Head of courts wants fewer of them

Hawaii’s chief justice says the state’s courts would run more smoothly if they were streamlined.

Last Thursday, in his State of the Judiciary address to the state Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division, Ronald Moon suggested a one-tier judicial system.

Currently, the system has district, family and circuit court. The judges don’t flow between systems. All felony trials are handled by Circuit Court judges, and Family Court judges can’t hear lawsuits. Moon said litigants and defendants must go from court to court, trying to determine which one they should be in.

He acknowledged that changing the system would take a while, because such a shift would require an amendment to the state’s constitution.

Moon added that it would also take judges a while “to get used to the idea.”

But Kaua’i County chief deputy prosecutor Craig De Costa doesn’t need any time. He likes the idea.

“The advantage of a one-tier system is that they can plug judges in where they need them. That way there is much more flexibility,” De Costa said.

One potential difficulty De Costa foresees is that each court’s jurists are appointed differently. Moon appoints District Court judges, while the governor picks the Circuit Court judges.

But, De Costa said, “just because they are appointed in District Court doesn’t mean they are not qualified for Circuit Court.”

Kaua’i has two Circuit Court judges (Clifford Nakea and George Masuoka) and two District Court judges (Calvin Murashige and Trudy Senda.

Staff writer Dennis Wilken can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) and mailto:dwilken@pulitzer.net

The Associated Press contributed to this report.