§584-14  Civil action.  (a)  An action under this chapter shall be a civil action governed by the Hawaii rules of civil procedure or the Hawaii family court rules.  The mother of the child and the alleged father shall be competent to testify and may be compelled to testify, provided that no criminal prosecution, other than a prosecution for perjury, shall afterwards be had against the mother or the alleged father for or on account of any transaction, matter, or thing concerning which she or he may testify or produce evidence, documentary or otherwise.  Sections 584-11 and 584-12 shall apply in any action brought under this chapter.

     (b)  Testimony relating to sexual access to the mother by an unidentified man at any time or by an identified man at a time other than the probable time of conception of the child shall be inadmissible in evidence, unless offered by the mother.

     (c)  In an action against an alleged father, evidence offered by him with respect to a man who is not subject to the jurisdiction of the court concerning his sexual intercourse with the mother at or about the probable time of conception of the child shall be admissible in evidence only if he has undergone and made available to the court genetic tests, including blood tests the results of which do not exclude the possibility of his paternity of the child. [L 1975, c 66, pt of §1; am L 1979, c 105, §58; am L 1989, c 34, §4]

Law Journals and Reviews

  The Richardson Years:  A Golden Age of Law in Hawai`i.  33 UH L. Rev. 71 (2010).

Case Notes

  No right to jury trial.  5 H. App. 558, 705 P.2d 535 (1985).

  Court properly excluded evidence of sexual access to mother within and without probable conception period; exclusion of sexual access information and preclusion of cross-examination of mother regarding her earlier pregnancy did not violate due process.  6 H. App. 629, 736 P.2d 448 (1987).