HB 1360

This bill requires marital masters to be recommended by the supreme court and appointed by the governor and council and establishes certain qualifications and a course requirement for marital masters.

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Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.

Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:

(a) The federal funding source for marital masters prohibits marital masters from being judicial officers of the court.

(b) Marital masters are supervised by the judicial branch and have a close working relationship with the judicial branch. Therefore, marital masters should be recommended for appointment by the judicial branch, and appointed as specified in this act.

II. The purpose of this act is to recognize the delicate balance between the appointing executive branch and the recommending judicial branch in administering the marital master program and to recognize the importance of the role of marital masters in the state court system by establishing the marital master program in the statutes.

2 New Subdivision; Marital Masters; Recommendations, Appointments and Procedures. Amend RSA 491 by inserting after section 20 the following new subdivision:

I. The supreme court shall recommend persons to the governor and council for appointment and reappointment as marital masters. In recommending candidates for appointment and reappointment as marital masters, the court shall utilize the procedures and standards described in supreme court rules except as otherwise provided.

II. When the court nominates a marital master for reappointment, the court shall submit to the governor and council, 90 days prior to the end of the marital master's term, the name of the marital master and all evaluations of the marital master's performance in his or her current term. The judicial conduct commission shall make available to the governor and council all judicial conduct disciplinary reports of such marital master. The governor and council's decision whether to reappoint the marital master shall be based on satisfactory performance during the current term. If the governor and council do not reappoint the marital master, the governor and council shall notify the court and the court shall recommend 3 persons for appointment as marital master.

III. For appointments of new marital masters, the court shall submit to the governor the names of 3 candidates. The governor and council shall appoint a candidate nominated by the court or may reject the list submitted by the court, and request a new list.

IV. Marital masters shall serve an initial term of 3 years. Subsequent reappointments shall be for a term of 5 years.

(1) Knowledge of family matters, including related matters such as tax and pension law;

(2) Personal maturity so as to understand and make decisions on matters before the court; and

(3) Personal qualities of patience and understanding of the difficult personal matters which are the subject of divorce and a willingness to deal with complex family matters in a non-adversarial manner.

II. Each marital master shall complete a course in court process and procedures, mediation and negotiation, and both male and female gender bias.

I. Marital masters shall wear robes of such a color or type as to distinguish them from the judges.

III. If, following a decision by the marital master, a party claims that he or she will have less than a minimum standard of living, a superior court judge shall conduct a hearing on the financial aspects of the case and make a determination which will insure that the party maintains sufficient funds for a minimum standard of living.

The Administrative Office of the Courts states this bill, as amended by the House, (House Amendment #2002-2795h) will increase state expenditures by an indeterminable amount in FY 2003 and each year thereafter. There will be no fiscal impact on state, county, and local revenue or county and local expenditures.

The Office states this bill would require marital masters to wear robes of a color that would distinguish them for other judges. The cost to purchase robes for the 11 current marital masters would be $300 per robe, for a total cost of $3,300.

The Office states this bill also provides for hearings before a superior court judge on the financial aspects of a case where a party claims to have less than a minimum standard of living following a decision by a marital master. The Office is unable to determine the exact fiscal impact at this time, however, of the approximately 10,314 cases eligible annually for rehearing before a judge on the financial aspects of a case, the Office assumes 500 to 3,000 cases (5% to 30%) will be reheard, at an average length of 1 hour to 4 hours. The Office estimates each hearing will have an hourly cost of $146.65 per hearing, as well as require one-half hour of processing time by a Court Assistant II at $14.58 per hour ($7.29 per half hour). As a result, 500 additional hearings, averaging one hour each, would cost $76,970 annually (500 x 1 x $146.65) + ($7.29 x 500), and 3,000 additional hearings averaging four hours each would cost $1,781,670 annually (3,000 x 4 x $146.65) + ($7.29 x 3,000).

Since the effective date of this bill is January 1, 2003, the fiscal impact in FY 2003 will be reduced in half.

The Office states the number of judges needed to conduct the additional hearings could range from .25 full-time judges to 6 full-time judges, dependent on the number and length of the hearings.