Hawaii Court Records Search

Hawaii Court System

Hawaii’s justice system is comprised of the Supreme Court, the Intermediate Court of Appeals, the Circuit Courts, District Courts, Family Courts, Land and Tax Courts, and a single-entity Environmental Court. Their mission as stated on their website is: “as an independent branch of government, is to administer justice in an impartial, efficient and accessible manner in accordance with the law.”

The Hawaii State Judiciary uses technology to advance their services that include a mobile app, allowing visitors to complete many court-related actions, e-filing and electronic access to court cases. Their website is well organized and helpful with lots of information for the public to use to navigate the court system with ease.

Self-help centers are located in many of their courthouses.

Hawaii Court Records That are not Open to the Public

Hawaii’s judicial branch website offers the general public easy access to a lot of court records. However, criminal information is no longer available, nor are any court records for confidential cases, expunged or sealed records and juvenile records if they have been requested to be removed. Only files that have been removed by court order will not show up. Additionally, federal law dictates that sensitive or personal information cannot be included in court documents such as children’s names, bank account numbers, corporate trade secrets, tax IDs and other identifiers. If any of these things are included, they must first be redacted before the files are made public.

Search Hawaii Court Records Online

Did you know you can use Infotracer to lookup HI court records within minutes? Using a simple HI state court records name search, you can access thousands of court cases in Hawaii, including Honolulu County, HI County, and Maui County. Thanks to the HI Uniform Information Practices Act Haw. Rev. Stat. §91-1 et seq., private citizens have access to Hawaii criminal court records, family court records, bankruptcy cases, and more!

Anyone may perform a court records search without any reason or permission. Except in cases where files are court-ordered or kept confidential by law, most HI court records will be online and available for lookups.

Infotracer’s comprehensive database allows the public to access HI court records on demand. Try Infotracer today for free, instant access to court cases in Hawaii circuit courts, district courts, family courts, land and tax courts, and even environmental court!

Hawaii Court Statistics

In 2012, the Hawaii courts received 498,842 filings. In 2016, the number of filings increased by 1.4% and counted 506,040 filings and had 548,577 outgoing cases

Family Court Cases

Domestic relations caseload of Hawaii at year end of 2016 has decreased by 16.1% compared to the last 5 years, in 2012 the number of incoming cases have been 15,953 but are higher than in 2015.

Hawaii Criminal Caseloads

The number of criminal cases in Hawaii courts counts to 73,077, with 5,408 felony cases and 67,669 misdemeanors accordingly.

Circuit Courts

Hawaii’s Circuit Courts are the general jurisdiction trial courts for the state for both civil and criminal cases. These courts also possess exclusive jurisdiction for guardianship, probate and criminal felony cases along with civil cases for situations where the amount is over $40,000. The state’s Circuit Courts share concurrent jurisdiction with the state District Courts in non-jury civil matters where the amounts are between $10,000 and $40,000. These courts also hear cases regarding mechanics’ liens, and some misdemeanors referred by the District Courts for jury trials. The Circuit Courts also have special programs for adult probation, jury pools, court reporters and records management.

District Courts

The District Courts in Hawaii are limited jurisdiction courts with a specific focus in the areas of small claims, traffic violations, landlord/tenant issues, and other civil cases. These courts handle violations of state or county ordinances, criminal cases where the penalty is less than one year in prison, civil cases of less than $40,000, and restraining orders and harassment. District Courts also take appeals from administrative denials from the DMV. The Division of Driver’s Education for the state is funded by the fees paid on every traffic violation in District Court. These courts also have a District Court Probation program as well.

Family Courts

Hawaii’s Family Courts were created in 1965. Their mission is to “provide a fair, speedy, economical, and accessible forum for the resolution of matters involving families and children.” They work towards this mission through three areas of focus: children, domestic relations and domestic violence. Family Courts aim to help families in crisis and strengthen relationships. They also work on guardianship cases for impaired or older adults and the mistreatment of such people. The types of cases they resolve are delinquency, child abuse and neglect, adoption, divorce, child support, paternity, domestic violence, custody, and other related matters.

Land and Tax Courts

Hawaii also has two courts of singular focus and jurisdiction, Land and Tax Courts. Land Court has exclusive jurisdiction over matters pertaining to the ownership of land and property including easements or registration of title. Land Court has a dedicated Registar who holds all papers and documents filed in the Land Court Registration. Per the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the Administrative Judge of the First Circuit Court assigns tax appeal matters to the Tax Appeal Court. This court hears appeals regarding real property taxes and assessments. These are non-jury proceedings, and all decisions are law.