The Hawaii state circuit courts are the
trial courts of
general jurisdiction in
Hawaii. They are the primary civil and criminal courts of the
Hawaii State Judiciary. The circuit courts are the only Hawaii
state courts to conduct
jury trials. (The
District Courts conduct
bench trials while the
Intermediate Court of Appeals and
Supreme Court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
are
appellate courts).
The circuit courts have
exclusive original jurisdiction over
probate
Probate is the judicial process whereby a will is "proved" in a court of law and accepted as a valid public document that is the true last testament of the deceased, or whereby the estate is settled according to the laws of intestacy in the sta ...
and
guardianship cases,
criminal
In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Can ...
felony cases, and civil cases where the
amount in controversy exceeds US$40,000.
References
Hawaii state courts
Hawaii
Courts and tribunals with year of establishment missing
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