Hawaii divorce laws
Child Support
 Hawaii
lawmakers have put into place divorce laws designed to provide for those going through the divorce process. The court can issue temporary orders for care, custody, education, and maintenance of children, subject to its own revision
at any stage in the legal process.
The judge may issue the following directives:
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Order the parties or either of them to provide for the support, maintenance, and education of the children
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Order either party to provide support and maintenance to the other
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distribute the assets and liabilities between the parties.
Child support obligations are in place until the child reaches 19 years of age. In addition, temporary support may be ordered for the maintenance of the other spouse, and can be extended or made permanent with the final decree. Factors considered by the court may include:
- Financial resources of the parties
- Ability of the party seeking support and maintenance to meet his or her needs independently
- Duration of the marriage
- Standard of living established during the marriage
- Age of the parties
- Physical and emotional condition of the parties
- Usual occupation of the parties during the marriage
- Vocational skills and employability of the party seeking support and maintenance
- Needs of the parties
- Custodial and child support responsibilities
- Ability of the party from whom support and maintenance is sought to meet his or her own needs while meeting the needs of the party seeking support and maintenance
If a marital separation has been decreed,
the court may make such further orders for the support and maintenance of either spouse and for the support, maintenance, and education of minor children, by either spouse, or out of the property of either spouse, as the court deemed appropriate.
| Divorce Myth: Following divorce, the woman’s standard of living plummets by seventy three percent while that of the man’s improves by forty two percent. Reality: This dramatic inequity, one of the most widely publicized statistics from the social sciences, was later found to be based on a faulty calculation. A reanalysis of the data determined that the woman’s loss was twenty seven percent while the man’s gain was ten percent. Irrespective of the magnitude of the differences, the gender gap is real and seems not to have narrowed much in recent decades. |
Residency 
 Hawaii divorce statutes require that at least one of the parties must have established residency within the State of Hawaii for six months immediately prior to the filing of the action. The action is filed in the court of the circuit where the party has resided for at least three months prior to the commencement of the action.
Child Custody
The court may award child custody or award child support at any time during or after the proceedings for divorce. Courts in Hawaii will be guided by the following factors:
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Child custody should be awarded to either parent or to both parents according to the best interests of the child
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Child custody may be awarded to persons other than the father or mother whenever the award serves the best interest of the child.
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The court will weigh the wishes of a minor child when deciding which parent will be awarded primary child custody.
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The courts ability to launch investigations surrounding the living conditions of the child
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The court may allow the testimony of any person or expert, produced by any party, whose skill, insight, knowledge, or experience is such that the person's or expert's testimony is relevant to a just and reasonable determination of what is in the best interests of the child.
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Should a determination by the court that family violence has occurred, the court may rule child custody go solely to the parent who fell victim to that behavior. The court has considerable latitude with respect to its rulings on, among other things, guardian ad litems, domestic violence and child welfare.
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A court may award visitation to a parent who committed family violence only if the court finds that adequate provision can be made for the physical safety and psychological well-being of the child and for the safety of the parent who is a victim of family violence
The court can order counseling, supervised visitation, joint child custody or modification of any previous order, as it sees reasonable and prudent.
Grounds for Divorce
Divorces (dissolutions) may be granted to any applicant when any one of the following grounds for divorce are demonstrated:
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The marriage is irretrievably broken
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The parties have lived apart by separation agreement (2 years) Grounds for divorce will be accepted if the parties have not reconciled and shared bed and board during this time.
| Divorce Myth: Because people learn from their bad experiences, second marriages tend to be more successful than first marriages. Reality: Although many people who divorce have successful subsequent marriages, the divorce rate of remarriages is in fact higher than that of first marriages. |
Mediation
 Parenting plans. In an action where child custody is contested, the court will require each of the parties to submit either a mutual parenting plan, or separate parenting plans. These plans will include a general outline of parental responsibilities and parenting time. This effort should be considered a plan proposal before the court. Plans may include:
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Residential schedule
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Holiday, birthday, and vacation planning
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Parental decision-making and responsibility
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Breastfeeding, if applicable
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Information sharing and access
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Relocation of parents
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Telephone access and other means of communication
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Right of first refusal procedures
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Transportation
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Methods for changing or enforcing the parenting plan and for resolving disputes.
If the parties cannot agree on a parenting plan, the court may order the parties to participate in alternative dispute resolution and in counseling with a person with professional experience in child custody or parenting issues, or with other appropriate education, unless there is a finding of family violence; and develop and file a detailed parenting plan when requested by either of the parties or parents.
| Divorce Myth: When parents don’t get along, children are better off if their parents divorce than if they stay together. Reality: A recent large-scale, long-term study suggests otherwise. While it found that parents’ marital unhappiness and discord have a broad negative impact on virtually every dimension of their children’s well-being, so does the fact of going through a divorce. In examining the negative impacts on children more closely, the study discovered that it was only the children in very high conflict homes who benefited from the conflict removal that divorce may bring. In lower-conflict marriages that end in divorce—and the study found that perhaps as many as two thirds of the divorces were of this type—the situation of the children was made much worse following a divorce. Based on the findings of this study, therefore, except in the minority of high-conflict marriages it is better for the children if their parents stay together and work out their problems than if they divorce. |
Alimony
The court has the ability to award temporary alimony ( support ) after the initial filing of the case. In addition, the parties may be required jointly or severally to pay for any court costs the bench deems just, including compensation for witnesses, expenses at the trial, attorney's fees, and the like. Guidelines for alimony are provided by Hawaii state statute.
Waiting
Period
 Marriage after divorce. There is no mandated waiting period in Hawaii. However. it is often prudent to allow enough time to heal from a broken marriage before initiating another.
Grandparents Rights
A grandparent or the grandparents of a minor child may file a petition with the court for an order of reasonable visitation rights. The court may award reasonable visitation rights provided that Hawaii is the home state of the child at the time of the commencement of the proceeding and reasonable visitation rights are in the best interests of the child.
Divorce Settlement
 The court will divide the estate of the parties, real personal or mixed, whether community, joint or separate as it deems just and equitable after consideration of the following factors:
- The respective merits of the parties
- The relative abilities of the parties
- The condition in which each party will be left by the divorce
- The burdens imposed upon either party for the benefit of any children of the marriage, and, all other circumstances of the case.
Did you come into this marriage owning
a house? Concerned about the equity in that house that you brought into the marriage? Here's how it works generally. What you brought into the marriage is usually all yours. However, any appreciation of the house or the property value is normally treated as a "marital asset", meaning that you will likely forfeit a third to a half of that appreciation to your spouse in the divorce.
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