Hawaii state circuit court

The Hawaii state circuit courts are the trial courts of general jurisdiction in Hawaii's judicial system and the only Hawaii state courts empowered to hold jury trials, as opposed to the bench trials of the District Courts or the appellate courts above them. They hold exclusive original jurisdiction over probate and guardianship matters, felony criminal cases, and civil disputes worth more than $40,000. The system is organized into four circuits: the First Circuit for Oahu, based in Honolulu and the largest and most important of the four; the Second Circuit for Maui, Molokai and Lanai, based in Wailuku; the Third Circuit for Hawaii island, based in Hilo; and the Fifth Circuit for Kauai and Niihau, based in Lihue. A former Fourth Circuit was merged into the Third Circuit in 1943, and the state's statewide Tax Appeal Court and Land Court exist on paper without their own infrastructure, their duties instead carried out by First Circuit judges. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/