Course Description
Over forty-eight (48) years ago a small group of judges, lawyers, and other family law professionals got together and created the very first edition of the Hawaii Divorce Manual.
They hoped that the Manual would serve as "a prototype for the development of an entire set of attorney practice books in all major substantive areas", and as a "resource for standardized [divorce] forms", that the use of the Manual would result "in the upgrading of the quality of family law practice", and that by "increasing the efficiency of divorce practice [the Manual would create] cost savings that can be shared between the attorney and client."
With these same exact goals in mind, the Manual has now been updated thirty-two (32) times since it was first published in 1975.
The Judiciary website describes the Manual as a valuable resource for divorcing individuals, and those helping them. The Judiciary distributes copies of it to all of the Family Court judges. Appellate determinations cite it as authoritative. Only in the Manual can you find digests of all of the memorandum opinions and SDOs which since July 2008 have constituted the vast majority of all of the divorce-relevant determinations by the ICA, and the Supreme Court.
For these reasons, the Manual is the undisputed go to resource when it comes to understanding the law and process of divorce in Hawaii.
In 2021 we created The Manual Project, a collaboration of stakeholders including the HSBA, the FLS, the Richardson Law School, the Family Court, and the Mediation Center of the Pacific, dedicated to the continued success of the Manual. Together we have now created both the 2022 supplement, and the 2023 supplement, to the Manual.
The 2022 supplement to the Manual revises eighteen (18) of the twenty-five (25) Sections of the Manual. It completely updates Section 2 (Divorce Overview), the word searchable encyclopedia of divorce law and practice so that it now includes all of the cases and statutes through August 31, 2022. Because of its scope, the 2023 Manual supplement largely serves as a replacement for the 2015 9th edition of the Manual, with its 2016-2019 supplements.
The 2023 supplement to the Manual will be presented during the Family Law Section program at the HSBA bar convention on Friday October 20, 2023. Among other things, the 2023 supplement to the Manual will include:
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Digests of all of the divorce-relevant published opinions, memorandum opinions, SDOs, and otherwise citable orders and dispositions, decided by the ICA, and the Supreme Court, between August 1, 2022 and August 31, 2023.
- Digests of all of the divorce-relevant statutes enacted by the 2023 Hawaii legislature.
- An update of Section 3 (Custody) of the Manual including all of the cases and statutes pertaining to the determination of legal and physical custody of minor children incident to divorce decided/enacted since 2015.
- An update of Section 4 (Property Division) of the Manual including all of the published opinions and statutes pertaining to divorce property division decided/enacted since 2015.
- An update of Section 8 (Child Support) of the Manual including all of the cases and statutes pertaining to the determination of child support, child healthcare, and child education expenses for minor and dependent adult children incident to divorce decided/enacted since 2015.
- An update to Section 9 (Spousal Support) of the Manual including all of the cases and statutes pertaining to the determination of alimony incident to divorce decided/enacted since 2015.
- A copy of all of the HFCR 83 First Circuit Family Court divorce-related policy and procedure memoranda issued since the Manual was last updated.
- A copy of all of the HFCR 84 First Circuit Family Court-authorized divorce practice forms which are not on the Judiciary website.
Speakers:
Bill Darrah, Mediation Center of the Pacific & Roxanne Kwong, Law Offices of John W. Schmidtke, Jr
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