I. Any full-time justice of the supreme, superior, district, or probate court who is mandatorily retired from either regular active service or senior active service upon reaching age 70, and any part-time district or probate court justice who is mandatorily retired upon reaching age 70, shall thereafter be eligible to serve as a judicial referee on the court from which he or she retired or on any other court in which his or her service as a referee is authorized by law.
II. A judicial referee may be assigned to take testimony, receive and review evidence, and make recommendations for findings of fact and conclusions of law in any court specified in paragraph I by the chief justice of the supreme court or superior court, from which the referee retired, or the administrative justice of any other court from which the referee retired. All recommendations of judicial referees shall be approved by a justice in regular active service or senior active service of the court to which the referee is assigned. The judge approving such recommendations shall certify that he or she has read the recommendations and agrees that the judicial referee has applied the correct legal standard to the facts determined by the judicial referee. A judicial referee shall not preside over jury trials and shall not enter final orders in any case.
III. Nothing in this section shall prevent a retired justice of the supreme, superior, district, or probate courts from sitting as a temporary justice of the supreme court when selected to do so pursuant to the procedures specified in N.H. Rev. Stat. § 490:3.