Hawaii Process Server Service of Process in Four Judicial Circuits, Under HRCP Rule 4(c)

Who may serve

Anywhere in the State: the sheriff or the sheriff’s deputy, a person the court specially appoints for that purpose, or any person who is not a party and is at least 18. In any county: the chief of police or the chief’s duly authorized subordinate. District Court Rule 4(c) lists the same servers.

HRCP 4(c); DCRCP 4(c)

The statute behind the rule

HRS § 634-21 adds investigators commissioned by the director of commerce and consumer affairs under § 26-9(j) and any person authorized by the rules of court.

HRS § 634-⁠21

Law enforcement list

The director of law enforcement keeps a list of independent civil process servers for orders to show cause, garnishment, writs of replevin, attachment, possession and execution, and orders for examination. A person serving a criminal sentence, convicted of a crime within ten years, required to register as a sex offender, under a legal restriction that prevents serving process, or without a current general excise tax license is not placed on it. Placement does not make anyone a sheriff, an officer or an agent of the State.

HRS § 353C-⁠11

Individuals

Summons and complaint go together: to the person, or if the person cannot be found, left at the dwelling house or usual place of abode with someone of suitable age and discretion then residing there, or to an agent authorized by appointment or by law.

HRCP 4(d), 4(d)⁠(1)

Minors and incompetent persons

For a minor, personal delivery to the guardian of the minor’s property (or as the court orders), and also to the minor if 16 or older. For an incompetent person, to the guardian of the property or the head of the institution where the person lives (or as the court orders), and also to the person unless the court orders otherwise.

HRCP 4(d)⁠(2)

Partnerships and associations

Persons acting together under a common name, a labor or employer organization included, may be sued by that name; process goes to an officer, trustee or agent of the association, or, if the serving officer’s return shows none can be found, to one or more members, and that service is service on the association (§ 634-30). Associates doing business under a firm name may be sued by it, with the summons served on one or more of them (§ 634-3). An association with officers, agents, members or property outside Hawaii that acts in the State through any of them is served, in an action growing out of those acts, by registered mail to its last known address and an affidavit of compliance filed with the court; the filing counts as service on the association and its members twenty days later (§ 634-31).

HRS §§ 634-⁠3, 634-⁠30, 634-⁠31; HRCP 4(d)⁠(3)

Gated buildings

A condominium, cooperative or planned community closed to the public must have a policy giving persons authorized to serve civil process reasonable access to the common areas next to a principal entry of the named resident’s home, on clear identification, evidence of authority to serve and papers naming the resident and the unit.

HRS § 634-⁠21.5(a), (b)

Hours

Every summons must contain a prohibition against personal delivery between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. on premises not open to the public, unless a judge of the district or circuit courts permits it in writing on the summons.

HRCP 4(b)⁠(6); DCRCP 4(b)⁠(6)

Assumpsit claims by mail

In actions in the nature of assumpsit, service within the State is by personal delivery by a person authorized to serve process or, if a reasonable attempt at personal delivery has not been successful, by certified, registered or express mail sent to the addressee only, as ordered by the court. A return receipt or other postal proof showing delivery to the addressee within the State is then filed.

HRS § 634-⁠38

Defendants outside Hawaii

A Hawaii resident who cannot be served in the State may be served personally outside it by a person authorized to serve where the defendant is found, or one the court specially appoints (§ 634-25). A nonresident who transacted business, committed a tortious act, owns or uses real estate, or contracted to insure a risk in Hawaii may, if not found in the State, be served under § 634-36: personally by a person authorized to serve in the place where the defendant is found or appointed by the court, or by certified, registered or express mail with return receipt requested, sent by the plaintiff or the plaintiff’s attorney, who files the return or an affidavit (with the signed receipt for mail). Only causes of action arising from those acts may be asserted on that basis. If such a defendant cannot be found to serve or mail, the court may order publication once a week for four successive weeks (§ 634-36(b)). HRCP 4(e) has service on a party not an inhabitant of or found within the State follow the circumstances and manner the statute or order prescribes.

HRS §§ 634-⁠25, 634-⁠35, 634-⁠36; HRCP 4(e)

Drivers and nonresident landowners

Using a motor vehicle on a Hawaii public highway subjects the driver to suit over an accident or collision, and a driver who cannot be found in the State is served under § 634-36 (§ 634-33). In an action whose principal subject is real property owned by a nonresident, the summons and complaint may go by certified, registered or express mail, return receipt requested, to the owner’s address on file with the county real property assessment office; the plaintiff or the plaintiff’s attorney files an affidavit of mailing with the signed receipt, and service is complete on delivery, or on the date the receipt was signed if it is signed and returned within thirty days of delivery, whichever is later (§ 634-29.5).

HRS §§ 634-⁠29.5, 634-⁠33

Service the court orders

Where § 634-23 provides for it, the court orders personal service on the defendant wherever found, or registered or certified mail with a return receipt requested, marked deliver to addressee only; a certified copy of the order goes with the summons and complaint, proven by an affidavit of mailing filed with the receipt the defendant signed, or by the return or affidavit of the person who served in person (§ 634-24). Section 634-23(5) keeps every other manner of service provided by law or rule of court. In a district court summary possession case where the defendant cannot be found in the State, the return day is the next court session at least ten days after the posting on the premises and delivery or mailing the court orders (DCRCP 12(a)); the District Court Rules’ Appendix of Forms carries an Ex Parte Motion for Service of Process By Posting and By Certified Mail for summary possession complaints only.

HRS §§ 634-⁠23(5), 634-⁠24; DCRCP 12(a)

Proof of service

Due to the court promptly, and in any event within the time the person served has to respond; a server the court specially appoints makes an affidavit, and in district court so does an authorized process server. When a sheriff, deputy sheriff, police officer, independent civil process server from the § 353C-11 list or commissioned investigator serves, § 634-22 calls for a signed record of the name of the person served and the time and place of service, and a specially appointed person or such an independent civil process server makes a declaration or affidavit. In circuit court, Rule 7(g) of the Rules of the Circuit Courts allows an unsworn declaration, in writing, subscribed as true under penalty of law and dated, in place of an affidavit.

HRCP 4(g); DCRCP 4(g); HRS § 634-⁠22; RCC 7(g)

Amended or failed returns

At any time, on just terms, the court may allow any process or proof of service to be amended unless it clearly appears that material prejudice would result to the substantial rights of the party against whom the process issued (HRCP 4(h)). A sheriff, deputy, police officer, listed independent civil process server or investigator who fails to make service endorses the reason on the record and signs it (§ 634-22). The record, declaration or affidavit is prima facie evidence of all it contains, and a case note to § 634-22 (19 H. 494) reads: return not invalidated by failure to show that it was made as required by statute.

HRCP 4(h); HRS § 634-⁠22

Return forms

Circuit court Form 1C-P-022, Return and Acknowledgment of Service, is worded for a sheriff or police officer, who certifies receiving a certified copy of the documents and serving them, and it ends with an acknowledgment line for the signature of the person served. The District Court Rules’ Appendix of Forms lists Form 1DC47, Return of Service; Acknowledgment of Service.

Form 1C-⁠P-⁠022; DCRCP Appendix of Forms

Objections to service

Under HRCP 12(h)(1), a defense of insufficiency of process or of service of process is waived if it is left out of a Rule 12 motion in the circumstances subdivision (g) describes, or if it is neither made by motion nor included in a responsive pleading or an amendment of course under Rule 15(a).

HRCP 12(h)⁠(1)

Other dismissals and enlargements

Apart from Rule 28, HRCP 41(b)(2) lets the court dismiss an action or claim on its own, with written notice to the parties, for failure to prosecute or to comply with the rules or a court order, and that dismissal may be set aside for good cause on a motion filed within 10 days. When the HRCP or a court order sets a time for an act, HRCP 6(b) lets the court, for cause shown, enlarge it if asked before it runs out, or permit the act afterward where the failure to act was the result of excusable neglect.

HRCP 6(b), 41(b)⁠(2)

Answer time

Circuit court: twenty days after service of the summons and complaint, exclusive of the date of service, as Form 1C-P-787 states. District court: the defendant appears or answers on the second Monday after service unless the district judge sets some other secular day, or on the next secular day if that Monday is a holiday. Under HRCP 6(a), a period whose last day is a Saturday, a Sunday or a holiday runs to the end of the next day that is none of those, and a holiday is any day designated under HRS § 8-1.

HRCP 6(a), 12(a)⁠(1); DCRCP 12(a); Form 1C-⁠P-⁠787

Circuits and counties

HRS § 603-1 divides the State into four judicial circuits: the first is Oahu and all other islands not named for another circuit; the second includes Maui, Molokai, Lanai, Kahoolawe and Molokini; the third is the island of Hawaii; the fifth includes Kauai and Niihau. Kalawao County, the Kalaupapa Settlement on Molokai, is not part of Maui County but is constituted a county by itself, under the jurisdiction and control of the department of health (HRS § 326-34).

HRS §§ 326-⁠34, 603-⁠1

Rules current as of October 2026, from the official texts listed below. Hawaii Rules of Civil Procedure 4, 6, 12, 16, 41 and 45; Rules of the Circuit Courts 7(g) and 28; Rules of the District Courts 28; District Court Rules of Civil Procedure 4 and 12 and Appendix of Forms; circuit court forms 1C-P-022 and 1C-P-787; Hawaii Revised Statutes chapter 634, chapter 624D, §§ 353C-1 and 353C-11, §§ 414-64 and 414-440, § 428-110, § 326-34 and § 603-1 and § 607-12. General information, not legal advice. The official text controls.