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Hawaii court costs

Hawaii probate filing cost: $150

HRS § 607-5, the circuit-court cost schedule, imposes two mandatory charges on a probate filing. Item (c)(14) fixes the fee for "Probate, administration, domiciliary foreign personal representative, or ancillary administration"; item (c)(32) adds a separate administrative cost levied on "all civil filings except those brought by the State or any of the various counties or political subdivisions of the State". A circuit-court probate filing is a civil filing, so both apply. The two statutory components combine to an opening total of $150, itemized in the fee schedule below, and each component is pinned to its own primary-source assertion. The § 607-5 preamble excludes small estates whose amount is fixed by another statute; items (14) and (32) themselves fix these charges.

$150 is the amount the statute states. Sources reviewed August 9, 2026. Latest primary-source re-fetch October 3, 2026.

What the statute charges

Every line below is computed from the statutory schedule quoted at the end of this page. These are court charges only. They are not an estimate of the total cost of settling an estate.

Opening a decedent's estate (probate/administration) in Circuit Court

Charge$25,000 estate$100,000 estate$400,000 estate$1,000,000 estate
Probate/administration filing fee (HRS § 607-5(c)(14))$100$100$100$100
Administrative cost on all civil filings (HRS § 607-5(c)(32))$50$50$50$50
Total from this schedule$150$150$150$150

Not included in this total

  • Certified copies
  • Publication of notice to creditors
  • Later account and distribution fees

The $150 total is the sum of the two mandatory § 607-5 components ((c)(14) $100 + (c)(32) $50); it does not include per-copy, publication, or later-filing charges.

Source: Haw. Rev. Stat. § 607-5(c)(14), Hawaii State Legislature. Edition/currentness: am L 2025, c 298, §23. Verified October 3, 2026.

What the $150 is made of

Hawaii’s $150 figure is not a single line. It is the sum of the separate charges below, each set by its own part of the Hawaii fee provision. Every one is a permanent, statewide charge on opening this kind of case, which is why they combine into one number a filer can check rather than take on trust.

  • $100Probate, administration or ancillary administration, item (c)(14)
  • $50Administrative cost on all civil filings, item (c)(32)

Added together, these come to $150 — the figure this page headlines. If any component changed in the source, the sum would no longer match, and the build withholds the total rather than publishing a number whose parts no longer add up.

Charges the $150 figure leaves out

These amounts appear in or beside the same Hawaii schedule, so a reader can easily mistake one for part of the fee. Each is held out of the figure above for the specific reason given, which is the difference between an honest total and an inflated one.

A fee for a different filing

Family court and mechanic's-lien proceedings, items (20) and (29)
the $15 items are a residual family-court proceeding and a mechanic's-lien filing, both different proceedings.
Demand for jury trial, item (21)
the $200 is the jury-trial demand fee, a different proceeding.
Search of records and exemplification, items (24) and (27)
the $2 items are a record search and an exemplification, distinct clerk services, not the filing fee.
Certification of copy under seal, item (26)
the $1 is a per-document certification service, not the filing fee.
Notice of completion and other-paper filings, items (28) and (30)
the $3 items are a notice-of-completion filing and a miscellaneous paper filing, different proceedings.
Matrimonial, adoption and parent-child determinations, items (15), (16) and (19)
three separate $100 family-court filings (matrimonial action, adoption, and determination of parent-child relationship), each a different proceeding from the decedent-estate probate.
Filing of notice of appeal, item (23)
the $100 is the fee for filing a notice of appeal, a different proceeding from the probate filing.
Remand to district court on jury demand, item (22)
the second $50 is the fee to remand a case to district court when a jury trial is waived, a different proceeding from the administrative-cost fee counted under item (32).

What the Hawaii figure leaves out

Other costs: probate cost lines.

Filing-cost source

Hawaii record: 5/5 verified, 16 matched checks, latest source re-fetch October 3, 2026. Source record · method · report a correction

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