Haw. Civil JEFS Guidance: Civil JEFS -FAQ

Civil JEFS Frequently Asked Questions

as of 02/14/20

1) What is JIMS, JEFS and electronic filing?

a. JIMS is the acronym for Judiciary Information Management System which refers to

the Hawaii Judiciary integrated statewide case management system. JIMS enables

electronic access to court cases and case information for judges, attorneys, litigants,

and other stakeholders through electronic filing, electronic bench warrants, data

exchanges and online case search and document purchase.

b. Access to JIMS case information by eligible and registered attorneys and registered

unrepresented parties is through JEFS. JEFS is the acronym for Judiciary Electronic

Filing and Service System also referred to as Electronic Filing or Efiling. JEFS allows

registered users to electronically initiate cases, manage cases, and file documents

for cases in the Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals, Hawaii Supreme Court, as

well as criminal cases in the Hawaii District Courts, Circuit Courts, and Family (Adult)

Courts. District Court and Circuit Court Civil Efiling was added in October-November

2019.

c. The JIMS application consists of 3 primary applications:

i. JIMS Portal for Court Staff only

ii. JEFS for registered attorneys and staff

iii. eCourt Kokua for the general public

Judiciary Information

Management System

(JIMS)

JIMS Portal JEFS eCourt Kokua

(For Court Staff) (For Attorneys) (For Public)

CIVIL JEFS TRAINING MANUALS and VIDEOS

2) Is there a "how to" video and/or training manuals?

a. The Level I JEFS 101 Overview video, Level II Civil JEFS training video, Civil JEFS

operational manuals for attorneys and Civil JEFS system manuals are available on the

Civil JEFS Information website: www.courts.state.hi.us/civiljefsinfo.

JEFS ACCESS and PASSWORD

3) How much is this system like the filings with Hawaii Supreme

Court system? Can we use the same password as filing in the

Supreme Court's JEFS system?

a. JEFS is the same basic system for efiling for all supported cases types (Crim, ICA, SC

and now Civil). There are minor differences in JEFS features for individual case types.

b. If you are already a registered JEFS user, your JEFS login and password will remain

the same.

4) As to the legal offices, the document must be filed using the

attorney’s access. Can a member of the legal office staff be

assigned a password so that he or she can file it under the name

of the law office?

a. Rule 4 of the Hawaii Electronic Filing and Service Rules authorizes and provides for

non-attorney assistants to electronically file on an attorney’s or law firm’s behalf.

Staff must be part of a firm and attorneys in that firm are responsible for their staff’s

actions in JEFS.

b. When registering for JEFS, attorneys select their role as “Attorney”. Firm staff can

also register in JEFS and will select their role as “Firm Staff”.

5) Collection agencies’ staff attended JEFS training as part of their

attorney’s legal staff and prepare complaints, motions, etc. for the

attorney’s review and signature. If the attorney allows the

collection agency staff to initiate complaints and use his JEFS

account, will they be able to access his cases?

a. Anyone who is given JEFS access to file on behalf of an attorney will have access to

that attorney’s individual cases and all of that law firm’s cases in JEFS.

6) How do the attorneys obtain a password and login for JEFS? How

do we setup our firm? What is the secondary email address used

for? Can I use my same user account that we used to upload our

bar exam application?

a. Attorneys with an active Bar ID can register in JEFS. Once registered, your user ID

will be provided on your screen so please write it down. An email will be sent to the

email address you entered with your password information. If you do not have an

organization administrator, contact the court to activate your account. Refer to the

phone numbers on the eFiling page of the Judiciary website. You can find more

information by watching the JEFS 101 videos available at

www.courts.state.hi.us/civiljefsinfo.

b. If you are unsure of your firm status, go to the Civil JEFS Info page to check the List

of all existing firm codes for JEFS account registration. If your firm is not listed, you

may submit the Request setup for a new firm; new firm name and/or organization

administrator form.

c. If you are an active party on the case, your secondary email address associated to

your account will receive NEFs.

d. No, you cannot use the ID which you used for the bar exam. Please register for a

new JEFS ID.

7) I am a staff attorney with the Hawaii State Ethics Commission. For

agency appeals, are we required to establish a JEFS user account

for purposes of transmitting the record on appeal? Normally our

agency is represented by the Department of the Attorney General

which handles all of the filings in an agency appeal other than the

transmission of the record on appeal.

a. For most of the filings such as the answering brief, motions, or other filings in the

agency appeal, the AG would file. But for agency appeals, the clerk for the

administrative agency is responsible for transmitting the “record on appeal”, i.e., all

the documents that were filed in the underlying contested case matter. Hawaii

Rules of Appellate Procedure Rule 11(b). Our administrative staff essentially serves

as the court clerk similar to how the court clerk would transmit the record in a trial

before the 1st Circuit Court. As a result, the AG would not be the one responsible for

handling this – we also previously asked them and they said no.

CASE TYPE

8) For searching court cases, I used to search civil/family cases in

Ho`ohiki and criminal/traffic cases in eCourt Kokua. Will there

continue to be a Ho`ohiki system and what cases will be on the

system?

a. After November 2019, only Family Court Civil cases will remain on Ho`ohiki.

Appellate, criminal and district/circuit civil cases only appear in eCourt Kokua.

9) Will the Family Court civil cases be added to JEF?

a. We are looking to bring Family Court civil cases into JIMS in 2022.

SYSTEM AND CASE AVAILABILITY

10) Currently, to meet a filing deadline, the pleading must be

presented to the clerk and filed before the clerk's office is closed

at the end of the day. With JEFS, is the time to file extended to

midnight?

a. You will need to refer to the court rules and/or if the presiding judge prescribes a

specific filing deadline in a particular case. The electronic filing system is available

every day, including holidays and weekends. The system is shut down for

maintenance each night from Monday through Saturday between midnight and 4:00

a.m. System maintenance is longer on Sundays from 12:00 a.m. to noon. System

availability information can also be found on the Efiling website.

11) How will we view, access and download case files and

documents? What are the hours of operation for electronic court-

filing? What are the procedures for filing, viewing filed docs and

docket availability/access?

a. When parties electronically file through JEFS, the parties upload their documents

and the image of the documents are usually accessible online within 20 to 30

minutes. On the other hand, if the documents are conventionally filed over-the-counter by a self-represented litigant, the clerk must scan the documents and then

upload them to the docket in JIMS. Depending on the clerk’s workload, it might take

several days before those documents are viewable in JEFS/JIMS.

b. If you are a JEFS user, you do not need to pay to view or access documents that are

available online in your active cases (My Cases, All Firm Cases). You may download

the electronically filed documents in your active cases for free from your Manage

Cases screen and print them if desired.

c. Please note that not all public documents will be available online through JEFS or the

JIMS public interface, called eCourt Kokua. Particularly, all the civil documents that

were conventionally filed prior to the launch of JIMS Civil cannot be downloaded

online because they will be retained in paper format at the courthouse and will not

be scanned into JIMS.

d. If you want to access court documents in your closed cases, or cases in which you

are not a party, you need to pay to access the documents through eCourt Kokua.

Individual documents are available for $3.00 per document or 10 cents per page,

whichever sum is greater. Subscriptions are available for $125.00 per quarter or

$500.00 per year. A subscription entitles the subscriber to unlimited single

downloads of public documents with a pdf icon during the term of the subscription.

Do not subscribe unless you are sure you want the subscription. Your money will

NOT be refunded.

e. Publically accessible court documents available in eCourt Kokua can be viewed

without charge by visiting a courthouse and using one of the eCourt Kokua Kiosk

public PCs generally located in the legal documents branch of the respective

courthouse.

f. Go to the Judiciary Efiling webpage for JEFS system availability.

12) After a matter is closed (terminated), how long will it be

available on JEFS? How long are cases available in My Cases or All

Firm Cases?

a. Closed cases in Civil are referred to as terminated. Terminated cases are no longer

accessible from JEFS My Cases or All Firm Cases 90 days after the terminated date or

30 days after the last filing, whichever is more recent. JEFS Manage Cases is NOT a

repository of all cases and is designed to assist in efiling for active cases and for

additional efilings of motions, appeals, requests for attorney’s fees, etc. for a short

period after the case has been terminated. You can submit a filing on a terminated

case at any time even if it is no longer accessible through JEFS My Cases or All Firm

Cases. Once you file on a terminated case, you will then be able to view the case for

30 days after this filing from My Cases and All Firm Cases. If you need to access the

documents in a terminated case, eCourt Kokua displays public cases and non-confidential documents may be purchased for a nominal fee. The public also has the

option to purchase a subscription for unlimited document downloads during the

subscription period. Case data and documents are also available at the courthouse

over the counter or via the eCourt Kokua Kiosk. For costs related to subscription or

document purchase, refer to the Hawaiʻi Rules of Appellate Procedure (HRAP),

Appendices B and C.

b. If a filing is made 90 days after the terminated date, but within 30 days of the last

filing on the case, go to Manage Cases under My Cases or All Firm Cases in order to

find the document. You will not find the document under My Documents or All Firm

Documents. JEFS is a case management system and is not meant to be a permanent,

document archive for attorneys or self-represented litigants. Therefore, after this

period, you may purchase a copy of a document.

c. You may refer to the “Case availability in My Cases/All Firm Cases in JEFS” document

from the Civil JEFS Info page.

Is attorney a And the System

And the Case And the Date Case available in My

party on the Date of the Last

Status is Case Closed is Cases*

case Filing is

No

-- -- -- No

any active

Yes -- -- Yes

status

CLOSEDS or Under 90 days

Yes -- Yes

Terminated ago

CLOSEDS or Over 90 days Under 30 days

Yes Yes

Terminated ago ago

CLOSEDS or Over 90 days

Yes Over 30 day ago No

Terminated ago

*All Firm Cases uses the same logic for availability as My Cases. The only difference being that an

attorney from the same firm as the logged in user must be a party on the case.

13) Can law firms pay for one subscription for all attorneys in the

firm to access?

a. A subscription purchase is associated to a single user ID. It is possible to purchase

one subscription for a firm, however, this means that you will be sharing a single

user ID and password which is not recommended.

b. It is important to note that access to all documents in a case are free to the parties

in the active case. So a subscription is not needed for parties to access documents in

their cases.

SELF REPRESENTED LITIGANTS

14) How to file documents and give notice to self-represented

defendants? Do all parties need to have an attorney?

a. If you are an attorney, you must file your documents through the Judiciary Electronic

Filing Service (JEFS). Assuming that the self-represented defendant is not an

attorney, you will need to notify the self-represented defendant via the

conventional methods of U.S. Mail or personal delivery.

b. A plaintiff does not need an attorney to initiate a case. A self-represented

defendant in a case also does not need an attorney(s) to represent them to file

documents. Most self-represented litigants, both plaintiff and defendant, will go to

the courthouse to conventionally file their documents.

FILING DEADLINES

15) Will there be a filing box outside the courthouse for after-hours

filing of Judges’ copies like the Federal Court maintains? Will the

filing deadline be to midnight on the date the document is due for

filing, like the federal court rules provide for electronic filing?

a. State courthouses do not have an outdoor filing box for after-hours filing of judges’

copies.

b. If a document has been filed electronically, a courtesy copy should be a printout of

the filed document, showing the header containing the electronic file stamp.

Courtesy copies of electronically filed documents that are submitted from out-of-state shall be deemed to comply with this rule when mailed no later than the

business day after filing using “overnight” or “next day” priority. Courtesy copies of

electronically filed documents may be mailed or hand delivered to the division of the

presiding judge or clerk’s office in the normal course if they are mailed from

anywhere in Hawaii no later than the business day following the date the document

was filed. If a document concerns an imminent or expedited proceeding, courtesy

copies shall be delivered as soon as possible after filing.

c. The filing deadline for a day is before midnight unless there is a specific legal

requirement for an earlier deadline or if the presiding judge prescribes a specific

filing deadline in a particular case. Go to the Judiciary Efiling webpage for JEFS

system availability. If you wait until a few minutes before midnight to efile, it is

possible that you might not complete the efiling process before the system goes

offline.

16) Is there a grace period during which an attorney may file

documents manually in the event of an efiling system error (as

opposed to user error)? In other words, if there are technical

issues, could an attorney file a document manually the next day

and have that filing considered timely provided the attorney

serves all parties a courtesy copy of the filing on the date due?

a. First, under Rules 2.2 and 4.1 of the Hawaii Electronic Filing and Services Rules,

attorneys will be required to electronically file all documents relating to district

court and circuit court civil cases through the Judiciary Electronic Filing System

(JEFS).

b. Go to the Judiciary Efiling webpage for JEFS system availability.

c. Attorneys should be aware that efiling queues may slow down prior to system shut

down at 12:00 a.m. This may relate to efiling volume, network, and other technical

variables outside of JEFS. This may occasionally cause the efiling submission to fail to

complete by midnight. To avoid this problem, please provide enough time to

address technical issues prior to your filing deadlines.

d. If JEFS is unavailable due to technical problems, attorneys should submit a paper

document to the appropriate court clerk. If the efiling system is unavailable due to a

natural or unforeseen circumstance that closes the courts, the Supreme Court may

extend the filing deadlines, as it has in the past.

FILING FEES AND PAYMENTS

17) How can Filing Fee Payments be made once JIMS Civil occurs?

a. The following forms of payment will be accepted:

i. For online payment in JEFS, the Hawaii Information Consortium will accept

VISA and MasterCard with a non-refundable 2.6% fee added to the total filing

fee amount due.

ii. If the “Pay Later” option is selected in JEFS, payment must be made within 10

days of electronic filing. Forms of payment may be made in:

1. Online in JEFS via Manage Payments

2. Cash (only in person) at the courthouse

3. Check, cashier’s check or money order payable to: “Clerk of the

Court” (in person or by mail).

b. Please note if the “Pay Later” option is selected, payment must be fully paid within

10 days of filing a document. Payment can be made at the courthouse using a law

firm check, personal check, cashier’s check or money order. If the total amount due

is not received by that time, the document(s) will be stricken and the complaint may

be dismissed.

18) How secure is payment by credit card?

a. At the time of efiling, attorneys may choose to pay for filing fees using a credit card

via Kala, the Hawaii Information Consortium (HIC) secure online credit card system.

While there is no additional charge for paying online by the court, there is a 2.6%

processing fee assessed by HIC.

b. HIC is a reputable company. It is contracted by the State of Hawaii and approved by

the State Procurement Office to handle credit card transactions for the Judiciary’s

online traffic payment system among other things. In FY 2018, HIC collected online

payments amounting to $421 million for the State of Hawaii and the Counties,

including $213 million in state taxes for the Department of Taxation (Note: From

HIC’s FY2018 annual report).

19) Why is there a 2.6% fee being assessed on the credit card

payments made in JEFS? Can this fee be ethically passed on to the

client?

a. There are significant expenses associated with conducting online, financial

transactions (e.g., Internet bandwidth, servers, cybersecurity). The 2.6% transaction

fee covers the expenses incurred by the JEFS electronic payment processing vendor,

the Hawaii Information Consortium. Merchants typically include the credit card

transaction fee when setting their pricing on goods and services. In offering online

credit card payment, the Judiciary is not raising its filing fees. Instead, we are passing

along this specific expense only to the parties who choose to utilize the

convenience. Any attorney who believes this 2.6% fee is excessive can opt to

conventionally pay their filing fees at the courthouse instead.

TYPES OF DOCUMENTS ELECTRONICALLY FILED

20) What is the process when we file Complaints electronically?

How and when does the Summons get issued?

a. In 1st Circuit District Court, the Summons (which is a separate court form) should be

electronically filed with the Complaint, at the back. It will not have a file stamp on it.

It will be treated as a Proposed Summons. Court staff will print the Summons, sign

it, then scan and upload the Summons to the case. Then you can print it and serve it

with the Complaint. It is recommended that you place the Summons on top when

serving.

21) Will we have to file Deposition Transcripts for use at Trial?

a. Depositions will no longer be filed prior to trial. This is consistent with how the

federal district court handles the depositions. For the most part, only oral

depositions used during trial/hearing for impeachment/refreshment purposes will

be required to be filed in their entirety. If an attorney plans to use oral depositions

at trial/hearing, they need to bring to court a sealed, original deposition(s). The

party who uses that oral deposition will be responsible for filing the deposition

within 48 hours.

22) If I am filing a very thick document, can we break it into three

parts and file?

a. Yes, you can break a document into several, separate PDF files. Like the U.S. District

Court in Honolulu, JEFS will only accept PDF documents that are less than 10MB. The

number of pages 10MB will allow for depends on the content and formatting of the

document being submitted.

b. A document that is electronically generated in Microsoft Word, signed with a “/s/”

signature, and saved as a PDF will be much smaller in file size than a scanned

document with a wet signature.

c. A document comprised fully of text will be much smaller in file size than a document

that contains graphics or color images.

d. Resolution of scanned documents should be set no less than 200 dpi and no greater

than 300 dpi (dots per inch). Lower resolution scans will not print with sufficient

quality and higher resolution scans will considerably increase file size.

23) If the user has Adobe Acrobat Professional, PDF files can also be

“optimized” to reduce their file size.

b. See “Guide to Working with PDF Files” from the Civil JEFS Info page for instructions

on optimizing pdfs.

24) Will attorneys representing a government agency have to

electronically file the records on appeal in agency appeals?

a. Yes, the following is required:

b. Agency Appeal cases initiated by an agency shall be initiated through the Judiciary

Electronic Filing and Service System (JEFS) by the appellant. Once the case is

initiated, all documents subsequently filed, including the Certified Record on Appeal,

shall be eFiled through JEFS by the attorney or conventionally filed if self-represented.

c. If the agency is not represented by an attorney (e.g., no in-house counsel or deputy

attorney general), the non-attorney representative may still qualify for eFiling as a

trusted agency partner (see Rule 1.16 and Rule 4 of the Hawaii Electronic Filing and

Service Rules). If it is determined that the agency representative is authorized to

eFile, he/she shall eFile their case documents electronically through JEFS.

d. If the agency representative is not an attorney, nor qualifies for eFiling as a trusted

agency partner, then the agency will conventionally file their documents at the

appropriate Legal Documents Branch and the LDB staff will eFile court documents

into the JIMS case management system on their behalf.

e. In eFiling the Certified Record on Appeal, the Agency shall comply with the

submission requirements of HRAP Rule 10 and 11. In addition, the bookmarked PDF

created by the agency shall include Bates stamping/numbering.

f. Courtesy copies of the Certified Record on Appeal shall be provided by the agency

only at the court’s request.

25) How do we file documents that aren’t “Court Form” documents

and must be done from scratch?

a. Documents you create yourself are treated the same way as court form documents.

They are scanned and updated to be filed in the case electronically. Please watch

for the amended Circuit Court rules regarding form sizes and margins which will

align with existing Rules of Penal Procedures and District Court Rules.

26) When filing an agency appeal, can we file the Notice of Appeal,

etc. directly through JEFS and, assuming we know who the

attorney general is, serve the appeal through JEFS?

a. See amendments to the Hawaii Rules of Civil Procedure (HRCP), Rule 72:

https://www.courts.state.hi.us/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/2019_hrcpam2_various-rules_ada.pdf

27) Are exhibits for a trial supposed to be efiled before they have

been accepted into evidence?

a. No, current practices are still in place – trial exhibits are not filed prior to trial.

CONFIDENTIAL AND SEALED DOCUMENTS

28) How do I protect the confidentiality of HIPAA information?

a. When you plan to file a document with protected health information, you should

carefully follow the court rules and guidelines relating to sealed documents and

documents filed in camera. Generally speaking, you should follow a two-step

process:

i. Efile a publicly viewable motion requesting to seal the information in the

document, and

ii. Separately efile the unredacted document in camera for the judge to review.

b. If your request is granted, the court may order you to separately efile a redacted

version of the document for public viewing.

29) How should Hawaii Court Records Rule 9 confidential/under seal

documents such as death certificates be filed?

a. Prior to the electronically filing any document, the document should be reviewed for

personal, private information. If such information appears in the document, then

the document should be adjusted to comply with Rule 9.

b. Filing parties who need to eFile a document with personal, private information in

compliance with Rule 9 would need to:

i. Complete Rule 9 Form 1 (SCP349): Fly Sheet for Document(s) Containing

Confidential Information. This document shall be eFiled in JEFS as a lead

document without being sealed/in camera. The proper JEFS/JIMS docket

code to use when efiling this document is “9INF”.

ii. Complete Rule 9 Form 2 (SCP350) Confidential Information Form. This

document shall be eFiled in JEFS as a sealed, supporting document. The

proper JEFS/JIMS docket code to use when efiling this confidential document

is “9INFC”. The “sealed” check box in JEFS also must be selected.

iii. The filing party shall redact all the personal, private information as noted in

HCRR Rule 2.19 from the content document. This redacted document shall

be eFiled in JEFS and made available to the public.

c. The filing party shall provide to the court an unredacted version of the content

document upon request.

d. In regards to the filing death certificates specifically, death certificates are

confidential by Rule 3 of the Hawaii Rules of Probate and thus should be filed as

sealed documents in JEFS. Rule 9 does not supersede statutes or court rules which

make documents confidential categorically and in their entirety. Rule 9 applies to

documents that contain personal, private information that are otherwise open for

public access.

30) What is the process to file a confidential document under seal

when opposing counsel cannot see the document, like a Motion

to Withdraw?

a. In JIMS/JEFS, filing a document as “sealed” means that other parties in the case can

view the document. Whereas, filing a document as “in camera” means that only the

judge and their staff designees can view the document.

b. When making a request to electronically file a document in camera, the movant shall

separately: 1) efile a motion requesting to make a document in camera such that the

motion is viewable by the public; and 2) efile the confidential exhibit “in camera”.

c. If the court grants the “in camera” motion, then the “in camera” document shall

permanently remain in the record as “in-camera.” If the court determines that the

efiled document should not be sealed or made in camera, the court will efile an

order denying the motion and remove the in-camera indicator.

CERTIFIED COPIES

31) How will pleadings be certified?

a. Consistent with current Judiciary policy in both the State Appellate and Criminal

courts, the certification fee will no longer be waived if certification of a filed

document is requested at the counter.

b. Electronically certified copies of publicly available documents can be purchased from

eCourt Kokua. Electronic certification will appear in red on the bottom on the first

page of the document. Conventionally certified court documents with embossing

can still be purchased at the courthouse. If a certified copy is requested at the

courthouse, the copy fee and certification fee will be charged.

c. Attorneys who have paid for electronically certified documents and bring in their

receipt, may bring those documents to the Legal Documents Branch for

conventional, embossed certification without charge.

d. Documents that have already been conventionally certified are still valid.

e. If anyone questions the authenticity of an electronically certified court document

purchased through eCourt Kokua, ask them to verify the filed document themselves

by looking it up in eCourt Kokua. Or they can contact the appropriate courthouse for

verification.

32) How do I get a certified copy? Once they are issued, how do we

obtain certified copies of the Complaint for service on the

defendants?

a. Certified copies are NOT available in JEFS. Certified copies of public documents are

available for purchase from eCourt Kokua. Cost of a certified document is $5.00.

b. If a complaint was electronically filed, go to eCourt Kokua to purchase a document,

choose “certified”, pay for certification, and print. Note the rules do not require that

a certified copy of the Complaint be served.

33) How will certified copies of documents like Death Certificates be

submitted to probate court?

a. The embossed certified copies will be submitted via JEFS usually with a fly sheet

cover. Legal Docs Branch will note any discrepancies found.

34) How do I serve certified copies? I don’t own a color printer; are

black and white copies considered sufficiently certified for us to

serve?

a. JEFS users who electronically purchase and print certified copies in black and white

may serve those copies.

b. JEFS users who have paid for an electronically certified document, may also bring

that document together with the receipt to the Legal Documents Branch to obtain a

conventional, embossed certification without charge.

c. Once the document is served, it is up to the recipient to accept the validity of the

certification.

d. Anyone who questions the authenticity of an electronically certified court document

purchased through eCourt Kokua, may verify the filed document themselves by

looking it up in eCourt Kokua (for a fee), or they can contact the appropriate

courthouse for verification.

EX-OFFICIO FILINGS

35) Will Ex-Officio filings no longer be necessary?

a. Ex-Officio filings and the fees associated with them will no longer be necessary if the

documents are electronically filed through JEFS. However, if conventional filing is

needed (e.g., video evidence on a DVD), then ex-officio filings will still occur.

b. In most situations, for example, when an attorney who lives on Maui wants to file a

document in Land and Tax Appeal court located on Oahu, that attorney can do so

electronically in JEFS without incurring an ex-officio filing fee at the Wailuku

courthouse.

36) If for some reason, JIMS is down in Maui, can we file the doc “ex-officio” on Oahu?

a. If JIMS/JEFS system were to go down in Maui, the JIMS/JEFS system would mostly

likely be down statewide due to: 1) the internet being down in downtown Honolulu,

or 2) the JIMS/JEFS server going offline. In either situation, you probably would not

be able to electronically file to JIMS/JEFS from Oahu or any other location. However,

if the internet were to partially or fully go down in Maui, then you could

electronically file from Oahu. That would not be considered an “ex-officio” filing

though, because JIMS/JEFS is a single, statewide efiling system. Conventional filing

would be available at the courthouse on Maui (ex officio). If electronic filing is being

done via another circuit, the term or process of ex-officio is moot.

EX PARTE MOTIONS

37) How do we attach Exhibits? How do we electronically file Ex

Parte motions?

a. Depending on the document file size of the main pleading, it may be possible to

attach exhibits to that document. There is a 10 megabyte (MB) limit per PDF

document filing. If the exhibits are voluminous, they will need to be broken down

and saved as separate PDF files before they can be electronically filed.

b. Filing party shall efile the Ex Parte motion together with the proposed order as one

document. The document shall be titled “Ex Parte Motion for [fill-in]”.

c. The division/court staff will extract the Order for the judge’s signature.

d. Denied orders will be notated “Denied” and efiled by the division/court staff.

e. Orders granting will be efiled either by the filing party or division/court staff. At the

court’s discretion, attorneys may be asked to file the Order Granting Ex Parte

Motion.

38) If you file an Ex Parte motion with a proposed order, do you file

the documents separately or together?

a. Attorneys should efile Ex Parte motions together with the proposed order as one

document entitled “Ex Parte Motion for _____”.

NOTIFICATION OF ELECTRONIC FILING (NEF)

39) With efiling, will notice of a filing and/or copy of the filing be

distributed automatically to the parties and/or recipients on

record in the case?

a. Only JEFS users who are parties to the case will receive a NEF. Self-represented

litigants who are not JEFS users will still need to be served through conventional

means – US Mail or personal delivery – as currently required by court rule.

40) How does the attorney stop getting emails?

a. If your firm is set up in JEFS, your Organization Administrator can “Reject” and then

“Remove” the attorney from the firm in JEFS. Rejecting will disable the attorney’s

ability to create cases or submit filings on existing cases for the firm. Removing will

disassociate the attorney from the firm so that the attorney will no longer be able to

see cases under My Cases nor My Firm Cases for that firm. The Org Admin should

then contact the court to Deactivate the user to stop the NEFS. If you are unsure of

your firm status or who your Org Admin is, you can email

helpdesk.requests@courts.hawaii.gov for assistance.

b. If you wish to request setup for an Organization Administrator for your firm, please

submit the Request setup for a new firm; new firm name and/or organization

administrator form which can be found on the Civil JEFS Info page.

41) If you’re added on to a case in the middle of the proceedings, do

you automatically receive the efiled documents or is there

something you need to do to get added to the case?

a. After you add yourself as an attorney to a case, you will automatically receive an NEF

via email for every document that is subsequently filed to that case. You will need to

log into JEFS to actually view/download the PDF document.

b. Once an attorney efiles the document, the PDF should be viewable in JEFS within 20-

30 minutes of efiling. However, if a self-represented litigant conventionally files a

document, the PDF may not be viewable in JEFS for a few days depending on the

clerk’s workload.

c. To view/download documents that were efiled prior to you being added to the case,

you will need to log into JEFS and manually access those documents.

42) If I file something and the Court rejects my submittal, how will I

be notified? Will the filing date and time be the original defective

submittal or will the filing be as of the submittal of the corrected

document(s)?

a. When you efile, the system will automatically acknowledge your filing by applying a

file stamp to any uploaded documents before the court has a chance to review it,

much less reject it. Therefore, this scenario will not occur.

COURTESY COPY, HARD COPY

43) With efiling, will notice of a filing and/or copy of the filing be

distributed automatically to the parties and/or recipients on

record in the case? With efiling, will the courts still require

delivery of hard copies to judges, such as Motions, Settlement

Conference Statements, etc.?

a. Only JEFS users who are parties to the case will receive a NEF (Notice of Electronic

Filing). Self-represented litigants who are not JEFS users will still need to be served

through conventional means – US Mail or personal delivery – as currently required

by court rule.

b. The Circuit Courts for all circuits statewide will still require 2 hard copies for the

judges, generally for any document pertaining to a request for court action.

c. Per HRCC 12.1(c), settlement conference letters should never be electronically filed.

The court rule requires that these letters be hand delivered to the settlement

conference judge. Attorneys who electronically file these letters by mistake will

inappropriately expose the contents of the letter to the trial judge/division. If a

settlement letter is mistakenly efiled, the attorney should immediately contact the

trial division.

44) When, if ever, will hard copies need to be filed? Does this

electronic filing system apply to all circuits?

a. For the most part, attorneys will not need to conventionally file paper copies. There

are some exceptions such as oversized maps for Land Court, original wills for

probate, and other situations where conventional filing and paper documents are

legally required. Also, if JEFS/JIMS ever goes down for a long period of time, and

hopefully this will never happen, conventional filing may be ordered.

b. Yes, electronic filing applies to all district court and circuit court civil cases in all

circuits statewide.

45) Are courtesy copies of certificates of service for discovery

requests necessary?

a. Courtesy copies of certificates of service for discovery-related materials will not be

required.

46) If a document is electronically filed after 4 p.m. when the court is

closed, can the courtesy copy be delivered the next business day?

a. Yes. Courtesy copies of electronically filed documents may be mailed or hand

delivered to the division of the presiding judge or clerk’s office in the normal course

if they are mailed from anywhere in Hawaii no later than the business day following

the date the document was filed. If a document concerns an imminent or expedited

proceeding, courtesy copies shall be delivered as soon as possible after filing.

47) What are the courtesy copy requirements for the judiciary, if

any? Is there any court rule that actually requires that in circuit

court?

a. For District Court civil statewide, no courtesy copies will be required.

b. For Circuit Court civil statewide, courtesy copies will be required consistent with the

practice at Honolulu Federal District Court. Specifically, we are recommending two

courtesy copies be required, generally for any document pertaining to a request for

court action.

c. Yes, the courts are still requiring courtesy copies (2). Please click on the attached

link to review the update to RCCH, Rule 7.2 (g)(6)

https://www.courts.state.hi.us/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/2019_rcch1.1-2-3-5-

7.2-10-16-21-23-32am_ada.pdf

HEARING DATES

48) How do we obtain hearing dates?

a. Attorneys can call the division/court staff for a hearing date. The attorneys will put

the hearing date/time on the motion, then efile it. The attorneys will be responsible

for serving non-JEFS users. This general recommendation applies to the 2nd, 3rd, and

5th Circuits as well as the 1st Circuit District Court.

b. For 1st Circuit Civil Court only, attorneys will request a hearing date by sending an

email to the 1st Circuit Civil Divisions/Legal Documents Branch 1/Land & Tax Court.

For a matter before the Probate Court, please see Appendix C of the First Circuit JEFS

User Guide "Obtaining Hearing Dates for Petitions".

49) What is the email address to get a hearing date in the First

Circuit?

a. Each trial division in First Circuit, Circuit Court, as well as other areas of First Circuit

will have an email address (Civil.1CC@courts.hawaii.gov) which is posted on the

Judiciary’s Internet site. An attorney must send his/her request for a hearing to this

email address. This process of requesting a hearing date via email is unique to civil

cases before the First Circuit, Circuit Court.

b. In all the other state civil court jurisdictions statewide (2nd, 3rd, and 5th Circuits as

well as the 1st Circuit, District Court), attorneys may call the division/court staff for a

hearing date. The attorneys will put the hearing date/time on the motion, then efile

the motion. The attorneys will be responsible for conventionally serving non-JEFS

users.

ORDERS

50) Do attorneys submit proposed orders by delivering them to the

Judge's chambers or will the judges be given an email address?

a. Attorneys in both Circuit Court and District Court civil cases eFile proposed orders,

judgments and decrees in JEFS with a cover sheet as the first page. For disputed

orders, the party shall efile a Notice of Submission with the proposed order

attached.

b. Judges will modify the documents as needed, and either apply their /s/ signature or

wet sign the documents. Court employees shall eFile the final, signed

orders/judgments/decrees in JIMS. The prevailing party shall be responsible for

serving a copy of the eFiled order/judgment/decree to self-represented litigants.

c. Upon request, attorneys shall provide the court with a word processing version of

the proposed document (Note: This should only be necessary if extensive editing of

the proposed document is required).

51) For orders signed by judges, who will be uploading it to JEFS?

a. Court employees shall efile the final, signed orders/judgments/decrees into JIMS,

but the prevailing party shall be responsible for conventionally serving a copy of the

efiled order/judgment/decree to any self-represented litigant.

52) How specifically are we supposed to submit proposed Rule 23

orders that in the past other attorneys would sign? Am I supposed

to mark an /s/ for another attorney? Same thing with

stipulations?

a. Per Hawaii Electronic Filing and Service Rule 5.1, lawyers shall be required to use

“/s/” signatures in orders and judgments that are presented to the court for

execution. A document that is required by Rule 23 of the Rules of the Circuit Courts

of the State of Hawaii to be approved as to form should be circulated to all other

lawyers and parties in the case for review and approval as to form. Documents may

be circulated by email, conventional mail, or hand delivery for approval by JEFS

users. If there is a non-JEFS user party, the document should be wet signed by that

party.

ATTORNEY REMOVAL FROM CASE

53) How does the attorney get removed from the case?

a. Only court staff has access to remove or end date the attorney on the case. If you

are in the process of changing counsel, then your division should be doing this as a

matter of course when you submit your motions. If not, you may need to contact the

division staff directly to get their specific requirements.

54) If Plaintiff adds an attorney who is not involved in the case, what

is the procedure to have the attorney removed from the case in

JEFS?

a. As only court staff can remove an attorney/party from a case in JIMS/JEFS, you

should file a motion with the appropriate court/division.

GENERAL QUESTIONS

55) Can searches be made online to see if a person has been

involved in other court cases?

a. Full and partial name searches can be done in eCourt Kokua, but they may not be

complete for a variety of reasons (e.g., the case is confidential, the person has

changed their name). Also, because specific, personal information (e.g., date of

birth) is not available in this publicly available interface, it may be difficult to confirm

the identity of a person involved in a case if there are multiple people who share the

same name.

56) Does the JIMS/JEFS system negate the need for a certificate of

service or sending a copy to opposing counsel?

a. As long as opposing counsel is a party on the case in JEFS conventionally sending

them a certificate of service and copy of the document is unnecessary.

57) How do we sign the complaint and how does our client verify the

complaint? Does JEFS accept Adobe e-signed PDF documents?

a. The process for signing the complaint is the same as before JIMS, except you can use

a /s/ for your signature if signing electronically. For your client's signature, you will

print the complaint, have your client wet sign it (or sign accompanying declaration),

scan that and upload to file.

b. Adobe e-signed pdf documents are accepted. However secured PDFs, Adobe

portfolios (containing multiple PDFs) and encrypted PDFs are not accepted.

58) What are special characters? Can I copy and paste text into JEFS

from Word or Wordperfect?

a. Do not use special characters in JEFS. Special characters are those characters which

do not have a dedicated key on the keyboard (e.g., section symbol “§”).

b. Do not copy and paste text from Word or Wordperfect into the Document Name,

Case Title or Extended Case Title fields in JEFS. Although not visible from JEFS,

special characters are created when using cut and paste from Word or Wordperfect

which will result in an error that will prevent the user from opening the pdf after the

case is submitted.

You may copy and paste text using Notepad which is a simple text editor in

Windows. However, in Notepad you will need to be on the lookout for apostrophes,

double quotes and okinas. Notice how the single quote, double quote and okina

appear as a straight line, no curvature. If these do not appear as shown below,

retype these characters in Notepad before copying and pasting your text into JEFS.

Apostrophe (‘)

Double quote (”)

Okina (`)

c. As of 10/28/19, if you attempt to type a special character in the Document Name,

Case Title or Extended Case Title, the special characters will be removed and

replaced with a blank space.

59) What is the Case ID format when entering my Case ID in JIMS?

a. This information below is also available from the eCourt Kokua home screen.

b. Very old migrated cases may have Case IDs comprised of 4 or 5-digits. To search

in JIMS/JEFS/eCourt Kokua you must add the Circuit, Case Type and leading

zeroes for a total of 12 alpha/numeric characters. Include a single numeric digit

for the Circuit (1-First Circuit, 2-Second Circuit, 3-Third Circuit, 5-Fifth Circuit).

• Example: 12345 –> 1PC000012345

c. For other migrated cases, the entire Case ID up to 12 alpha/numeric characters

must be entered, without hyphens, when searching by Case ID in

JIMS/JEFS/eCourt Kokua. Include the first numeric digit for the Circuit (1-First

Circuit, 2-Second Circuit, 3-Third Circuit, 5-Fifth Circuit).

Note: New two-digit Case Types in JIMS/JEFS are presented in the examples

below. Land Court and Tax Appeal Court cases always begin with “1” such as 1LD

or 1TX.

• Criminal Case Examples

CR-15-1-5678  1PC151005678

FCCR-15-1-1234 1FC151001234

1FCCR-16-1-2345  1FC161002345

1PC-15-1-1  1PC151000001

• District Court Civil Case Examples

RC-16-1-123  1RC161000123

SC-16-1-123  1SC161000123

SS-16-1-123  1SS161000123

SN-16-1-123  1SN161000123

SD-16-1-123  1SD161000123

• Circuit Court Civil Case Examples

CIV-16-1-123 1CC161000123

ML-16-1-123  1ML161000123

SPP-16-1-123 1PR161000123

LAW-00-0-16384 1LW000016384

• Estate and Probate Case in Circuit Court Examples

EQ-00-0-932  1EQ000000932

G-16-1-123  1LG161000123

P-16-1-123  1LP161000123

SE-16-1-123  1SE161000123

SG-16-1-123  1SG161000123

TR-16-1-123  1TR161000123

T-16-1-123  1TS161000123

CP-16-1-123  1CP161000123

• Land Court and Tax Appeal Court Case Examples:

LD-16-1-123  1LD161000123

TX-16-1-123  1TX161000123

d. In JIMS/JEFS, Criminal cases created starting 01/23/17 and Civil cases created

starting 10/07/19 can be searched by entering the full case ID with hyphens in

the format of:

Circuit No (1 digit), Circuit/ District indicator (1 character), Case Type (2

characters), dash, Year (2 digits), dash, sequence number (7 digits, you may omit

leading zeroes)

Examples:

1CPC-17-0000001 — 1CPC-17-0000001 or 1CPC-17-1

1CCV-19-0000001 — 1CCV-19-0000001 or 1CCV-19-1

60) How do I add an attorney to an existing case in JEFS?

a. See instructions “How to add attorney to existing case” from the Civil JEFS Info

page.

61) When is a cover sheet required/not required for court form

documents? What about documents that are not court forms?

a. Required: For District Court, documents where the judge's signature is on the

first page require the attorney to efile as "Proposed" with a cover sheet that will

show the electronic file stamp (which makes it a proposed document). The

cover sheet can be blank or state what is proposed. Examples include

Judgments, Judgments for Possession, Writs of Possession, Garnishee Orders,

and any motions where the judge signs on the first page.

b. For Circuit Court, all proposed orders/judgments and/or documents requiring

the judge’s signature should be filed as “proposed” with a coversheet, regardless

of where/what page the judge’s signature appears.

c. For circuit court orders submitted with the (ex parte) motion, the order should

be a separate document following the motion. For example, if the motion

comprises of pages 1 & 2, the order will be page 3. By filing the motion in this

manner, it will allow the judge to extract the order for signature then filing.

Please note the order should have at least a 3-inch top margin or a 3-inch by 3-inch in the top right corner to accommodate the electronic JIMS filing stamp.

(Please refer to the 1st Circuit JEFS User Guide, page 6).

d. Not Required: For both District and Circuit Court, court-form motions and other

documents where the judge's signature line is not on the first page can be

electronically filed without a cover sheet. The motion acts as the cover

sheet. Court staff only need to print the signature page for the judge to sign (the

judge can review motion in internal eCourt Kokua if needed). After the judge

signs, only the signed page is scanned and uploaded (not the whole

document). The rest of the document has already been efiled. The efiled Order

page is the "Order granting [or denying]...". Examples include Ex Parte Motion

for Default Judgment, Non-Hearing Motion for Default Judgment, TRO Petition.

Further, for Circuit Court orders submitted with the (ex parte) motion, the order

should be a separate document following the motion. For example, if the

motion comprises of pages 1 & 2, the order will be page 3. By filing the motion in

this manner, it will allow the judge to extract the order for signature then filing.

Please note the order should have at least a 3-inch top margin or a 3-inch by 3-inch in the top right corner to accommodate the electronic JIMS filing stamp.

(Please refer to the 1st Circuit JEFS User Guide, page 6).

e. Not court form: For District Court and Circuit Court, Attorney-drafted Orders or

FOF/COL or other documents that will be reviewed and signed by a judge (e.g.,

with "Approved and So Ordered") require a cover sheet. A motion filed by an

attorney does not require a cover sheet unless a judge's signature line is on the

first page.

For District Court, a motion filed by an attorney does not require a cover sheet

unless a judge's signature line is on the first page.

CONTACT INFORMATION

62) Who can we contact for problems after work hours and on

weekends?

a. Go to the Efiling page or the Civil JEFS Information website for Help Information:

https://www.courts.state.hi.us/legal_references/efiling

b. The Judiciary does not offer live customer support for JEFS users after work hours or

on weekends. If you are not comfortable with using JEFS, we suggest that you

electronically file your documents during business hours sufficiently prior to any

deadline so that you can contact the court staff if you are unable to efile

successfully.