2016

California fish, not raisins, are the subject of a recent decision from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.  The case is Marilley v. Bonham and the opinion can be found here.

In Marilley, California’s vessel registration fees were challenged by non-resident commercial fishermen who argued, as a class, that charging nonresidents higher

My partner Gregory W. Kugle and I were pleased to present at our fourth annual Hawaii State Bar Association Real Property and Financial Services Section Real Estate Litigation Update for 2016. Greg covered the big cases from 2016, including the Thirty Meter Telescope, the Haleakala Telescope, Koa Ridge and Hoopili.  The topics covered and links

It is a rare day that this dirt lawyer, with an ocean-related blog, gets to blog about environmental law AND the ocean environment.  Dear readers – today is the day!  In a case certainly bound for the Hawaii Supreme Court, the Intermediate Court of Appeals (ICA) held that aquarium fish permit applications was not sufficient

Walk softly.

Walk softly, stranger.

The land on which you stand is Holy ground …

a place of unspoiled beauty, colored by the hand of God.

And you who stand upon this land will someday too

remember sun-washed sands and quiet days, and

moments crystallized in time.

Walk softly, stranger, 

for you stand on Holy

Hawaii’s position as the 50th State provides an interesting vantage to view the governance of those territorial areas that are within the United States but are not a state.  Since the late 1890’s, the United States has been vexed by the metaphysical question:  how do we classify those persons living in geographic areas under the

The Hawaii State Bar Association just released its statistics for the Hawaii license renewals for 2016.  It is an interesting snapshot of the legal profession in Hawaii and specifically the demographics of attorneys.  

Did you know that Hawaii has 93 judges?  903 government attorneys?

Hawaii has 4,858 active attorneys and 2,948 inactive attorneys.  With

The Hawaii Legislature is considering a bill to establish a business mitigation relief pilot program to assist some business impacted by Honolulu's rail project.  The bill is H.B. 2518 and while the aim of this bill is to mitigate the negative impacts of the construction of the rail project through Honolulu's urban core, there are