Hawaii

Interstate Phone Hearings

Description/Goal

The goal of telephonic hearings is to provide for an expedited, convenient forum for parties to address child support issues. Hawaii has been conducting telephone hearings for all neighbor islands extensively since 1996. Telephonic hearings are optional: participants may instead appear at the Oahu hearings site or at a designated neighbor site.

Results

Approximately 40% of all hearings (about 110 per week) are conducted via teleconference (both intrastate and interstate cases). Telephone hearings have saved the office the costs of airline tickets and other costs associated with transportation. Additional savings are hearings officer opportunity costs: officers can conduct hearings when in the past they would be in transit from one location to another.

It is interesting to note that the use of telephonic hearings has so far not been raised as an issue in an appeal.

The use of the telephonic process has also resulted in fewer requests for continuances.

Location

The Office of Child Support Hearings (OCSH) is located within the Office of the Attorney General, in the County of Oahu. There are four full-time Hearings Officers in the OCSH who handle approximately 110 hearings per week. (In addition, they handle three to four times that number of uncontested cases which do not require a formal hearing.)

Funding

The project is funded with regular Federal matching funds.

Replication Advice

• Provide this as a cost-free service to participants. Telephonic hearings provide a convenient forum for pro se.
• Out-of-State attorneys can appear telephonically without having to be licensed in Hawaii (per HRS 576E-9 and HAR 5-34-5); however one must be a licensed attorney to represent any party on an appeal.
• Despite the value in conducting telephonic hearings, there is less control over the proceedings and the parties, there is some difficulty in the exchange of exhibits or documents and there is an inability to view mannerisms and countenances of the parties. Hawaii is now looking into the possibility of using videoconferencing for neighbor island hearings as a means of addressing these concerns.