STAND. COM. REP. NO. 291

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2025

RE: H.B. No. 401

H.D. 1

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 401 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO DISTRICT COURT JUDGES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to establish an additional district court judgeship in the Third Circuit.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Judiciary; Office of the Public Defender; Hawaii State Bar Association; Collection Law Section of the Hawaii State Bar Association; Hawaii Financial Services Association; and three individuals.

Your Committee finds that there is a critical and urgent need to address the severe strain on the Kona District Court, where a single judge handles nearly 16,000 individual cases annually. Adding an additional district court judge will reduce the individual caseloads and allow the court to operate more efficiently, dispose of cases more promptly, and provide litigants and victims with timely and equitable justice.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Changing the effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion; and

(2) Making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 401, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 401, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs,

____________________________

DAVID A. TARNAS, Chair