grants.

If the courts have to eliminate two months of Superior Court trials, they would be in July and December.

Rep. Ken Weyler’s comments about YDC victims can be viewed near the end of the following hearing: