Instead of the rented space District Court in Keene once held in City Hall, Superior and Circuit Court have now been combined in the completed County of Cheshire Courthouse.
Over the past few years, there have been transformations within the court system in New Hampshire.
David S. Forrest, a Family District Court judge, said Cheshire County was the very last county in New Hampshire to expand and adapt to these transformations due to lack of space.
Forrest said one of the new transformations in the restructuring process was the creation of the family division.
Bethany Ricciardi / News Editor: Keene, N.H.’s Cheshire County Court House is located on 12 Court Street. David S. Forrest, a Family District Court Judge, said having all the courts in the same building benefits employees and clientele.
Before the division was created, family cases would be held in Superior Court.
Now, the probate division, district division and new family division have all combined to create what is known as the Circuit Court. Forrest said having all the courts in the same building benefits both the court staff members and their clients.
“There is a value to having your legal records and law library, etcetera, all in one location — and there is a value for your client to come to one location,” City Manager John MacLean said.
Forrest said some people believe the restructuring process within the court system was the big push in finally building a new courthouse.
“I think not expanding the family division in Cheshire County may have brought some pressure to bear on the political forces that needed to be moved in order to get the new building built,” Forrest said.
Before the new building downtown, District Court was located on the second floor of City Hall in downtown Keene.
However, at the old location, the space was not owned by the state.
Bethany Ricciardi / News Editor: The County of Cheshire Courthouse, now with access to all court rooms.
For years, the state of New Hampshire has been paying the City of Keene to use the area as a courthouse.
“There was a push for the city to get their property back, [and] there was a push from the state to move to a new place,” eighth Circuit Court Clerk, Larry Kane, said.
Along with the lack of space they held in City Hall, the rooms were not equipped to be courtrooms, according to Kane.
He explained that in the new building, security is increased and the rooms are built to be used as courtrooms, furnished with an official judge bench and seating.
Kane said there are four official courtrooms, one specifically used by Superior Court and the other three used by Circuit Court.
There are also five to six large conference rooms and a few small ones currently, also according to Kane.
“For someone like myself who came from the district court, it’s just night and day. You feel safe coming to work, you feel like you are coming to a courthouse. I sit in court myself every morning next to the judge and I feel like we are in a court, and that he is a judge and I am a clerk,” Kane said.
Other potential locations were examined for the courthouse, though it remained in downtown Keene.
“Perhaps it is from a kind of aesthetic standpoint that the court belongs downtown. Some people would say a court represents the heart of the community where people need to be able to go and have disputes resolved,” Forrest said.
“I think it can be shown in other locations where they move the courts out of the traditional locations. Either out into the countryside or to another community [that] it has impacted the community, because it is an economic engine and it starts to erode the services that would have otherwise remained there,” MacLean said.
Alison Rancourt can be contacted at arancourt@keene-equinox.com
