Rule 3 Form of Pleadings and Motions

(a) Form. All pleadings and documents to be filed shall be typewritten, printed, photocopied, or otherwise similarly prepared by a duplication process that will produce clear and permanent copies equally legible to printing. Conventionally filed documents shall be printed upon unruled, opaque, unglazed white paper of standard quality not less than 13 pound weight, 8 1/2 x 11 inches in size. Each sheet shall have a margin at the top and bottom of 1 inch (except as otherwise provided in paragraph (c) of this Rule). The left-hand and right-hand side margin shall be not less than 1 inch and documents shall be typewritten in heavily inked black ribbon or printed in black. The type shall be standard 12 point pica or equivalent. For conventionally filed documents, copies, but not originals, may be two-sided. The lines on each page shall be double-spaced or one and one-half spaced; provided, however, descriptions of real property, and quotations, may be single spaced. All pages shall be numbered consecutively at the bottom. Conventionally filed documents shall be firmly bound together at the top and exhibits may be

fastened to pages of the specified size. Documents, when prepared by a machine-copying process, shall be equal to typewritten material in legibility and permanency of image. Conventional signatures and all other handwritten entries on documents shall be in black ink.

(b) No flyleaf shall be attached to any document. No flyleaf shall be attached to any document. All documents shall be filed without backs and shall be neat, clean, legible and free of interlineations.

(c) Form of first page. The first page of each document, except as provided hereinbelow in (d), shall be in the following form:

(1) The space at the top left of the center of the page shall contain the name, attorney number, office address, telephone number, facsimile number (if any), and electronic mail address of the attorney for the party in whose behalf the document is filed, or of the party if the party is self-represented;

(Amended October 8, 2020, effective January 1, 2021; further amended November 5, 2020, to extend effective date to July 1, 2021; further amended March 30, 2021, to extend effective date to January 1, 2022.)

(2) The space at the top right of the center of the page shall contain at least a 3-inch top margin to be left blank for the use of the clerk of the court, including for affixing the electronic file stamp;

(3) The name of the court shall be centered and not less than 3 inches from the top of the page;

(4) The space to the left of the center of the page shall contain the title of the cause (which title shall include the names of all of the parties in the initial pleading, but thereafter may be appropriately abbreviated);

(5) In the space to the right of the title of the cause, there shall be listed the class and case number followed in civil cases by the category best describing the claims asserted in the case and followed in all cases by a title describing the document (which shall include an appropriate notation if a jury trial is demanded in the document).

The category best describing the claims asserted in a civil case shall be selected from the following:

Agency Appeal

Agreement of Sale Foreclosure

Asbestos

Assault & Battery Condemnation

Construction Defects

Consumer Debt Collection

Contract

Declaratory Judgment

Environmental Court

Foreclosure

Legal Malpractice

Medical Malpractice

Motor Vehicle Tort

Product Liability

Other Civil Action

Other Non-Vehicle Tort

Quiet Title

(Amended August 3, 2021, effective January 1, 2022.)

(6) At the bottom margin, the Certification or acknowledgment of service may be entered.

(7) Below the title of the document shall indicate:

(A) the name of the judge or "none" if the case is not assigned to a judge, and

(B) the trial date or "none" if the case has not been set for trial.

(8) In cases involving multiple plaintiffs or defendants, the title of any pleading or other document shall identify:

(A) The name of the party filing the pleading or other document; and

(B) In the case of a responsive pleading or other document (i) the name of the party that filed the pleading or other document to which the responsive pleading or other document is addressed and (ii) the title and filing date of the pleading or other document to which the responsive pleading or other document is addressed.

(d) Two or more pleadings or other documents filed together. Where 2 or more pleadings or other documents are conventionally filed together, only the first page of the first document shall follow all of the requirements of (c) hereinabove; and in addition thereto, there shall be listed, after the case number and before the title of the document, the title of all of the documents that are being filed together. The top of the first page of each document other than the first shall start with the name of the court and include the class and case number, the title of the cause and the title of the document, in appropriate spaces as set forth in (c) hereinabove. For electronically filed documents, the documents shall be filed as separate docket items, pursuant to Rule 2 of the Hawai‘i Electronic Filing and Service Rules.

(e) Sanctions. The court may impose sanctions for non-compliance with these Rules.

(f) Forms furnished by the court. The court shall furnish such forms as shall have been approved by the supreme court, and those forms shall be used by counsel in all appropriate instances. Such forms shall not be subject to the format requirements of this Rule.