Rule 44 Constitutionality of Statute

If you're involved in a Hawaiʻi appeal and you want to argue that a state law is unconstitutional, you have to tell the Attorney General about it. This rule only applies when the State of Hawaiʻi (or one of its agencies or employees) isn't already part of the case.

You need to send the Attorney General written notice as soon as the record is filed, or as soon as you raise the constitutional question in your appeal. The point is to give the state a heads up so it has a chance to weigh in and defend its own law, even if the state wasn't originally involved in the lawsuit.

This matters because courts generally want the government to have a chance to respond before a law gets struck down or challenged. If you skip this step, it could cause problems with how your case moves forward, since the state has a right to know when its laws are being questioned in court.