Hawaii: legal help you can afford
There is no public defender for a divorce in Hawaii, or anywhere else — the right to a free lawyer is a criminal-case right, and a divorce is a civil case. What exists instead is on this page, with the link to each one. Start with the fee waiver and the question of whether your spouse can be made to pay your legal fees, because those two are the ones people never think to ask about.
See a different stateHawaii
The five things to try, in this order
Ordered by how much they are worth relative to how hard they are, not alphabetically.
- Ask about the filing fee waiver. In Hawaii it is called In Forma Pauperis (Declaration in Support of Request to Proceed In Forma Pauperis). Form 3F-P-273 (Third Circuit Family Court version). Court-fee waiver forms vary somewhat by judicial circuit (Oahu/First Circuit, Hawaii/Third Circuit, etc.).
- Ask whether your spouse can be ordered to pay your lawyer. Governs support/property orders in divorce and provides for the court’s award of attorneys’ fees, costs, and expenses incurred by each party by reason of the divorce. (Haw. Rev. Stat. § 580-47)
- Check the statewide legal-aid portal. LawHelp Interactive (used for Hawaii self-help forms) / Hawaii State Judiciary Self-Help Resources lists the program that covers your county and what it takes.
- Use the court self-help service. Hawaii State Judiciary Self-Help – Divorce. Basic facts about divorce in Hawaii, divorce forms, court fees, and other resources.
- Try the bar referral service. Hawaii State Bar Association Lawyer Referral & Information Service (LRIS). Described as ‘the only bar-sponsored attorney referral in the State of Hawaii’; phone (808) 537-9140. Modest-means fee structure not confirmed in sources checked.
Legal aid in Hawaii
Legal aid organizations are funded to serve people under an income threshold, and family cases are one of the areas they most often take. Being turned down by one is not the end of it — the threshold, the caseload and the priorities differ by program and by month.
| Organization | Who it covers | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Legal Aid Society of Hawai’i | statewide (Oahu, plus neighbor island offices) | Intake: 808-536-4302 (Oahu) / 1-800-499-4302; runs Court Self-Help Centers/Access to Justice Rooms. |
University of Hawaii William S. Richardson School of Law – Family Law Clinic. Clinics are free, supervised by faculty, and the students have far more time for your case than a stretched legal aid lawyer does. They take few cases and they follow the academic year, so the answer depends heavily on when you ask.
Worth knowing about Hawaii
- The Family Law Clinic places students with the Legal Aid Society of Hawaii to provide direct legal services to family-law clients.
Limited scope representation. You hire a lawyer for one piece — one hearing, one document, a review of an agreement before you sign it — and do the rest yourself. It costs a fraction of full representation and it puts a lawyer in the two or three moments that actually change the outcome. How it works, and where it is permitted.
Compiled 31 August 2026 from each organization’s own site, the state courts and the state bar. Legal aid funding and eligibility change, sometimes mid-year. Always check the link before relying on anything here. Corrections welcome.
Keep reading
- The national picture — fee waivers, unbundling, fee awards
- The Hawaii divorce kit — forms, fees and deadlines
- Doing it without a lawyer
- Questions to ask a lawyer
- What divorce costs
- What two households cost