Hawaii Marriage and Divorce Records: 2026 Rules for Getting a Copy

Hawaii changed how divorce records work this year. Effective February 1, 2026, the Department of Health no longer maintains records of divorce, which makes the Family Court that granted the divorce the place to get a copy.

Information last verified on 2026-08-04. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

The February 2026 Change to Hawaii Divorce Records

The Department of Health's vital records page carries a plain notice: effective February 1, 2026, the Hawaii Department of Health will no longer maintain records of DIVORCE.

That single sentence undoes the older two-track model. Until this year, Hawaii looked like most states: the court that granted the divorce held the decree, and the Department of Health separately held a divorce certificate you could order as a vital record. The certificate track is gone. What remains is the court record.

This matters most for people working from stale instructions. Older forms, older agency checklists, and most search results still describe a Department of Health divorce certificate. If you are told to send a request and a fee to the Department of Health for a divorce record, that instruction is now wrong, and the request will not produce a certificate.

How to Get a Hawaii Divorce Record Now

Hawaii divorces are heard in the Family Court of the circuit where the case was filed, and the Judiciary handles copy requests through each circuit's Legal Documents Branch (Hawaii State Judiciary, "Request Court Records"). Which office you contact depends on the island:

• First Circuit (Oahu), Family Court Legal Documents Branch, at the Ronald T. Y. Moon Judiciary Complex in Kapolei, phone 808-954-8310. Divorce files are Family Court records, so this is the office to call
• First Circuit (Oahu), Circuit Court Legal Documents Branch, at Kaahumanu Hale, 777 Punchbowl Street, Honolulu, phone 808-539-4300. This branch handles Circuit Court records. The Judiciary lists both First Circuit branches under the same email address, Civil.1CC@courts.hawaii.gov
• Second Circuit (Maui, Molokai, Lanai), Hoapili Hale in Wailuku, phone 808-244-2969
• Third Circuit (Hawaii Island), Hilo at 808-961-7400 or Kona at 808-322-8750
• Fifth Circuit (Kauai), phone 808-482-2330

The two Oahu numbers are easy to mix up, because 808-539-4300 is widely reprinted as the number for Oahu court records generally. Hawaii divorces are Family Court cases, and on Oahu the Family Court sits in Kapolei rather than the Honolulu civil courthouse, so 808-954-8310 is the direct line to the branch holding the file. A written request is less exposed to the distinction, since the Judiciary publishes the same email address for both First Circuit branches.

Certified copy charges are set out in each circuit's fees and costs schedule rather than published as a single statewide number, so ask the branch you are contacting.

There is also a self-service route. Individual publicly available documents can be purchased through eCourt Kokua by selecting the document from the case dockets tab, at a flat rate of $3 for documents of 1 to 30 pages and 10 cents for each additional page beyond 30. Most courthouses also have public access terminals where documents can be viewed on screen at no charge. Confidential cases are not accessible on eCourt Kokua, which is the important limit: a sealed or otherwise confidential family case will not appear, and its absence from the system is not evidence that the case does not exist.

For an official certified copy to file with another agency, use the Legal Documents Branch rather than a self-printed eCourt Kokua document.

Hawaii Marriage Records and the Direct and Tangible Interest Test

Marriage certificates remain with the Department of Health, Office of Health Status Monitoring, and Hawaii gates them.

The gate is statutory, not a matter of agency discretion. HRS section 338-18(a) makes it unlawful to permit inspection of, disclose, or copy a vital statistics record except as that part authorizes, and section 338-18(b) then bars the Department from issuing a certified copy unless it is satisfied the applicant has a direct and tangible interest in the record. The same subsection enumerates fourteen categories of person who are considered to have that interest, among them the registrant, the spouse of the registrant, a parent of the registrant, a descendant of the registrant, a person having a common ancestor with the registrant, a legal guardian of the registrant, a person or agency acting on behalf of the registrant, a personal representative or trustee of the registrant's estate or trust, and a person whose right to inspect or obtain a certified copy is established by an order of a court of competent jurisdiction.

That distinction is worth holding onto, because it is the difference between a request and an entitlement. An applicant who falls inside one of the statutory categories is not asking the Department for a favor it may decline, and a refusal is answered by pointing to the subsection that covers you. If no category fits, the Department's guidance is blunt: you are ineligible.

Read the list carefully before concluding you are shut out, because the common ancestor category is broader than the immediate family lists many states use. A cousin researching a family line qualifies on the face of that category, where the same person would be refused in a state that limits access to spouse, parent, and child. Genealogy researchers also have a second route that does not run through the interest test at all, covered under older records below.

Fees, current as of August 2026:

• $10.00 for the first certified copy
• $4.00 for each additional copy of the same record
• $2.50 general administration fee, covering up to five copies. The Department states that another $2.50 applies to each additional increment of up to five copies, so 6 through 10 copies is a $5.00 fee and 11 through 15 copies is $7.50
• $5.00 per letter of verification

The letter of verification is not a cheaper certificate. Under HRS section 338-14.3, the Department furnishes a verification in lieu of a certified copy, confirming that the vital event occurred and that the facts are as the applicant stated them. The statute caps the fee at half the first certified copy fee, which is where the $5.00 figure comes from. An agency that asked for a certified copy will not accept it.

Hawaii runs its own ordering portal at vitrec.ehawaii.gov, paid by debit or credit card. Mail applications go to the State Department of Health, Office of Health Status Monitoring, P.O. Box 3378, Honolulu, HI 96801, with a copy of identification and payment by cashier's check, certified check, or money order. In-person service accepts cash, credit card, or check. Requests for apostille or authentication are handled separately.

Older Hawaii Records

Hawaii's earliest marriage records predate the modern registration system and sit with the Hawaii State Archives rather than the Department of Health, along with some early church-held registers that were never centralized. This article does not state specific archival year ranges because the archival holdings ranges circulating in secondary genealogy guides were not confirmed against a primary Hawaii State Archives source during research. Contact the State Archives directly for its current holdings and finding aids before relying on a date range you find elsewhere.

For records still held by the Department of Health, there is a statutory genealogy route that bypasses the eligibility test entirely. HRS section 338-18(e) provides that the Department may permit persons working on genealogy projects access to microfilm or other copies of vital records of events that occurred more than one hundred fifteen years before the current year, which for a request made in 2026 means events before 1911. The subsection is permissive, so the Department decides whether to grant access and on what terms, and it covers viewing copies rather than the issuance of a certified copy. A family researcher whose target record is old enough does not have to establish a common ancestor to ask.

For divorce, note that any historical Department of Health divorce holdings are affected by the February 2026 change in custody, and the Judiciary is the right first call for a divorce of any era.

Related Hawaii Records and Laws

• Marriage and divorce records by state for how Hawaii's court-only divorce model compares to states that still issue a divorce certificate
• How to get a copy of your marriage certificate for the general ordering walkthrough
• How to find out if someone is married or divorced for the limits of public index searching
• Hawaii death records, which use the same direct and tangible interest eligibility standard
• Hawaii divorce laws for residency, grounds, and process
• Hawaii public records laws for records held by state agencies rather than the courts

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about how Hawaii marriage and divorce records are held and released as of the verification date above. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. The February 2026 change to divorce record custody is recent, and the Judiciary's procedures and fees are set by circuit. Confirm current requirements with the Hawaii Department of Health or the relevant Legal Documents Branch before relying on any detail here.

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Last updated: 2026-08-04. The divorce custody change, eligibility language, and fees reflect the agency pages as published on that date.