Hawaii Personal Jurisdiction

Whether or not an individual or entity may be sued in Hawaii depends on "Personal Jurisdiction." This is generally determined by the number and type of contacts that the defendant has with Hawaii. To subject a nonresident defendant to to jurisdiction in Hawaii, long-arm statute and constitutional due process requirements must be met. In order to meet Constitutional due process requirement, the Court has to have "either general jurisdiction or specific jurisdiction" over the defendant.

The Plaintiff has the burden of establishing personal jurisdiction over a nonresident defendant. This means that the individual filing a lawsuit has to be able to establish that the defendant has the requisite "minimum contacts" with Hawaii. However, this is not that heavy a burden since "the Plaintiff need only make a prima facie showing of jurisdictional facts" to avoid dismissal. Schwarzenegger v Ford Motor Co., 374 F.3d 797, 800 (9th Cir., 2004). If Plaintiff is successful in making a prima facie showing on the motion to dismiss, Plaintiff must eventually establish jurisdiction by a preponderance of the evidence at trial.

"In determining whether [the plaintiff] has met this burden, uncontroverted allegations in [the] complaint must be taken as true, and 'conflicts between the facts contained in the parties' affidavits must be resolved in [the plaintiff's] favor for purposes of deciding whether a prima facie case for personal jurisdiction exists." AT&T Co. v Compagnie Bruxelles Lambert, 94 F.3d 586, 588 (9th Cir., 1996)(quoting WNS Inc. v Farrow, 884 F.2d 200, 203 (5th Cir., 1989).

General jurisdiction requires that defendant's contact with the state be continuous, systematic, and substantial. Ultimately, it is difficult for the defendant to prevail on a motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction, since dismissal is such a drastic result to the Hawaii plaintiff. In my experience, if the plaintiff is able to establish Hawaii contacts by the defendant related to the case, the court will likely find personal jurisdiction.