The New Hampshire military affidavit

How New Hampshire handles it

New Hampshire prints one affidavit and uses it everywhere. NHJB-2200-DFPS, Affidavit as to Military Service, has a blank Court Name line at the top rather than a preprinted court, and the instructions tell you to write in the county and court, giving "Belknap County Probate Court" and "Rockingham County Superior Court" as the examples. That is why the same sheet turns up in estate, guardianship, and civil dockets. The instruction sheet states the trigger without hedging: an Affidavit as to Military Service must be on file with the court before a default judgment can be entered against the respondent or defendant.

The body is two mutually exclusive paragraphs, and the instructions warn you to complete only one. Paragraph 1 is for a defendant who is not serving, and asks for supporting facts, suggesting "where respondent(s)/defendant(s) is (are) living, employed, or approximate age." Paragraph 2 is for a defendant who is serving, and asks for the branch of service and the address. There is no third option for a filer who cannot tell, and no line for attaching a Defense Manpower Data Center certificate.

Both paragraphs sweep in state duty. Each one asks whether the person "has (have) been called by the governor to active duty for a period of 30 days or more as a member of the state guard or national guard or as a member of the militia within the meaning of RSA 110-C:2." A federal database search will not answer that question. A Guard member on a governor’s order shows up nowhere in the federal record, so New Hampshire filers need a second source before they can sign paragraph 1.

If you e-file, do not use this form at all. The judiciary publishes a separate document, Military Service Statement, marked "For e-Filing only" and numbered NHJB-2200-DFPe (01/01/2018) in its own footer. It drops the notary block and replaces it with a verification: "By affixing my electronic signature to this document I acknowledge my understanding that any false statements made in this document are punishable as perjury which may include a fine or imprisonment or both." It also drops the word affidavit from the title, so filers searching the forms list for an affidavit miss it.

What trips filers up here

• Two current forms carry the same content and different signing rules. Filing the notarized paper affidavit in an e-filed case, or the e-filing statement in a paper case, is the ordinary rejection here.
• The paper form is dated 06/04/2008 and its instructions 05/12/2008. It still prints the old courts.state.nh.us address in its header, and it describes the SCRA by its pre-2015 citation in the instructions.
• There is no "unable to determine" box. Federal law lets you say you could not tell, but this form makes you pick serving or not serving, which pushes filers toward a factual paragraph they may not be able to support.
• RSA 110-C:2 is printed on the face of the form, not buried in a note. New Hampshire expects the affiant to have considered state active duty, and the statute lets a prevailing party recover attorney fees in an action to enforce it.

Signing it: notarization required

The paper form ends with an acknowledgment block: "This instrument was acknowledged before me on [date] by [name]," signed by a notarial officer with a seal. The instructions say it plainly: "This form must be signed in the presence of a Notary Public or Justice of the Peace." New Hampshire lets a justice of the peace do it, which is why many law offices never involve a notary.

This form carries a notary block, so budget for a notary before your filing date. Federal law sets a floor, not a ceiling: 50 U.S.C. § 3931(b)(4) permits an unsworn declaration under penalty of perjury, but a state is free to require more on its own form, and this one does.

New Hampshire law on top of the federal rule

RSA 110-C:2: Anyone called by the governor to active duty for 30 days or more as a member of the state guard, national guard, or militia gets the same civil protections, rights, privileges, benefits, and relief as a federal call-up. Subsection II lets the prevailing party in an enforcement action recover reasonable attorney fees as costs.

Getting the military-status answer right

The affidavit is only as good as the search behind it. The Defense Manpower Data Center runs the free lookup that courts and creditors rely on, and since 2026 it requires a free account even for a single record. Our guide to the DMDC SCRA website covers the search itself, what a "no information found" result does and does not prove, and the batch route for high-volume filers. The federal rules behind this form, including what happens when you genuinely cannot determine status, sit on the hub page.

If one was filed against you

A false affidavit is not a technicality. In May 2026 the Justice Department settled with a Florida property manager that swore a Navy sailor was not on active duty, took a default eviction judgment, and left him with an eviction on his record that a dozen landlords then refused to rent around: $60,000 to one servicemember plus a civil penalty . If a default judgment was entered against you while you were serving, it can be reopened; the default-judgment shield walks the deadlines.

Serving in New Hampshire and looking for what the state adds to your own protections rather than court procedure? That is a different page: New Hampshire SCRA benefits.