Concord, NH – The year 2026 marks 14 years of the New Hampshire Judicial Branch Information Center and over 6,000,000 inquiries processed from members of the public, state and local government agencies, and attorneys seeking assistance with court cases or other legal information.
The information center was founded in January 2012 and recently recorded its 6,000,000th inquiry processed – that is an average of more than 400,000 phone and email inquiries per year. Located in Concord, the information center consists of approximately 35 agents who respond to the inquiries, sharing documents and guiding individuals – many of whom are self-represented in the court system. The needs of those asking for help include finding and completing the proper forms, making sure individuals are aware of court deadlines and requirements for various case types, describing how court processes and procedures work, or helping individuals retrieve documents from their case or other cases.
The mission of the Judicial Branch Information Center is to provide direct answers, referrals, and service to individuals and attorneys who have questions about the status of their Circuit or Superior Court case or need instructions for filing a new case. This assistance also alleviates the volume of phone calls going to courthouses so court operations staff can focus on processing cases themselves. Approximately 75% of all inquiries to the Information Center are answered directly by agents and do not need to be transferred to a particular court.
“The Information Center was started under Chief Justice Linda Dalianis with a goal in mind of providing the people of New Hampshire with direct access to a live human being who can help them make sense of a court system that can be confusing to someone without legal training, and it has been a resounding success,” said Judge Ellen V. Christo, Chief Judge of the New Hampshire Circuit Court. “At the same time as our Information Center agents are directly helping more than 1,500 callers every day, they also free up our trial court staff to process thousands of court cases more quickly. The Information Center directly supports the core constitutional mission of the New Hampshire Judicial Branch: to preserve the rule of law and provide efficient forums for the fair, independent and impartial administration of justice.”
The idea to establish the Information Center originated from the report of the Judicial Branch innovation commission in 2011 under former Chief Justice Dalianis that recommended ideas for achievable efficiencies – among them redirecting inquiries about cases away from court clerks and courthouses. Attorneys and individuals liked the ability to place phone calls on many different cases at the same time, and not being limited to cases only in one courthouse. New Hampshire remains the only state in the country to operate an Information Center covering all case types in the trial courts, and has become a model for other court systems throughout the country and globally.
The public service provided by the Information Center is of particular importance for self-represented litigants, who do not have an attorney guiding them through the legal system. In Circuit Court, approximately 85% of non-criminal cases have at one party who is self-represented. Any inquiries from litigants that cannot be answered directly by an Information Center agent are then transferred to the clerk’s office in the court where the case was filed or redirected to the appropriate entity to answer such question.
“My staff knows Probate, District, Superior, Family and E-filing as well – all of the divisions,” said Therese Deleault, the recently retired longtime manager of the Information Center. “The Information Center has been one of the best implementations the Judicial Branch has done, and it continues to help a lot of people. When someone is sitting at their computer and they can’t move forward and they’re frustrated, it’s our people who are on the phones taking care of them, saying, ok let’s just start over again, and if I can’t figure out where you are, I’ll help you through it. And we stay on the phone until they get it through. Our wait times are low, this is good customer service and it’s good for the state of New Hampshire.”
Anyone who has questions about their case or a document they might need to file either in person or electronically is encouraged to reach out to the Judicial Branch Information Center by calling 1-855-212-1234 Monday through Friday between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.