Public can now get notification of court hearings

The state Judiciary has made its eReminder service, which provides text and email notifications of upcoming court hearings and events, available to the general public.

People do not need to be involved in a case to sign up for reminders.

“Previously, the eReminder service was for defendants with certain criminal and traffic cases to remind them of their court dates,” Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald said in a news release Wednesday. “Registration was paper-based and while it was beneficial, our goal was to automate the process, expand the types of cases and make it available to the general public.

“We are happy to announce that registration is now online and there are 25 case types, spanning a wide variety of District, Circuit and Family court civil and criminal cases.”

Anyone can create an account and subscribe to an unlimited number of nonconfidential cases. The Judiciary doesn’t charge for the service, but, depending on a person’s cellphone plan, text messaging fees may apply.

Three reminders are sent for each hearing or event — seven days before, the day before and the day of the event. Notifications about a canceled hearing won’t be sent, but those registered will receive reminders for any new event dates scheduled.

The service doesn’t replace the official hearing notice from the courts that goes only to the parties in a case.

For more information and to sign up, go to courts.state .hi.us/ereminder.