The Family Division is finally scheduled to open its doors in Manchester on November 12, 2009. Currently, domestic cases are scattered throughout the courts, with divorce, parenting and child support cases in Superior Court, juvenile matters in District Court and guardianships and termination of parental rights cases in Probate Court. In contrast, the Family Division courts have subject matter jurisdiction over all of these range of cases as listed in RSA 490-D:2 in one court. The family division hears actions for divorce, legal separation, civil union dissolution, parenting, domestic violence protection, delinquency, CHINS, abuse/neglect, termination of parental rights, guardianship of minors, and adoption actions which relate to any of the following: abuse/neglect, guardianship, or termination of parental rights proceedings.

Late this fall, all of these family cases from Hillsborough North Superior Court, Hillsborough Probate Court and the Manchester District Court will be consolidated into one court that will be located in the Manchester District Court at 35 Amherst Street, Manchester, New Hampshire. All Manchester cases will transferred to the Manchester Family Division, as well as cases from Amherst, Bedford, Lyndeborough, and Mont Vernon which will be heard temporarily in the Manchester Family Division until they are relocated to Merrimack or Milford in the next phase of the family division.

If you have a hearing scheduled after November 12, 2009 in a domestic case in the Hillsborough Superior or Probate Court or the Manchester District Court, make sure you check in with your court to confirm where your hearing will be.