COURT News:
SANTA FE – All state courts will be fully open to the public during daily business hours with the beginning of the new fiscal year in July.
“The judicial branch of government is committed to serving the people of New Mexico with a justice system that fulfills its constitutional and statutory obligations. We are very grateful that lawmakers provided courts with resources in the state budget allowing a resumption of full business hours for customer service,” Supreme Court Chief Justice Judith K. Nakamura said.
Because of funding and staffing shortages in recent years, about half of the magistrate courts statewide closed clerk’s offices for a portion of one day each week and a third of the district courts had reduced the hours that clerk’s offices were open to the public. The closures allowed clerks to address work backlogs and process case filings without answering telephones or staffing customer service windows and counters that otherwise would be open to the public.
Monday, July 2 marks the first business day of the 2019 fiscal year. Clerk’s offices in several courts resumed opening to the public 8-hours-a-day before the start of the new budget year. Hours of operation vary from court to court because some are open for business during the lunch hour while others are not.
