2023 Hawaii Revised Statutes
Title 17. Motor and Other Vehicles
291D. Adjudication of Traffic Infractions
291D-5 Notice of infraction; form; determination final unless contested.

§291D-5 Notice of infraction; form; determination final unless contested. (a) The notice of traffic infraction for moving violations, and the notice of emergency period infraction, shall include the summons for the purposes of this chapter. Whenever a notice of traffic infraction or notice of emergency period infraction is issued, the person's signature, driver's license number or state identification number, electronic mail address, and current address shall be noted on the notice. If the person refuses to sign the notice of traffic infraction or notice of emergency period infraction, the officer shall record this refusal on the notice and issue the notice to the person. Anyone to whom a notice of traffic infraction or notice of emergency period infraction is issued under this chapter need not be arraigned before the court, unless required by rule of the supreme court.

(b) The forms for the notice of traffic infraction and notice of emergency period infraction shall be prescribed by rules of the district court, which shall be uniform throughout the State; provided that each judicial circuit may include differing statutory, rule, or ordinance provisions on its respective notice of traffic infraction or notice of emergency period infraction.

(c) A notice of traffic infraction or notice of emergency period infraction that is generated by the use of electronic equipment or that bears the electronically stored image of any person's signature, or both, shall be valid under this chapter.

(d) The notice of traffic infraction or notice of emergency period infraction shall include the following:

(1) A statement of the specific infraction for which the notice was issued;

(2) Except in the case of parking-related traffic infractions, a brief statement of the facts;

(3) A statement of the total amount to be paid for each infraction, which amount shall include any fee, surcharge, or cost required by statute, ordinance, or rule, and any monetary assessment, established for the particular infraction pursuant to section 291D-9, to be paid by the person to whom the notice was issued, which shall be uniform throughout the State;

(4) A statement of the options provided in section 291D-6(b) for answering the notice and the procedures necessary to exercise the options;

(5) A statement that the person to whom the notice is issued shall answer, choosing one of the options specified in section 291D-6(b), within twenty-one days of issuance of the notice;

(6) A statement that failure to answer the notice within twenty-one days of issuance shall result in the entry of judgment by default for the State and may result in the assessment of a late penalty;

(7) A statement that, at a hearing requested to contest the notice, pursuant to section 291D-8, no officer shall be present unless the person to whom the notice was issued timely requests the court to have the officer present, and that the standard of proof to be applied by the court is whether a preponderance of the evidence proves that the specified infraction was committed;

(8) A statement that, at a hearing requested for the purpose of explaining mitigating circumstances surrounding the commission of the infraction or in consideration of a written request for mitigation, the person shall be considered to have committed the infraction;

(9) A space in which the signature of the person to whom the notice was issued may be affixed; and

(10) The date, time, and place at which the person to whom the notice was issued shall appear in court, if the person is required by the notice to appear in person at the hearing.

(e) In the case of traffic infractions involving parking or equipment, where the motor vehicle is found parked or stopped without a driver, the notice shall be affixed conspicuously to the vehicle as provided in section 291C-167 and shall include the information required by paragraphs (1) and (3) to (9) of subsection (d). [L 1993, c 214, pt of §2; am L 1997, c 60, §9; am L 2005, c 48, §2; am L 2007, c 85, §4; am L 2020, c 59, §3; am L 2021, c 185, §8]

Rules of Court

Notice, see HCTR rule 9.