Question: What number do I call to get a TRO on a person?
Answer: On Oahu the phone number for Family Court’s temporary restraining order information hotline is 808-538-5959, which answers calls from 7:45 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. Monday through Friday, except for holidays. The protective order wouldn’t be issued over the phone — you must finalize the application in person in Kapolei or Honolulu — but you can get instructions and assistance over the phone or find details on the state Judiciary website, courts.state.hi.us. Click on “Self-Help” and choose “Protective Orders” from the pull-down menu.
If you are in immediate danger, call 911.
To be clear, you would seek a TRO through Family Court only if the person abusing you is a family or household member, a definition that includes a current or former spouse or reciprocal partner; someone you have a child with; parents, children and other blood relatives; or a current or former dating partner (including live-in). “Residing together” doesn’t include someone you live or lived with as an adult just to save money.
If the person harassing or abusing you isn’t a family member and doesn’t fit any of the other Family Court categories, you would request a TRO through District Court. On Oahu you would go in person to Honolulu District Court at 1111 Alakea St. and proceed to the third floor, according to the Judiciary website. Service hours are 7:45 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday, except for holidays. No appointment is needed.
Whether you apply through Family Court or District Court, a TRO court officer will help you fill out the petition and other forms, the website says. Be prepared to provide as much detail as possible in your petition, which will be reviewed by a judge, including “dates of abuse or threats; description of physical abuse, psychological abuse, or threats; information about property damage; documentation, if available, about abuse, including medical and police reports; and information about whether the defendant/ respondent owns a gun or has threatened you with one,” it says.
It might take several hours to complete the paperwork; arrange child care for the duration.
A TRO is a court order that prohibits an abuser from contacting, threatening or harming you or your children. Once granted, a TRO cannot be enforced until it is personally served on the alleged offender, generally by law enforcement, unless otherwise ordered by the court.
Q: Regarding the speed cams, what will the threshold be for a ticket? And will it go to the driver or to the registered owner, the way the red-light tickets do, which is not fair?
A: Under the law passed in 2024 but not yet being enforced, automated cameras at 10 Oahu intersections would generate a ticket to be mailed to a vehicle’s registered owner when a vehicle exceeds the posted maximum speed limit by “no less than 5 mph.”
It will be at least 60 days and maybe longer before the law is enforced.
The cameras are the same ones that enforce red-light running at those intersections by sending a ticket to the offending vehicle’s registered owner.
Q: Enforcement has been delayed so long, I wondered whether the whole country ever achieved REAL ID status.
A: Yes, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. “All states, the District of Columbia, and the five territories are REAL ID-compliant and issuing REAL ID-compliant driver’s licenses and IDs,” it says on its website. Full enforcement is scheduled for May 7, two decades after Congress passed the REAL ID Act in 2005, establishing minimum federal security standards for license issuance and production. The law was passed in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 2-200, Honolulu, HI 96813; call 808-529-4773; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
