Hawai‘i private attorneys get pay bump for first time in 20 years for court-appointed work

For the first time in 20 years, the pay will increase for private practicing attorneys conducting court-appointed work in the State of Hawaiʻi.

Gov. Josh Green signed into law the new pay scale that provides $150 an hour for work done in and outside of the courtroom. The pay had been paid $60 an hour for out-of-court work and $90 an hour for courtroom appearances.

The state and judicial employees say the increase will help attract the much-needed lawyers, decrease the burden on overworked public defenders, increase efficiency in handling cases, and provide better representation for defendants. 

Act 227 appropriates $214 million for fiscal year 2026 and $212 million for fiscal year 2027 for the Judiciary’s operating budget, which will cover this pay increase. The funds established in the new measure will support operating costs and also new permanent staff positions, including an additional District Court Judge and support staff in Kona. 

Third Circuit Court Chief Judge Wendy DeWeese said there has been a struggle to hire private attorneys to take on court-appointed cases at the low rate. This often causes cases to get continued for months because defendants are waiting for representation.

“In Circuit Court, I see cases I inherited where they’d been looking for an attorney since March, and they can’t move forward, and these are felony cases,” DeWeese said.

She said in District Court, the number of cases is “crushing,” about 16,000 a year for Kona.

In Hawai‘i, Circuit Courts have general jurisdiction over both civil and criminal cases, including felonies, and conduct jury trials. District Courts handle less serious offenses like traffic infractions, minor civil cases and preliminary hearings for felony cases.

Because of vacancies in the Public Defenders Office in Kona, DeWeese said the office has been unable to take on any new DUI cases.

While DUI cases are common, they are technically complicated cases because of the types of evidence collected from field sobriety tests, a chemical test or a blood draw to check blood alcohol content levels in a defendant.

“Anything like that requires technical knowledge,” said Kori Weinberger, vice president of the West Hawai‘i Bar Association.

While they aren’t glamorous cases, Weinberger, who works as a staff attorney with the 3rd Circuit Court, said a DUI trial takes a minimum of four hours.

“We’ve been appointing attorneys on O‘ahu because we can’t find anyone on the Big Island,” DeWeese said. “Everybody is just spread so thin.”

Most attorneys can make more money per hour in private practice. Weinberger said private practice attorneys normally charge $300 to $400 an hour.

“We don’t have big firms here,” Weinberger said.

She said many private practice attorneys on the Big Island do not have paralegals who can help them do work on cases.

The money they make in attorneys’ fees, Weinberger explained, also covers things like their office mortgage and their malpractice insurance.

Hawai‘i County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Annaliese Wolfe provided testimony supporting the pay increase in this past legislative session as president of the West Hawai‘i Bar Association.

Wolfe said defendants have to be brought to trial within 180 days after they’ve been charged in court, according to Hawai‘i state law. However, the prosecutor sees regular delays of starts in starting cases by up to 30 days because no court-appointed attorneys are available or willing to take the case.

Wolfe said the state can’t move cases without adequate representation for the defendants, which delays resolutions, consequences or rehabilitations.

Hayley Cheng, first deputy of the Public Defenders Office in Honolulu, said the court-appointed system and the Public Defenders Office go hand-in-hand.

“Anyone charged with a criminal offense is entitled to an attorney,” Cheng said. “Unfortunately, we’re not able to represent everyone due to conflicts of interest.”

The court-appointed attorneys help ensure that all people who enter the judicial system are provided representation.

Cheng said the higher pay incentivizes private attorneys to take on cases, “which has an overall positive impact on the system. We want effective representation for all defendants.”

This includes cases for those defendants who can’t afford to hire an attorney, Cheng said.

R. Hermann Heimgartner, who has been practicing law in Kona since 2011 and opened his law firm in 2015, said: “When the judiciary increased the fees, it allows the court-appointed attorneys to take the time to sufficiently and fearlessly represent members of the community who have a right to counsel.”

Heimgartner takes on appointed cases in federal court – from petty misdemeanors to felonies – which now pays $175 an hour, with increases every year. 

Heimgartner said with more court-appointed attorneys, it makes cases move through court smoother. When an appointment isn’t made or the defendant can’t afford private counsel, it delays everything.

“Especially for criminal defense cases, people have a constitutional right to effective counsel,” Heimgartner said. “It’s people’s lives and liberty that are at stake.”