Delays in jury trials in 2001 and 2002, during a previous budget crisis, caused less disruption because they involved fewer cases, said John Safford, Superior Court clerk in the Hillsborough County district that includes Manchester, the largest city.
This time, he needs to reschedule up to 100 trials.
"I've been here 30 years," he said. "This is the worst I've ever seen it."
The delays may encourage some defendants to seek plea deals, or litigants to settle out of court.
Some counties are advocating out-of-court mediation and conflict resolution.
But other cases may face new hurdles as time passes.
"Witnesses die, memories fade; things happen when trials are delayed," said John Hutson, dean of Franklin Pierce Law Center, the state's only law school. "Then you'll get a bow wave of cases, so they pile up the next month and it's hard to catch up."
The slowdown has unnerved many residents in the state, where granite-hewn courthouses often anchor Colonial-era town squares.
"You're talking about erosion of our fundamental civic fabric," said Ellen J. Shemitz, executive director of the New Hampshire Assn. for Justice, which represents civil trial attorneys.
James J. Tenn Jr., incoming president of the state's bar association, said that as the crisis has grown, New Hampshire courts have been slow to process orders, respond to lawyers' requests and "do the daily work."
"We've just seen delay after delay after delay," said David Slawsky, a civil lawyer in Manchester. "The court process is breaking down."
Dennis Ducharme, a Manchester attorney, received cancellation notices last week for four personal injury cases scheduled for trial next year. He worries that a delay of six months, perhaps longer, will make witnesses less willing to testify.
"The longer you drag it out, the more reluctant people become to cooperate," he said.
In Newport, in the rural west, lawyer Lisa Wellman-Ally has seen a property rights trial postponed four times. Each time, she has prepared 100 exhibits, re-subpoenaed witnesses, refreshed her arguments and billed her client for the time.
"Then we would get bounced again," she said.
No new trial date has been scheduled.
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bob.drogin@latimes.com
