Hawaiʻi launches statewide pre-eviction mediation filing program

This week Thursday marks the launch of a new statewide Pre-Eviction Mediation Filing Program. The two-year pilot requires landlords to participate in mediation before filing residential eviction cases involving non-payment of rent.

The program aims to prevent unnecessary evictions and reduce court congestion by addressing landlord-tenant disputes earlier in the process, before cases escalate into formal eviction filings.

The initiative builds on the success of earlier mediation efforts in Hawaiʻi. Those include Act 57, which kept 90% of participating tenants housed; the Early Eviction Mediation Program, which achieved a 90% agreement rate between landlords and tenants; and mediation used during the Maui Wildfire Act 202 emergency response.

Under the new program, landlords must issue a 10-day notice informing tenants of the opportunity to participate in mediation and upload the notice to a centralized website, www.mediationcentersofhawaii.org, which directs cases to the appropriate island mediation center. If a tenant schedules mediation within the initial 10-day period, an additional 10 days is provided for the mediation to take place before an eviction filing may proceed.

Mediation services are free for both landlords and tenants and are provided by trained, neutral mediators. Language interpretation is available upon request, and mediation centers offer technology assistance for participants who need support accessing Zoom-based mediation.

“We are taking the lessons learned during COVID and testing a professionalized, pre-eviction framework through this pilot program,” said Central Maui State Sen. Troy Hashimoto. “Instead of relying on limited resources in the courts, this data-driven approach encourages early dialogue and allows us to measure how effectively professional mediation can reduce court backlog and resolve disputes.”

The pilot will track outcomes through annual reports to the Hawaiʻi State Judiciary, providing data to inform future eviction prevention strategies statewide.

More information is available at www.mediationcentersofhawaii.org.