New Hampshire Criminal Records

New Hampshire's State Police say it in one sentence: a New Hampshire criminal record "has no expiration date and only is removed by way of a Petition to Annul granted by the court of jurisdiction." The state sells conviction information for $25 a request, on a release form the subject signs, keeps non-conviction information for the criminal justice system, and runs its courts on an electronic system whose online portal is for the parties to a case rather than the public. Its judgments are among the longest-lived in the country, twenty years with the lien to match. This page gives the New Hampshire rule and the New Hampshire search for each record, with government sources only.

The State Police's criminal records page describes the two doors: "CHRI in the Central Repository is disseminated for either criminal justice or non-criminal justice purposes. Criminal justice is typically for law enforcement and judicial functions, and both conviction and non-conviction data is provided," which leaves the public with conviction data only, under RSA 106-B:14. The request page sets the price: "Cash, check, money order, MasterCard, Visa or Discover, in the exact amount of $25.00, payable to the State of NH, Criminal Records must accompany each NH request," with "credit cards only accepted at the public counter, not with mailed in" requests. The request goes on the criminal record release authorization form, DSSP256, which a person signs for a personal copy and which a third party may use only with the subject's notarized signature, so an employer or a landlord gets a New Hampshire conviction record with the person's consent and not otherwise. It is a name and date of birth search, and the criminal records page explains why a name match is a guess; the fingerprint version is for the person's own review and the employers and licensing boards the statutes name.

Felonies are tried in the Superior Court, one for each of the ten counties, and misdemeanors and violations in the district divisions of the Circuit Court. The Judicial Branch runs one electronic case system, and its Case Access Portal announcement says what the portal is for: "You may now view your electronically filed cases from home or from your office," with registration at odypa.nhecourt.us, which is to say the parties and their lawyers see their own cases. The public searches criminal case information at the public access terminal in the clerk's office of the court where the case was heard, or by a written request to the clerk, and the branch's media guide covers what the Communications Office provides. The county pages on this site link each Superior Court and Circuit Court location. A background check company's "New Hampshire court record" is a copy of a clerk's index on the date it was made, and the criminal records page explains what a copy misses.

New Hampshire annuls rather than expunges, under RSA 651:5. A charge that ended in a finding of not guilty, a dismissal or a nolle prosequi may be annulled by petition at any time; a conviction may be annulled after the sentence is completed and a waiting period the section sets by class, from one year for a violation and two for a class B misdemeanor to three for a class A misdemeanor, five for a class B felony and ten for a class A felony, driving while intoxicated and domestic violence convictions, with the sexual and violent offenses the section lists never annulled. The petition goes to the court that heard the case, with a separate petition for each charge, and two agencies price it differently: the Judicial Branch's annulment checklist lists a "filing fee of $125 per court location," and the State Police's annulment page lists "a court filing fee of $100.00, a Department of Corrections Parole and Probation report fee of $100.00, and a state police administrative fee of $100.00," the last being the fee for taking the record out of the repository, since, as the State Police put it, the record "only is removed by way of a Petition to Annul granted by the court of jurisdiction, and all related fees are satisfied." An annulled New Hampshire record is treated as if the arrest, conviction and sentence never occurred, and the person may say so; a copy sold before the order keeps it, and the federal rule on complete and up to date public records, on the criminal records page, is what forces the copy to catch up.

New Hampshire's Right to Know law, RSA 91-A, "establishes a person's right of access to the records of public bodies and public agencies," in the words of the Police Standards and Training Council, and the Department of Safety takes requests in writing "with a description of the specific governmental records being requested." The chapter has no police exemption of its own; New Hampshire's courts apply the federal Freedom of Information Act's law enforcement categories to police files, which protect an open investigation and the safety of witnesses, and which do not cover the police log, the arrest and the charge. Most New Hampshire departments post their daily logs, and those logs are what the arrest databases copy. Who is in custody is a county question: the ten county houses of corrections hold everyone awaiting trial and most sentenced misdemeanants, on rosters the county pages link, and the Department of Corrections' inmate locator, which "displays active sentencing information" from "records held at the DOC Offender Records Office in Concord," covers state prisoners only. The arrest records page covers what happens to a booking after it leaves the log.

A New Hampshire judgment lives twenty years. RSA 508:5 provides that "actions of debt upon judgments, recognizances, and contracts under seal may be brought within 20 years after the cause of action accrued, and not afterward," and RSA 524 ties the lien to it: "Unless the judgment is satisfied or discharged or the lien is otherwise removed or altered, the judgment lien created under paragraphs I through III shall remain in force and effect for as long as a suit may be maintained upon the judgment under RSA 508:5." The lien attaches to real estate when the judgment is recorded in the county's registry of deeds. The court records page covers where the judgments and the registries are searched.

New Hampshire is a single federal judicial district, the District of New Hampshire, under 28 U.S.C. 109, and court is held at Concord and Littleton. A federal criminal case from any of New Hampshire's ten counties is on that one docket and on PACER, whose prices and gaps are on the criminal records page.

Whether a person has a New Hampshire conviction: the State Police answer it for $25 on the release form, with the person's notarized signature when someone else asks.

Whether a person was charged in a county: the clerk's public access terminal answers it, at the court where the case was heard.

Whether a person was arrested: the police log and the arrest are public under the Right to Know law.

Whether a person is in custody now: the county house of corrections' roster answers it, and the Department of Corrections' locator for state prison.

Whether an old case can still be found: an annulled case is treated as if it never happened, a judgment and its lien run twenty years, and a copy that predates the annulment is reached through the federal rule.