Open Records

Hawaii’s public records law is the Uniform Information Practices Act (Modified), commonly known as UIPA, found at Chapter 92F of the Hawaii Revised Statutes. It gives the public the right to request access to government records from state and county agencies, administered by Hawaii’s Office of Information Practices (OIP).

Who can request records

Anyone may submit a UIPA request – there are no citizenship restrictions. This includes members of the public, foreign citizens, military and civilian personnel acting as private citizens, organizations, and businesses.

What’s covered

UIPA applies to all branches of Hawaii state and county government, including the judicial branch, though with some restrictions on which judicial records can be released.

How to request

A formal UIPA request must: 1. Be in writing. 2. Include sufficient contact information for the agency to correspond with you. 3. Provide a reasonable description of the record requested. 4. State how you’d like to receive the record (pickup, mail, electronic, etc.). Most state agencies accept requests by email to a dedicated UIPA request address; OIP also provides a standard request form. Informal requests are handled at the agency’s discretion within “a reasonable amount of time.”

Response timeline

A formal request should get a response within 10 business days. If the agency needs more time, it must notify the requester and generally can’t extend by more than an additional 5-10 business days beyond that. In practice, data collected since 2016 shows Hawaii state and county agencies respond to the typical UIPA request in about 8 business days on average – notably faster than many states, and much faster than federal FOIA turnaround times.

Fees

– Copying: at least $0.05 per page. – Search time: $2.50 per 15 minutes. – Review and segregation (redaction) of records: $5.00. – The first $30 of fees is automatically waived for every requester. – Public interest and media requesters can have up to $60 of fees waived if they can show their primary purpose is serving the public interest and they have the actual capability to disseminate the information. – According to OIP’s own data, requesters paid nothing 88% of the time for state agency requests and 76% of the time for county agency requests – most typical requests end up free in practice. – If an initial fee estimate seems too high, requesters can narrow or clarify their request to bring the estimate down.

Exemptions

UIPA doesn’t require agencies to withhold any particular record – other laws (like the state constitutional right of privacy) may separately require confidentiality for certain information, but where only UIPA applies, agencies retain discretion to disclose. This makes Hawaii’s law somewhat more disclosure-friendly in structure than many states’ more rigidly categorized exemption lists.

If your request is denied or delayed

If an agency doesn’t respond by the regulatory deadline or a meaningful response doesn’t materialize after follow-up, requesters can contact OIP directly for assistance – OIP can informally help resolve access problems. If a complainant ultimately prevails in a legal action to enforce a UIPA request, the court must award reasonable attorney’s fees and other litigation expenses against the agency. The circuit court with jurisdiction is wherever the request was made, wherever the record is maintained, or wherever the agency’s headquarters is located.

A note on terminology

Hawaii’s law is officially the “Uniform Information Practices Act” (UIPA) – the same basic type of law that other states call an “Open Records Act,” “FOIA Laws” (South Carolina), or “Public Records Laws” (Tennessee).