Rule 77.Circuit Courts and Clerks.

The circuit courts are deemed always open for filing pleadings, issuing and returning process, and handling interlocutory motions, orders, and rules, including documents filed electronically through JEFS or JIMS. Trials on the merits happen in open court, ordinarily in a regular courtroom, while other acts or proceedings can be handled by a judge in chambers, within or outside the circuit, without the clerk or other court officials present, except that a hearing other than an ex parte one can't be held outside the circuit without the consent of every affected party. The clerk's office itself stays open during business hours every day except weekends and legal holidays, and the clerk can grant routine matters, like issuing process or entering defaults, that don't need a court order, though the court can suspend, alter, or rescind the clerk's action for cause.

Once a judgment or an order requiring notice of entry is entered, the clerk serves notice by mail, the same way Rule 5 requires, on any unrepresented party who isn't in default, isn't a JEFS User, and hasn't consented to electronic service, and notes that service on the docket; the party who presented the judgment or order must also serve a copy under Rule 5. That mailed notice satisfies every notice requirement these rules impose, and the clerk's failure to give it, or a party's failure to serve it, doesn't extend the time to appeal or let the court excuse a late appeal, except as Rule 4(a) of the Hawai'i Rules of Appellate Procedure allows; the court can sanction a party who fails to give required notice, and electronic filing itself serves as notice of entry for registered JEFS Users.