Hawaii Public Records: How to Perform a Hawaii Public Records Search

Hawaii Public records are officially filed documents containing relevant information about persons and their interactions with state and non-state actors and institutions. 

They include court, criminal, arrest, and inmate records that detail the interaction of persons with law enforcement. 

Then there are "vital records" that comprise birth, death, marriage, and divorce records, with each featuring the interaction of persons with the office of Vital Statistics over the course of certain "Vital events".

These are just a few of the many public records in Hawaii that people are allowed to view, and this article discusses a select few from the aforementioned. 

Here, we'll show you how to find a few of the most frequently requested public records in Hawaii. 

Hawaii Public Records: Criminal Records

Hawaii Criminal records are mostly generated by law enforcement officials to account for violations of the state's penal code by people in Hawaii. 

These Hawaii public records serve to document a series of information compiled throughout a person's interaction with law enforcement, from their arrest and prosecution to a conviction and subsequent sentencing.

Law enforcement agencies such as the Police Department and the office of the sheriff across various counties are at the heart of all criminal record-related inquiries. 

They allow requesters access to their online repositories, some of which are available on their official websites. 

The Hawaii Department of Police provides an online resource through which requesters can run an Online Criminal Background Check on persons.

You only have to provide the name and any government-issued offender number related to the search subject, and then provide any supplementary information to narrow the search results. 

You should be able to settle for the sought-after record in a short while and then copy it for future reference.  

Hawaii Public Records: About Hawaii Court records

Additional public records in Hawaii are court records: the courts are most often the best place to find court records, and locating the court where you have history is the first stop in your quest to find your court record. 

You can later meet with the clerk of the court and request access to your case record in whichever format it has been archived.

Some of Hawaii's courts have adopted online case management systems as has the Hawaii State Judiciary with its online database of court records. 

To this effect, the Hawaii State Judiciary has developed and adopted the eCourt Kokua and Ho'ohiki online-centered case archival platforms.

The former offers searches on civil and criminal cases at district, circuit, and land tax courts among others for a $3 or $5 fee, for regular and certified copies of court documents, respectively. 

The Ho'ohiki platform is designed for family court-centric civil cases, with search queries running against case names or IDs. 

Hawaii Public Records: Marriage & Divorce Records

The Vital records unit of the state department of health responds to matters related to the request and collection of marriage and divorce records in Hawaii, by mail, online, or in person. 

In-person requests for these Hawaii public records call for the presentation of a valid state ID(a photocopy), a written request form, a check, a cash order, or any payment procedure covering the service fee.

The service fee goes from $10 for the first copy and an extra $4 for each subsequent copy ordered at once, all intended to cover the cost of searching and copying the relevant documents. 

On the other hand, mailed requests must come along with the completed application form, the applicable fees, and a driver's license or any other means of identification, all sent to the address below:

State Department of Health,
Office of Health Status Monitoring,
Issuance/Vital Statistics Section,
P.O. Box 3378,
Honolulu, HI 96801

Inquiries about the availability of Divorce Records can always go to the court in which the divorce case was filed and heard. 

They should respond in a matter of weeks to mailed requests for certified copies of divorce records, only after the requester has paid the requisite service fees and tendered sufficient personal identification.

Other than that, the online portal—Ho`ohiki Case Search, is a platform managed by the state judiciary to help people find divorce case-related information. 

The search parameters include the names of the parties to the divorce, their case number, date, and place of divorce among other things. 

Hawaii Public Records: Birth & Death Records

The Health Status Monitoring Unit of the Hawaii Department of Health is charged with the management and issuance of birth and death records in Hawaii. 

They allow both eligible and other interested persons to apply for and obtain these records(birth records for example) after they must have met certain conditions.

These conditions include proof of eligibility, either by the provision of a government-issued ID showing them to be named as a party to the vital record, or a court order granting them a waiver if they are not named. 

They also have to pay the specified fees and then submit their downloaded and fully completed application form by mail to the following address:

State Department of Health,
Office of Health Status Monitoring,
Issuance/Vital Statistics Section,
P.O. Box 3378,
Honolulu, HI 96801

Applications for Hawaii Death Records are also received by the aforementioned address. 

They make their death certificate application forms available for download and then specify the appropriate processing fees along with the identification requirements that requesters must factor in.