PUBLIC ACCESS TO NH COURTS COMMITTEE MEETING – 11/29/05 
2 Industrial Park Drive 
Concord, NH 03301 
Attendance: Ken Barnes Virginia Martin Ralph Littlefield 
Alan Cantor Claudia Nixon 
Cheryl Killam Al Leahy 
The meeting began at 2:00 PM with introductions. Ralph distributed copies of the members list 
for everyone’s use. Our meetings will be governed by the instructions from the Commission 
pertaining to the Right to Know Law. The following information will need to be recorded at 
each meeting: 
- Attendance 
- Minutes of Meeting(s) 
- Record of Vote on a particular issue (if there is a vote) 
- Who voted and how they voted (yes or no) 
- Record of the minority position on each vote. 
Copies of the meeting notices and all minutes will be sent to Julie Morris at the Commission to 
be posted on the Web-site and for the record. 
Discussion took place on the following: 
- What issues need to be explored by the Committee? Each issue should be 
limited to one paragraph defining the problem and one outlining the 
recommendation as to a solution. 
- How to conduct business (as a Committee as a whole or in sub-groups) 
- Who will work on which issues? 
The Committee began by reviewing the five (5) tentative areas to explore that were identified at 
the last meeting: 
1) Are all court buildings accessible to people with disabilities? 
2) Are legal costs barriers to public access to the Courts? 
3) Are legal procedures themselves a barrier to public access? 
4) Is technology being used to improve public access? 
5) Are language and communication systems utilized by the Courts 
barriers to public access? 
Discussion continued as to whether other items should be added. Everyone was in agreement 
that staying “targeted” and being focused with a limited number of items would probably be a 
good idea in terms of being goal-oriented and achieving those goals. It was agreed that Item #4 
with regard to technology was not considered a barrier but rather as a tool. 
It was decided that sub-groups would be established and used as the mechanism to conduct the 
research on each issue. These sub-groups would then report back to the full Committee, with 
recommendations to be reviewed and consider. 
The next question that needed to be addressed, “Do the sub-groups activity need to be made part 
of the written record and notification process?” It was decided that minutes to each sub group 

would be written and become part of the written record of the full Committee which would then 
be submitted to the Commission. Public notice of sub-group meetings would not need to be 
posted. Ralph said he would ask for clarification at the next Steering Committee meeting and 
notify everyone if there was a change in this procedure. 
- 2 - 
It was also noted that a timeframe needs to be established for the finalization of the issues list. If 
other members of the Committee (not present at today’s meeting) feel that additional items need 
to be added to the issues list, they need to be brought to the Committee’s attention as soon as 
possible. 
The Committee reviewed the present issues list. 
A) It was decided to eliminate issue #4 from the issues listed to be reviewed. 
B) It was decided that Issue #5 (which will now become the new Issue #4) needs to be 
changed to: “Are there communication, linguistic and cultural barriers to public access?” 
The following issues were tentatively agreed upon as those to be reviewed by the Committee: 
1) Are all court buildings accessible to people with disabilities? 
2) Are legal cost barriers to public access to the Courts? 
3) Are legal procedures themselves a barrier to public access? 
4) Are there communications, linguistic and cultural barriers to public access? 
The following sub-groups were established to review each issue: 
Issue 1 - Cheryl Killam, Chair 
Ralph Littlefield 
Issue 2 & 3 - Virginia Martin, Chair 
Ken Barnes 
Alan Cantor 
Al Leahy 
Issue 4 - Claudia Nixon, Chair 
Virginia Martin 
The next meeting will be held on Monday, January 9, 2006 from 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM. It was 
noted that each sub-group would hopefully meet prior to the next Committee meeting and 
provide a brief report on January 9th. 
With no further business, the meeting adjourned at 3:30 PM. 
Submitted by: Elaine Roundy 

Approved by: Ralph Littlefield 
enr 
RL-Public Access to NH Courts Comm. Minutes