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Kokua Line

By June Watanabe

Tuesday, February 29, 2000

Information on court
cases may be public

Question: Where can an ordinary citizen go or call to find out where and when a case is scheduled to be held in court? I had the name of the person and a tentative date of his hearing in Circuit Court, but when I called the prosecutor's office, the woman answering wouldn't tell me anything. She said it was none of my business. I called the master calendar office, but wasn't able to get anything. I finally got some information by calling the files and services number, but I was led to believe that that's generally not the place to get such information. Isn't this public information?

Answer: There is no one place to find out who's scheduled to appear when, because of the different courts and cases involved. To expedite searches and make sure you get the right person, it would help to have specific information, such as case name and number, the defendant's full legal name, Social Security number, etc.

Information on cases that are confidential by law or court order, including juvenile, adoption, custody and child abuse and neglect proceedings will not be provided by the court, said state Judiciary spokeswoman Marsha Kitagawa. However, she provided the following information for cases that are open to the public:

District Courts: For Honolulu cases, go to the Judicial Services Criminal Division, 1111 Alakea St., third floor, or call 538-5100 for criminal cases; 538-5500, traffic cases.

For criminal and traffic cases assigned to Wahiawa/Waialua, go to Wahiawa District Court, 1034 Kilani Ave., or call 621-5097; Ewa cases, go to Ewa District Court in Pearl City, 870 Fourth St., or call 454-5488; Waianae cases, go to Waianae District Court in Nanakuli, 87-1784 Farrington Hwy., or call 668-1509; Kaneohe cases, go to Kaneohe District Court, 46-201 Kahuhipa St., or call 234-0800.

For all District Court civil matters, go to the District Court, 1111 Alakea St., or call 538-5151. If you're a party to a case and served with a summons, call the sheriff's office, 538-5605, for information.

The public may research information on civil cases -- for free -- via computer terminals located on the third floor of the Honolulu District Court building.

If you have a case number or the name of any party to a case, you should be able to obtain information on court rulings, case status, scheduled court dates, return of service and defaults.

Circuit and Family Courts: For cases open to the public, call the Legal Documents Branch, 539-4300, or the Chief Court administrator's office, 539-4333; or use computer terminals in the Circuit Court Legal Documents Branch, 777 Punchbowl St.

Cases also can be accessed through the Judiciary's Web site: www.state.hi.us/jud

You can obtain a list of court appearances (date, time and description of appearance), minutes of the hearing, disposition, if any, and settlement conference report minutes (if any) in noncriminal cases. The data are generally current within 48 hours.

Appellate cases: Call the Supreme Court clerk's office, 539-4919, to find out the date and time of an oral argument scheduled for the Hawaii Supreme Court or the Intermediate Court of Appeals. Callers should have a case name and number to expedite the search.

Mahalo

To the two gentlemen who were there to help me when I fell down at Ala Moana Park. I didn't get their names to thank them personally. They called the ambulance and waited until it came. I am on my way to recovery. -- A.M.

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