HRS § 571-8 - District family courts; district family judges; appointment; sessions
AI-assisted research summary: This provision allows district family courts to be created in each judicial circuit and gives the chief justice power to appoint, designate, and temporarily assign judges.
(a) In addition to the district courts established under section 604-1, there may be established in each of the judicial circuits of the State a district family court with the powers and under the conditions herein set forth which shall be styled as follows: (1) For the first judicial circuit: The district family court of the first circuit. (2) For the second judicial circuit: The district family court of the second circuit. (3) For the third judicial circuit: The district family court of the third circuit. (4) For the fifth judicial circuit: The district family court of the fifth circuit. (b) When in the discretion of the chief justice of the supreme court the urgency or volume of cases so requires, the chief justice may appoint one or more district family judges for each judicial circuit. In addition, within any circuit, the chief justice may designate any district judge of the district court to act as a district family judge within that circuit; the judge when so designated shall exercise the powers of a district family judge appointed pursuant to this section. The chief justice may also designate, within any circuit, a district family judge appointed pursuant to this section to act as a district judge, and the judge when so appointed shall have all the powers of a district judge appointed pursuant to section 604-2. The chief justice may assign any district judge or district family judge of any circuit to serve temporarily in either the district court or the district family court of any other circuit. The district family courts shall hold sessions at such places and as often as the family court judge or the senior family court judge, if there is more than one, of the judicial circuit shall prescribe. [L 1973, c 219, pt of §1; am L 1983, c 208, §1; am L 1984, c 49, §1; gen ch 1985] Case Notes Where judge, at the time judge entered the family court orders purporting to void the estate documents, was a district judge appointed under this section, not a circuit judge sitting by designation in family court under §571-4, the judge lacked original jurisdiction over guardianships of the property under §560:5-102 as it stood prior to the 1996 amendments to the Hawaii uniform probate code. 110 H. 8, 129 P.3d 511.