Court rule · Hawaii · Family procedure
Hawaiʻi amends family court rules on holidays and clerk-office hours
A Hawaiʻi Supreme Court order amended Family Court Rules 6 and 77 effective July 1, 2026, revising holiday terminology for time computation and clerk-office hours.
Published November 3, 2026 · Reviewed by David Martino
The Hawaiʻi Supreme Court amended two Family Court Rules governing time computation and clerk-office hours. The order, dated May 21, 2026, states that the amendments took effect July 1, 2026. It changes the holiday definition in Rule 6(a) and removes the word “legal” before “holidays” in Rule 77(c).
Rule 6(a) governs calculation of periods prescribed or allowed by the family court rules, court order, or applicable statute. The order changes the final sentence of that subsection from a statement that “holiday” includes a day designated under Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes section 8-1 to a statement that, as used in the rules, “holiday” shall mean any day designated under that statute. It also changes the sentence’s reference from “this Rule” to “these rules.” The order shows the old wording bracketed and struck and the replacement underlined.
The surrounding computation provisions printed in the order still describe excluding the triggering day, extending a deadline whose last day falls on a Saturday, Sunday or holiday, and excluding intermediate Saturdays, Sundays and holidays when the period is less than seven days. These provisions provide context for why the definition matters; the order does not mark them as changed. A reader should apply the complete rule, any applicable statute, and case-specific orders rather than assume that every deadline is calculated identically.
Rule 77(c) addresses the days on which a clerk or deputy must be present during business hours. The order strikes “legal” from the prior phrase “legal holidays,” leaving the exception for Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. It does not mark the surrounding clerk-order provisions as changed.
The changes concern procedure and do not themselves alter the project’s existing custody, divorce-ground, or parental-relocation reference fields.
The order uses ellipses to omit other portions of the rules. Its marked excerpts therefore should be read alongside the full compilation when determining how the amendments interact with another rule or a particular filing.