Hillsborough County Court Clerks

How Hillsborough County Court Clerks Work

There is no single elected Hillsborough County Clerk of Court. New Hampshire does not use the county clerk or district clerk model that many other states use for trial court files. Court records here are run through the New Hampshire Judicial Branch. Each court location has its own clerk's office, and that office holds the files for the cases filed there.

This trips up people who move from Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, or Michigan. In those states one county office may hold civil, criminal, probate, and even marriage records under one roof. That is not how it works here. The "clerk" for a Hillsborough County court case is the clerk's office at the court where the case sits.

So the first step is always the same. Find the court. Then you have found the clerk. A felony or a big civil suit lives in Superior Court. A small claim or a misdemeanor lives in a District Division. Divorce and parenting cases sit in Family Division. Estates and name changes sit in Probate Division. Each one keeps its own court records.

Court Clerk Locations in Hillsborough County

Hillsborough County has two Superior Court districts. The Northern District sits in Manchester. The Southern District sits in Nashua. Each district has its own clerk's office, and each holds the court records for cases filed in that district. The statewide court information line connects callers to court staff for both.

Circuit Court work is handled at separate division locations. District, Family, and Probate Division sites serve the county by city and region, and a case may sit in Manchester, Nashua, Milford, Goffstown, or a nearby town. To find the right clerk's office for a Circuit Court case, use the Judicial Branch Find a Court locator. It maps each municipality to its court. Once the locator shows the court, call the same state line and ask for that clerk's office.

The Case Access Portal

Before you call a clerk, try the online portal first. The New Hampshire Judicial Branch runs a public Case Access Portal that gives free access to limited case information in the state's trial courts. It covers Superior Court civil and criminal cases and a set of Circuit Court District Division case types, including civil, small claims, name change, and estate matters. All e-filed case types show except guardianships and involuntary admissions under RSA 135-C.

The portal is a good way to locate a case and read public docket activity. It is not the official court record. The portal warns that the data is for convenience only, that it should not be used for background checks, and that some orders may appear before the clerk finishes processing them. For a certified or complete record, you still go to the clerk. The table below lists the search fields on the portal.

Case-number searches beat name searches every time. Hillsborough County holds Manchester and Nashua, so a common name can pull many unrelated cases. Narrow by court, case type, or filing date.

How to Request a Certified Copy

A certified copy is a court record stamped by the clerk as a true copy. Courts, lawyers, agencies, and other states often want a certified copy rather than a plain printout. The portal does not give you one. You request it from the clerk's office that holds the case.

1. Find the court location that holds the case. Use the portal or the court locator to confirm whether it is a Superior Court district or a Circuit Court division.
2. Contact that clerk's office. Call the state court line at 1-855-212-1234 and ask for the clerk at the court of record.
3. Give the case details. Provide the exact case number, the party names, and the filing or hearing dates so staff can pull the file.
4. Ask for a certified copy of the document you need, and confirm whether the case type or any sealed material limits what can be released.
5. Pay the fee the clerk quotes. Court copy and certification charges are set by the Judicial Branch fee schedule.
6. Allow processing time. Follow the clerk's directions on pickup or mail return, since timelines vary by court and request.

Have the case number ready. It is the single fastest thing you can give the clerk. If you only have a name, expect a slower search and possible delay.

Additional Case Access Request Form

There is one special form worth knowing. The Case Access Portal links an Additional Case Access Request Form (NHJB-3026). The portal notice says it is used only when you become a party to a case after you were already approved on the portal. It is not a general public records form. It updates your portal access to a case you are now part of.

The form follows the standard Judicial Branch layout. The table below lists the fields you can expect to fill in. Follow the form instructions and the clerk's directions, since processing steps are set by the court.

Fees for Court Records

Fees fall into two buckets. Searching for a case on the Case Access Portal is free, since the portal gives free access to limited case information. Getting copies from a clerk is not free. Plain copies, certified copies, and certification each carry a charge set by the Judicial Branch.

Exact court copy amounts were not found in the official sources reviewed for this page. Rather than print a number that may be wrong, the safe move is to ask the clerk or check the current state fee schedule before you send payment. Fees can change, and they can vary by request type.

Federal court records are billed under a separate federal schedule through PACER, not the state portal. Marriage and other vital-record copy fees are set by city or town clerks and the state vital-records office, which is a different track covered further down this page.

Older and Missing Records

The portal does not hold everything. It carries e-filed public case types, so older paper cases and certain restricted matters will not show. When a case does not appear online, that does not always mean it is sealed. It may predate e-filing, sit in a confidential case type, or live at a court location that has not pushed its files to the online system.

For pre-electronic records, archived files, sealed cases, and certified copies, the clerk's office for the court location stays the controlling source. Family and probate matters can carry confidentiality rules that keep them off the public portal, so a missing result there often points to a guardianship, juvenile, adoption, or safety restriction rather than a system error.

Federal cases are a different system. A federal matter filed in New Hampshire runs through PACER and the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire, not the state portal. If you believe a case is federal, switch to PACER.

Marriage and Vital Records Are Not Court Clerk Records

Marriage records are a common reason people search for a county clerk, but court clerks do not hold them. In New Hampshire, marriage licenses come from city and town clerks, not a county office and not the court. Certified copies of birth, death, marriage, and divorce vital records run under state vital-record law, RSA 5-C, and through authorized vital-record channels.

Manchester and Nashua are the two largest cities in the county, so their offices handle a large share of these requests. The Manchester City Clerk and the Nashua City Clerk are the controlling local sources for those communities. Other towns have their own clerks.

There is a wrinkle with divorce. The divorce case file itself belongs to the court system, normally the Family Division. But a certified divorce vital-record abstract is requested through vital-record channels, not from the court clerk. For the full path on these records, see the city and town clerk page and the marriage and divorce records page.

Clerk vs Sheriff vs County Attorney

Three county-level roles get mixed up all the time. The court clerk, the Sheriff, and the County Attorney each do different work, and only one keeps court files. Hillsborough County government runs the Sheriff and the County Attorney, while the courts and their clerks belong to the state Judicial Branch. So the clerk you need for a court record is not a county employee at all.

The clerk handles court files and copies. The clerk dockets cases, keeps the official record, and issues certified copies for a fee. The clerk is the right office for any question about a court file. The table below sorts out who does what.

The Hillsborough County Attorney prosecutes cases but does not hand out court records to the public. The Sheriff's Office serves papers and handles warrants but does not keep the court file either.

So if you want a copy of a court order, call the clerk. If you want to know who served a summons, ask the Sheriff. If you have a question about a pending prosecution, the County Attorney is the office that handles it.

Related Searches

For full case files, see court records. To track case events in date order, see court dockets. For the county's main trial court, see the Superior Court page. For marriage and vital-record requests, see the city and town clerk page.