What Is a Rockingham County Court Docket
A court docket is the running list of events in a case. Each entry is a single line. Most lines show a date, an event type, the party who filed, and a short label. Read in order, the docket tells the story of the case from open to close. The docket is part of the case file, but it is not the full file. The full file holds the motions, exhibits, orders, and judgments. The docket points to those documents and shows when each was filed.
In Rockingham County, the docket lives inside the New Hampshire Judicial Branch Case Access Portal. The portal is at odypa.nhecourt.us/portal. It is an Odyssey/eCourt search interface used by every state court division. The portal returns a case summary that includes the docket entries, hearings, parties, and basic charges or filing claims. Public users see the summary level. Parties and attorneys with elevated access can open the underlying documents in their own case.
Rockingham County uses two main docket sources. Rockingham Superior Court keeps the dockets for felonies, jury trials, larger civil matters, and equity. The 10th Circuit Court keeps dockets for District, Family, and Probate Division cases across Brentwood, Candia, Derry, Hampton, Portsmouth, and Salem. A small set of records sits off the portal: juvenile, sealed, adoption, mental health, and grand jury matters.
How to Find Rockingham County Dockets Online
The main place to look is Smart Search on the Case Access Portal. Smart Search takes a case number, a party name, or an attorney name. The portal asks for very little. A case number speeds the search. A party name works too, but a long name list can come back. Filtering by location helps trim it. Rockingham Superior cases sit under "Superior Courts," and Circuit Court cases sit under the relevant location like Brentwood, Derry, Hampton, Portsmouth, Salem, or Candia.
- Open the NH Case Access Portal in any browser.
- Click "Register/Sign In" at the top right if you want elevated access; a free account is needed for party document downloads.
- Pick "Smart Search" from the bottom of the home page.
- Enter a case number, party name, or attorney name. Dashes and leading zeros may be dropped.
- Click "Advanced Filtering Options" and set "Filter by Location" to Superior Courts for a Superior Court case, or to the right 10th Circuit location for a Circuit case.
- Click a case number in the result list to open the docket and hearings.
The Smart Search and Advanced Filtering Options sit on the same home screen of the portal. The official portal interface is shown on the Case Access Portal home page:
From the case summary screen, the docket is the timeline view. It shows each event, the date, and a short label. Hearing entries also show date, time, courtroom, and judge when scheduled.
Sample Rockingham County Docket Entry
Each docket line carries a few fields. A reader who knows what each one means can scan a busy case in seconds. The portal does not always show every field for every case type, but the most common ones are below. The table also notes what shows when the docket entry is tied to a document the public can open.
| Field | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Entry Date | The date the clerk recorded the event. Not always the same as the filing date stamped on the document. |
| Event Type | Complaint, appearance, motion, objection, order, judgment, certificate of appointment, inventory, accounting, notice of appeal. |
| Party Filing | Plaintiff, defendant, petitioner, respondent, state, attorney, court on its own motion. |
| Document Link | Some entries link to a PDF when the document is public and the case allows public document access. Confidential filings show no link. |
| Hearing Info | For scheduled hearings: date, time, courtroom, hearing type, judge, and notes like "jury selection" or "continued." |
| Disposition Code | Open, closed, dismissed, judgment, default, sentenced, annulled, transferred, stayed. |
Case numbers in Rockingham follow a court code, year, category, sequence pattern. The court code tells the location. Rockingham Superior is 218. Rockingham Probate is 318. Circuit District/Family Division codes include Brentwood 435, Candia 422, Derry 431, Hampton 441, Portsmouth 470, and Salem 473 on the District side, with the matching Family Division codes 618, 621, 622, 641, 670, and 673.
Courts That Publish Dockets in Rockingham County
Most active dockets sit in the portal. A handful do not. Juvenile dockets are confidential under RSA 169-B:35. Adoption, abuse and neglect, CHINS, and termination of parental rights dockets are also kept off the portal. Grand jury and sealed records are not searchable. Federal cases from Rockingham County are not on the portal at all; they sit in PACER.
- Rockingham Superior Court (218). Felony criminal cases, jury trials, larger civil claims, equity, agency appeals.
- 10th Circuit District Division. Misdemeanors, violations, small claims, landlord-tenant, contested traffic, civil cases within district limits.
- 10th Circuit Family Division. Divorce, parenting, child support, domestic violence, guardianship-related family matters under RSA 490-D.
- 10th Circuit Probate Division (318). Wills, estates, trusts, guardianships, conservatorships, name changes, partition.
- New Hampshire Supreme Court. Appeals from Superior and Circuit final orders; case docket on the Judicial Branch site.
The 10th Circuit District locations published in NHJB address material include Brentwood at 10 Route 125, Hampton at 3 Timber Swamp Road, Portsmouth at 111 Parrott Avenue, and Salem at 35 Geremonty Drive. Candia and Derry are also 10th Circuit District locations; their physical addresses should be checked on the Judicial Branch location directory before a trip. The statewide Judicial Branch Information Center number for routing is 1-855-212-1234.
Docket vs Full Case Record
People often ask whether the portal docket is the whole case. It is not. The docket is the index. The full case record is the file with the actual documents. The docket points at the documents and shows when each one was filed. For most public users, the docket alone answers the question: when is the next hearing, what was the outcome, who is the judge, what is the current status. For lawyers and parties, the docket points to the motions and orders that need to be opened.
| Docket | Full Case Record | |
|---|---|---|
| Format | Timeline of entries | PDF documents and forms |
| Access | Free public summary through portal | Parties/attorneys with elevated access; in-person at clerk for older paper files |
| Use | Track hearings, status, and orders | Read motions, exhibits, judgments, decrees |
| Certification | Not certified; print is for reference | Clerk issues certified copies with the court seal |
If you need a certified copy of a judgment, a sentencing order, or a probate appointment, the docket print will not be enough. The clerk issues certified copies on request. Fees apply and the request usually moves through the court that holds the file. Older paper records may take longer.
How to Read a Rockingham County Docket
Most lines on a docket use short labels. A reader who learns the labels can move through a busy criminal case in a minute. Civil and family dockets follow the same shape. Probate dockets add fiduciary appointment, inventory due, and accounting filed lines that are not on the civil side.
- Appearance
- An attorney or party files a notice that they will participate in the case.
- Motion / Objection
- A written request to the court; an objection asks the court to deny the motion.
- Order
- A written ruling by the judge. May be on a motion, a status conference, or the case as a whole.
- Judgment / Decree
- The final decision. In divorce and probate, it is usually called a decree.
- Disposition
- The outcome of a charge or claim. Disposed, dismissed, defaulted, sentenced.
- Continuance
- The court moves a hearing or deadline to a later date.
- Default
- A party did not respond or did not appear. The court may rule against that party.
- Certificate of Appointment
- Probate. The court formally appoints an executor or administrator of an estate.
Hearings sit in their own block on most case summaries. The block shows date, time, courtroom, and judge. Jury selection has its own entry in Superior Court files. Some hearings are continued more than once; the docket keeps each continuance as a separate line so the history is traceable. If a hearing was held by phone or video, the docket may note that too.
When a Rockingham County Docket Is Not Public
Several categories of case do not appear in Smart Search. Juvenile delinquency dockets are confidential. Adoption, abuse and neglect, CHINS, and termination of parental rights dockets are not public. Grand jury records, search warrant applications that are pending or denied, mental health and involuntary admission filings, and divorce financial affidavits are all restricted in different ways under RSA 458 or related rules.
Sealed and annulled records are also off the portal. New Hampshire calls the criminal-record clearing process annulment under RSA 651:5. After a court grants annulment, the case is removed from ordinary public disclosure. Some law enforcement and statutory exceptions still apply.
Note: A case missing from Smart Search does not always mean the case is sealed; older paper files and confidential matters may simply not be indexed online.
Confirming a Rockingham County Hearing Date
The portal shows scheduled hearings but does not always show same-day changes. A hearing can be moved on short notice for a judge's schedule, a settlement conference, a continuance, or a medical issue. Before traveling to court, call the Judicial Branch Information Center at 1-855-212-1234 and confirm the date, time, and courtroom. Jurors should follow the instructions on the jury notice. The Rockingham Superior Court jury notice tells jurors to bring photo ID and the summons itself.
For Rockingham Superior Court records, the clerk is the Office of the Clerk of Superior Court. The clerk for Rockingham Superior Court is Patrice D. Touma, Esq., with Deputy Clerk Megan M. Ryan, Esq. and Administrative Clerk Elizabeth J. Chase. Mail goes to Rockingham County Courthouse, P.O. Box 1258, Kingston, NH 03848-1258, and the physical building is at 10 Route 125, Brentwood, NH 03833.