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26 New Hampshire Bar News (n.s.) 1 (2015-2016)

handle is hein.barjournals/nhbn0026 and id is 1 raw text is: NEW HAMPSHIRE An Official Publication of the New Hampshire Bar Association ...Supporting Members of the Legal Profession & Their Ser June 17, 2015 Vol. 26, No. 1 www.nhbar.org vice to the Public and Justice System Searching and Citing NH Court Orders Online By Kristen Senz Online case files may still be a few years away for the New Hampshire Judicial Branch, but some trial court judges are already posting select orders online, and the NH Supreme Court plans to launch a new public access records system by the end of this year. Although orders issued by New Hampshire's trial courts don't create legal precedent, the ability to read and search the most significant orders is of interest to mem- bers of the bar who practice in New Hampshire courts. Following a recent discussion on this topic at a meeting of the NH Bar Association Committee on Cooperation with the Courts, Bar News began exploring what policies and considerations govern whether orders are posted on- line and how one might go about searching the trial court orders that are already available on the Internet. On the NH Judicial Branch website, a page titled Superior Court Orders, which can be found in the Su- perior Court area of the site, allows Superior Court judges to post orders involving novel legal issues or issues that arise frequently. This page contains orders going back to 1997. A handful are posted each year, and the database is searchable using Google Advanced Search (see sidebar). This page is different from the Frequently Requested Cases section of the site, which contains high-profile COURT ORDERS continued on page 19 PRACTITIONER PROFILE A Labor of Love: Nashua Lawyer Chronicles the Blues By Carol Robidoux When she's not rushing off to the Su- perior Court in Nashua, serving as a lawyer and guardian ad litem, or preparing cases for court, Margo Cooper is likely working on her epic photo-documen- tary project, now 20 years in the making. And there's a strong possibility she's Margo Cooper has traveled exten listening to the blues sively in Mississippi to photograph while she's at it. blues musicians, including L.C. Her project, Deep Ulmer, pictured with her above. Inside the Blues, is a @ Margo Cooper All Rights Re- genuine labor of love, served. one she hopes will trans- late her own passion for the history, culture and music COOPER continued on page 18 The graph above shows the percentage of test-takers who passed the July bar exam in New Hampshire and on average across all jurisdictions nationally over the past 10 years. NH Bucks National Bar Exam Trends UBE Adoption Likely a Factor By Kristen Senz Despite a nearly 20 percent decrease in the pass rate for the February bar exam in New Hampshire between 2014 and 2015, the Granite State overall seems to be bucking the national trends of declining bar exam results and fewer test-takers. Pass rates for the July bar exam - generally deemed a more reliable per- formance measure due to the larger, more consistent and traditional popula- tion of test-takers - improved in New Hampshire from 76.9 percent in 2013 to 83.2 percent in 2014. It was one of only a handful of jurisdictions to see an im- provement. There was a national trend of de- clining scores in the 2014 bar exam, and New Hampshire was contrary to that trend, says Gordon MacDonald, chair of the New Hampshire Board of Bar Exam- iners. Year over year, our pass rate went up. We think th been the onl jurisdiction ir Northeast he a greater nu people seek take the exa Hampshire, happy that N has followed in adopting t -GordonI In 2013, the pass rate for the February exam was roughly the same as it was this year - about 56 percent - so the significant dip this year, after a 75 percent pass rate in 2014, does not appear to be indicative of a steady decline. MacDonald, a lawyer at Nixon Peabody who has been a member of the NH Board of Bar Examiners since 2003 and chair since 2010, said pass rates for the February exam tend to bounce around, as those who take the test in Febru- ary often come from other states or are retaking the exam after a first attempt the previous July. In many other jurisdictions, news about at having slipping scores and pass rates for the ly UBE July bar exam has made it onto newspa- nthe per front pages, but in New Hampshire, the rates have held steady. In 2010, the as led to pass rate for the July bar exam was 82 mber of percent. In 2011, it was 76.6 percent. In ing to 2012,2013, and 2014, it was 86 percent, '76.9 percent and 83.2 percent, respec- m in New tively, according to MacDonald. We've and we're been very consistently within a zone of Jew York 76 and 86 percent for the last five years, J our lead he says. Nationally, the average scaled score on he UBE. the July 2014 Multistate Bar Examina- Mac~nald tion (MVBE) fell to the lowest level since S2004, according to the National Confer- ence of Bar Examiners (NCBE). The unexpected drop prompted an extensive evaluation of the exam itself before results were released, according to a December 2014 article by NCBE President Erica Moeser. BAR EXAv continued on page 17 I Opinions..................4-5 Practice Area Sections ...28-38 NHBA News..................... 6-22 NH Court News..............39-45 NHBA*CLE...........23-27 Classifieds...........46-47 Periodical Postage paid at Concord, NH 03301 Is That Illegal? Tony Sculimbrene talks to his son about the law. PAGE 4 Broderick Honored. Former Supreme Court Chief Justice and UNH Law Dean John Broderick will receive a special award at the NHBA Annual Meeting. PAGE 6 New IOLTA Rule. Banks must notify attorney discipline directly about trust accounting errors. PAGE 8 Summer Reading. Three book reviews offer suggestions for your summer selec- tions. PAGES 20-22 Google Advanced. A quick primer on searching court orders online. PAGE 19 Intellectual Property Law This section covers recent SCOTUS deci- sions, YODA, estate planning for artists, at- torney fee awards and more. PAGES 28-34 Municipal & Government Law Find out about home funerals and buri- als, workforce housing and tax-deeded property. PAGES 35-38 Court News. New clerk in Strafford Coun- ty Superior Court. Judge Boyle retirement event. PAGE 39

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