News & Information
1-9 of 226 results
UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT DECIDES SAME SEX MARRIAGE RULING STILL VALID
By Jessica Hanna, Clerk• December 3, 2025The Supreme Court of the United States was recently asked to take up a request to overturn the 2015 landmark ruling granting same sex couples the right to marry, Obergefell v. Hodges. The request came on behalf of Kim Davis, a former Kentucky county clerk who gained public attention in 2015. Following the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, Kim Davis stopped issuing marriage licenses to any couples the county she clerked in due to what she indicated was a personal religious belief that marriage is a union of one man and one woman. She has been involved in various litigation since then stemming from her denial of marriage licenses and her refusal to comply with court orders to issue marriage licenses. The most…
PARENT CLAIMS HE DOESN’T OWE BACK CHILD SUPPORT WITHOUT A CONTEMPT FINDING: NH SUPREME COURT SAYS HE’S WRONG
By Rory Parnell• November 14, 2025The NH Supreme Court recently had the opportunity to answer the question of whether a parent can be found to owe back child support when they are not found in contempt in a case called In the Matter of Curtis, 2025-0007. Contempt is often found when a party to a case has not complied with a Court order. Failure to pay child support under a court order often can lead to a finding that a parent is in contempt of that order. In the Curtis case, the parties are the parents of four minor children. The mother registered a child support order issued by another state in New Hampshire and although the case is not clear on this, appears to have filed to modify or…
Are All Conversations With a Lawyer Privileged? Exceptions To The Attorney/Client Privilege
By Rory Parnell• November 10, 2025We often hear about how communications between attorneys and their clients are privileged, meaning that they are confidential. Therefore, third parties cannot compel either the attorney or the client to disclose the contents of their communications with each other. An aspect of this privilege that is not often discussed is that there are exceptions to the privilege in certain, limited situations. For instance, communications between a client and a lawyer are no longer privileged if there is a third party involved in the communication. If you bring a friend to a meeting with your lawyer, the contents of that meeting are no longer privileged because the presence of the third party waives the attorney-client privilege. The NH Supreme Court recently issued an order on a…
NH SUPREME COURT EXTENDS DEATH BENEFITS TO WIDOW OF WORKER
By Rory Parnell• October 31, 2025The New Hampshire (NH) Supreme Court recently addressed the tragic situation of a woman who lost her husband to cancer from his work at a firefighter. Her husband was employed as a firefighter for nearly 20 years. He began seeking treatment for health issues in early 2019 and was eventually diagnosed with bile duct cancer. Husband submitted a report of injury to the Department of Labor. Husband’s request for Workers’ Compensation was denied by the employer. Husband did not pursue the claim any further and died in January 2020. Wife applied for death benefits in April 2020, four months after Husband’s death. She was initially denied benefits and successfully appealed the order. Wife then requested Workers’ Compensation death benefits in January 2023. The employer and…
NEW HAMPSHIRE SUPREME COURT RULES SEXUAL ASSAULT VICTIMS ARE TIME BARRED FROM PURSUING THEIR CLAIMS
By Rory Parnell• October 17, 2025The New Hampshire state legislature passed a law removing the statute of limitations as a defense for civil actions involving sexual assault and related offenses in 2020. The New Hampshire Supreme Court was recently asked to apply this law to revive a claim for sexual assault which was not filed prior to the expiration of the statute of limitations in place at the time. The Court determined that applying the 2020 law retroactively and using it to revive a claim for sexual assault that had expired prior to the 2020 law taking effect would violate Part I, Article 23 of the New Hampshire Constitution. For this reason, the Court declined to apply the statute to the expired claim and dismissed the case. The plaintiff filed…
New Hampshire Product Liability Law: Design Defects, Warnings & Legal Time Limits
By Rory Parnell• September 12, 2025Product liability refers to the legal responsibility of manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and others in the supply chain for injuries or damages caused by a product. In New Hampshire, as in many states, there are statutes and case law that shape how product liability claims work. This blog explains the framework, important concepts, time limits, defenses, and recent developments in NH product liability law. What Is a Product Liability Action? Under New Hampshire law (RSA Chapter 507‑D, “Product Liability Actions”), a product liability action is broadly defined. It includes any lawsuit for injury, death, property damage, or other harm that arises from: Types of Defects Claims generally fall into a few categories of defect: Time Limits (Statute of Limitations) One of the critical issues in product liability…
Stuck in Limbo: How the workers’ compensation pre-authorization process makes injured workers feel stuck in the sand
By Rory Parnell• August 22, 2025Everyone wants to be paid. As a lawyer, I do understand that. However, at the intersection of wanting to be paid, and wanting to get necessary medical care is a process in workers’ compensation cases call the pre-approval or pre-authorization process. This is when a medical provider asks the workers’ compensation insurer to pre-approve or authorize a specific type of medical treatment like surgery, therapy, injections or other treatment. The provider does this so they can guarantee they receive payment, as they express concern that they could provide the care and be left holding the bill. Conversely, the injured worker just wants to get the necessary medical care that gets them on the path to recovery and return to work. New Hampshire manages this conflict…
The Road to the Nine Hells is Paved with Good Intentions – How my Adventuring Party Ended up Behind Bars
By Erik Renner• August 1, 2025Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) is a game played by millions across the world. It is a massively popular roleplaying game that utilizes interwoven stories to make it compelling. In some worlds, laws are violated, and those dwarves, elves, and various monsters need to know their legal rights in those circumstances. In last week’s D&D session, our “heroes” committed a number of crimes—so many, in fact, that they required a legal analysis of their rights. The party had entered a dwarven city in order to “liberate” an artifact needed to save the world. The party decided to work with a group of thieves to try to steal this artifact. While planning the heist with the thief leader, the party – sans the Rogue, who stayed back…
Before ‘I Do’: What Happens to Premarital Pension Contributions in Divorce?
By Rory Parnell• July 18, 2025In divorce, the Court is required to divide the parties’ marital property equitably. The law defines marital property as all property from any source whether titled to one party individually or to the parties jointly, no matter where the asset came from. RSA 458:16-a, I. For many years, the law with regard to pension plans was applied differently than the law with regard to other assets, and even other retirement plans. This difference was based on the Hodgins case, decided by the New Hampshire Supreme Court in 1985. Hodgins v. Hodgins, 126 N.H. 711 (1985). Before the Hodgins case, Courts had struggled with dividing pension plans because they are difficult to value. Generally, the retiree’s benefit from a pension plan is based on a formula…
