New Hampshire residents navigating the state’s judicial system could face delays as a result of budget cuts to the courts.

Gordon MacDonald, chief justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court, warned Monday that these spending reductions could result in a backlog of cases and the closure of two circuit courts. A few days earlier, he announced a hiring freeze on the judicial system and the launch of an efficiency committee that will examine ways to save money.

The budget passed in the House of Representatives last week would slash the judicial branch’s budget by roughly 8%. If the reduction stays in the final version of the budget, which must also gain approval from the state Senate and the governor, it will be up to MacDonald to carry out the cuts.

MacDonald said he’d consider eliminating at least 31 vacant positions from the court system’s workforce, which accounts for about 75% of its total costs. These cost-saving measures could come with consequences, he said.

“People come to our courts. They’re seeking answers in disputes and they want resolution, and we do our very, very best to get to them the results on a timely basis,” MacDonald said. “With decisions like cutting back on hiring and not filling unfilled positions, it’s necessarily going to reduce our ability to get our decisions out, get the work processed. That’s the basic equation we face.”

The New Hampshire Judicial Branch includes the Circuit Court, Superior Court, Supreme Court and its administrative arm. It handles about 150,000 cases each year across more than 40 courthouses and employs around 800 people.

According to MacDonald, budget cuts could curtail jury trials in the Superior Court for two months. He’s also proposed closing two Circuit Court courthouses, one in Hooksett and another in Goffstown, as an additional cost-saving measure.

MacDonald hopes that, by launching the efficiency committee last week, he’ll be able to examine how the judicial branch can streamline its administrative operations. The committee includes MacDonald, two Circuit Court judges, a Superior Court administrator and a Circuit Court clerk. It will operate separately from Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s recently appointed Commission on Government Efficiency, which is tasked with identifying taxpayer savings in the state’s executive branch.

The judiciary efficiency committee will make public announcements and release reports of its findings. Its comprehensive review of judicial operations is set to wrap up by July 1, the first day of fiscal year 2026 and the effective date of the next state budget.

While the court system’s spending may decrease as a result of these changes, its workload could increase. House budget writers seek to slash several small offices that function as alternatives to the courts, handling disputes over issues like zoning, human rights, child abuse and public access to information.

If these offices are eliminated or pared down as planned, many of their cases will be routed back to the court system. To alleviate additional pressures and workload, the House created two new judge positions and lessened its initially proposed cuts to the judicial branch.

Rep. Dan McGuire, a leader on the House Finance Committee, told his colleagues in the House last week that budget writers had asked the judicial branch to “find some efficiencies.”

That message aligns with the across-the-board budget cuts happening in most of the state, he told the Monitor on Tuesday. The House Ways and Means Committee’s revenue projections were significantly lower than Ayotte’s.

“That’s what we had to do to everybody,” McGuire, an Epsom Republican, said.

He also noted that the judicial branch’s spending has outpaced inflation over the last decade. The branch’s expenditures, according to the budget line items, steadily increased from $82.4 million in 2016 to $120.7 million in 2025.

“We think there are savings available to them,” said McGuire, who added that he thinks staff and administrative operations could slim down. “They just have to be better managers.”

The legislative branch controls the purse strings for the entire state. Unlike agencies in the executive branch that receive direction on how to allocate their money, the judicial branch generally gets to decide how it divvies up its dollars.

The budget process is far from over, as the state Senate begins its portion of the process this week. Ultimately, both legislative bodies and Ayotte must sign off on the spending plan.

Charlotte Matherly is the statehouse reporter for the Concord Monitor and Monadnock Ledger-Transcript in partnership with Report for America. Follow her on X at @charmatherly, subscribe to her Capital Beat newsletter and send her an email at cmatherly@cmonitor.com.