Hawaii People Search

Hawaii keeps its courts, land recording, business filings, prisons and vital records at the state level, so these six state offices cover a search on any island. Only property tax records are kept by the counties, listed further down.

• Hawaii State Judiciary, eCourt KokuaStatewide civil, criminal, family and traffic case search
• Bureau of Conveyances online servicesStatewide deeds, mortgages, liens and Land Court documents
• DCCA Business Registration Division searchCorporations, LLCs, partnerships and trade names with officers and agents
• Hawaii SAVIN custody statusDepartment of Corrections and Rehabilitation inmates, including those held on the mainland
• Hawaii Sex Offender and Other Covered Offender RegistryKept by the Department of the Attorney General
• Hawaii Department of Health Vital RecordsBirth, death, marriage and civil union certificates for eligible requesters

Access to public information in Hawaii is governed by the Uniform Information Practices Act (UIPA), Hawaii Revised Statutes Chapter 92F. Enacted in 1988, it presumes that state and county records are open to inspection unless a specific exception applies.

The Office of Information Practices oversees the UIPA. If an agency denies a request, you can appeal to the OIP, and agencies must answer a request within 10 business days.

You do not need to live in Hawaii to make a UIPA request or to use open records online. Agencies may withhold personal contact details where there is a significant privacy interest.

Most Hawaii state record searches run through the eHawaii.gov portal.

• eHawaii.govState portal for online services and record searches
• Office of Information PracticesUIPA guidance, request forms and past opinions

The Hawaii State Judiciary operates a unified, statewide court system. This includes the Supreme Court, Intermediate Court of Appeals, Circuit Courts, District Courts, and Family Courts. You do not need to search county-by-county for criminal or civil dockets; a single search query spans the entire state.

Hawaii's online court records are in eCourt Kokua, linked in Where to Look; the older Ho'ohiki system has been retired.

Common Mistake: The "Missing" 4th Circuit. If you are looking for the 4th Circuit Court, you will not find it. Hawaii only has four judicial circuits, numbered 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th. Historically, the 4th Circuit served the Hāmākua and Kohala areas of the Big Island. In 1943, it was absorbed into the 3rd Circuit (which covers the entire island of Hawaii). The 5th Circuit (Kauai) retained its original number.

Hawaii also has a Land Court, which runs the Torrens system of title registration and hears title disputes.

Ho'ohiki (retired)

The Judiciary retired Ho'ohiki; its civil, criminal and family case types are now searched in eCourt Kokua, as the Judiciary's notice explains.

• PACER, U.S. District Court for HawaiiFederal criminal, civil and bankruptcy cases for a per page fee

Real estate research in Hawaii differs fundamentally from the rest of the United States. On the mainland, deeds and mortgages are recorded at the county courthouse by a County Recorder or Clerk. In Hawaii, all land documents for every island are recorded in one central, state-level office in Honolulu: the Bureau of Conveyances (BOC).

Statewide property recording: Hawaii has no county recorder of deeds. Deeds, mortgages, liens and judgments on real estate anywhere in the state are recorded with the state Bureau of Conveyances.

Hawaii has two recording systems. The Regular System records deeds as on the mainland, building a chain of title. The Land Court System registers the title itself and issues a Certificate of Title. Some properties are recorded in both, called double system properties.

While the BOC handles recording, property tax assessment is handled at the county level. The four main counties (Honolulu, Hawaii, Maui, Kauai) maintain their own separate Real Property Tax (RPT) databases. To trace an individual's assets, you use the BOC to find the deed, then use the county RPT site to find the assessed value and physical address.

• Hawaii Department of TaxationState taxes and the published lists of delinquent taxpayers

The Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA) registers businesses and licenses professionals.

Many Hawaii professionals work through LLCs or hold more than one license, so a name search in both the Business Registration Division and the Professional and Vocational Licensing records can show business partners, other addresses and trade names.

If an individual has faced disciplinary action regarding their profession (from real estate agents to contractors to massage therapists), those records are handled by the Regulated Industries Complaints Office (RICO), which publishes disciplinary actions online.

• DCCA Business CheckProfessional and vocational licenses and complaint history
• Hawaii State Bar Association member directoryLicensed Hawaii attorneys and their standing

In 2024, Hawaii formally split its Department of Public Safety, establishing the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DCR) to specifically oversee the state's prison and jail system. The DCR operates several distinct facilities, including the Halawa Correctional Facility (the state's primary high-security prison), the Waiawa Correctional Facility, the Kulani Correctional Facility, and the Women's Community Correctional Center.

Also, Hawaii utilizes Community Correctional Centers (CCCs) on each major island (Oahu CCC, Maui CCC, Hawaii CCC, Kauai CCC). Unlike mainland states where county sheriffs run local jails, Hawaii's CCCs are run by the state DCR, housing both pre-trial detainees and inmates serving short sentences.

Some Hawaii inmates are held on the mainland under a contract with CoreCivic at the Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy, Arizona, and the state custody lookup includes them.

• Federal Bureau of Prisons inmate locatorFederal prisoners from Hawaii cases, mostly held on the mainland

The Department of Health keeps Hawaii birth, death, marriage and civil union records, and they are not open to the public.

Privacy Note: The Confidentiality Embargo. Hawaii enforces strict statutory embargo periods on vital records to protect privacy and prevent identity theft. Birth records are closed to the general public for 75 years. Death, marriage, and divorce records are closed for 50 years.

To access a vital record within the embargo period, the requester must demonstrate a "direct and tangible interest." This standard is legally defined and generally restricts access to the registrant themselves, immediate family members, legal guardians, or legal representatives possessing a court order. For genealogists, records older than the 75/50-year embargoes are considered public and can be accessed for historical research.

The Office of Elections keeps voter registration. Hawaii releases full voter lists only for election, political or government purposes, so there is no public voter search.

Campaign finance reports are public. The Campaign Spending Commission publishes donations above set amounts, and donors must list their occupation and employer.

• Hawaii Office of ElectionsCheck your own registration; rules on voter list access
• Hawaii Campaign Spending CommissionPublic database of contributions to state and county candidates

Hawaii's records span the Kingdom, the Provisional Government, the Republic, the Territory and the State, and many older records are in the Hawaiian language.

The Hawaii State Archives in Honolulu holds the government records of the Kingdom and the Territory. For Native Hawaiian ancestry, the Papakilo Database of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs has digitized Hawaiian language newspapers and Mahele land awards.

For the plantation era, the Bishop Museum Library and the Hawaiian Historical Society hold records on the Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Portuguese and Korean laborers who arrived in the 19th and 20th centuries.

• Hawaii State ArchivesKingdom, territorial and state records, naturalizations and probate files
• Papakilo Database, Office of Hawaiian AffairsHawaiian language newspapers and Mahele land records

Hawaii has five counties. Courts and land recording are state functions, so the counties matter mainly for property tax assessment and police records.

City and County of Honolulu (Oahu)

The City and County of Honolulu covers all of Oahu and about 70 percent of the state's people. The 1st Circuit Court sits here, and the city's HoLIS map site shows parcel data.

• Honolulu Real Property Assessment DivisionOahu ownership, assessed values and building records

County of Hawaii (The Big Island)

The County of Hawaii covers the Big Island and is served by the 3rd Circuit Court. The county seat is Hilo, on the east side; Kona is on the west side. Property records there note the volcanic lava hazard zone of each parcel.

• County of Hawaii Real Property Tax OfficeBig Island parcels, owners and assessed values

County of Maui

The County of Maui consists of the islands of Maui, Molokai (except for the Kalawao peninsula), Lanai, and the uninhabited island of Kahoolawe. The county seat is Wailuku, and it is served by the 2nd Circuit Court.

• Maui County Real Property Assessment DivisionMaui, Molokai and Lanai parcels and values

County of Kauai

The County of Kauai covers Kauai and Niihau, with its seat in Lihue, and is served by the 5th Circuit Court. Kauai has strict zoning and development rules, which show up in property tax records.

• County of Kaua'i Real Property Tax OfficeKauai and Niihau parcels and tax records

County of Kalawao

Kalawao County, on the Kalaupapa Peninsula of Molokai, is the smallest county in the country by population, with about 80 residents. It was the site of the Kingdom's Hansen's disease settlement, has no mayor or council, and is run by the state Department of Health, whose historical records cover it.

Hawaiian names, spellings and family living patterns differ from the mainland, so searches need a few adjustments.

Researcher Tip: Diacritic-Insensitive Searching. The Hawaiian language utilizes the 'okina (ʻ) (a glottal stop) and the kahakō (ā) (a macron indicating a long vowel). When searching legacy state databases, these diacritical marks are often omitted or replaced with standard apostrophes. Try searching names both with and without the diacritics (e.g., search both "Kapi'olani" and "Kapiolani").

Also, historical Hawaiian naming conventions did not always align with Western surname structures. In older archives, you may see individuals recorded by a single given name, or see spelling variations based on phonetics. You may also encounter abbreviations in historical text (e.g., "K. III" for King Kamehameha III).

Native Hawaiian, Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, Portuguese, Korean, Samoan, Tongan, Micronesian and other surnames are all common. Because housing costs are high, three or four generations of adults often share one address in property and voter records, and kuleana land passed down without probate can be owned in small shares by many descendants.

Many people live in Hawaii only for a three or four year military posting at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Schofield Barracks, Marine Corps Base Hawaii or other bases. Some owners of Hawaii property keep their legal residence in another state, so mainland records can fill gaps.

Hawaii has no general consumer data privacy law like California's CCPA or Virginia's VCDPA. Personal information is protected through specific statutes and the privacy balancing that the Office of Information Practices applies under the UIPA.

Hawaii Revised Statutes § 487N mandates strict breach notification protocols for businesses that expose consumer data, but it does not broadly outlaw the sale of personal information. Notably, Hawaii is one of the states that did not adopt Marsy's Law as a constitutional amendment; instead, victim rights and the shielding of victim identities in court records are handled via standard legislative statutes.

Native Hawaiian Considerations (OHA & DHHL): Researching Native Hawaiian individuals often intersects with sovereign and homestead legal frameworks. The Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) maintains the Hawaiian Registry for individuals verifying their ancestry. The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) manages 99-year homestead leases. Leases on DHHL land belong to the trust and are governed by strict blood-quantum inheritance rules, meaning standard property searches at the Bureau of Conveyances may not reflect DHHL leasehold data accurately.

Under HRS section 831-3.2, a person can apply to expunge an arrest record when there was no conviction, or after some deferred first offenses. Expunged records no longer appear in eCourt Kokua, so a clean record today may not have been clean five years ago.