The Hawaii military affidavit

How Hawaii handles it

Hawaii has no separate military affidavit and no military checkbox. Paragraph 5 of the declaration attached to the district court default motion is the entire filing: "Defendant is not in the military service of the United States as defined by the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act." There is no box for a defendant who is serving and none for a plaintiff who cannot tell. If either is your situation, this form cannot honestly be signed and the motion is not the route.

Two motions share that declaration. Form 1DC17, the ex parte version, is used when the defendant "has failed to answer, appear or otherwise defend, and the time to otherwise move or plead has expired and has not been extended." Form 1DC18, the non-hearing version, is used when the defendant failed to appear at a pre-trial conference or trial, and it carries a Notice of Motion giving the other side 10 days from hand delivery or 12 days from mailing to write a response on the form itself, at the Civil Division, Third Floor, 1111 Alakea Street, Honolulu. Both are made under District Court Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 55(b)(2).

The rest of the declaration is about proving the money, not the service record. Paragraph 1 identifies you as the plaintiff or states your relationship to the plaintiff and confirms you are drawing on business records made at or near the time of the events. Paragraph 2 is a facts block on why the defendant owes the amount. Paragraph 3 lists exhibits 1 through however many support the claim. Paragraph 4 asks you to state your experience and certify the amount is fair and reasonable. Paragraph 5 is the military sentence, last on the page.

Numbering changes by circuit, wording does not. The First Circuit (Oahu) prints 1DC17 and 1DC18; the Second Circuit (Maui, Molokai and Lanai) prints the same text as 2DC17 and 2DC18. Use the set published by the district court where your case sits, because the caption on the form names the circuit.

District court civil filings go through the Judiciary Electronic Filing and Service System, live for district court civil since October 7, 2019. The Judiciary's Civil JEFS page tells filers that court-form ex parte motions and non-hearing motions can be e-filed without a cover sheet because "the motion itself is the cover sheet for the internal Order that will be printed, signed by a judge, then efiled by court staff," but that a proposed cover sheet is needed for anything a judge signs separately, and it names Judgment, Judgment for Possession, Writ of Possession and Garnishee Order. Large or numerous exhibits should be e-filed separately.

What trips filers up here

• You are handing the judge the finished judgment. Page 1 of 1DC17 ends with "SEE REVERSE" and page 2 is the COURT ORDER itself, with blanks for principal amount, interest and attorney's fees. The motion, the declaration and the order granting it are one document.
• Eviction runs through the same court and the same declaration. A summary possession case starts on form 1DC08, Complaint (Assumpsit and Summary Possession), and finishes with a Judgment for Possession (1DC35) and a Writ of Possession (1DC54). The default motion sits in between, which makes paragraph 5 the sentence a Hawaii landlord signs before a writ issues.
• The form carries a revision date of 08/03/2011 with a 09/2025 reprographics stamp, and its military sentence refers only to the federal act. Nothing on it points to Hawaii's own military civil relief chapter or to the Defense Manpower Data Center site, so nothing on the page tells a first-time filer where the answer comes from.
• Circuit court is a different animal. Nothing on the First Circuit's circuit court forms index, read on August 15, 2026, carries a military declaration, so a plaintiff seeking default in circuit court drafts the section 3931 statement themselves rather than filling in a printed paragraph.

Signing it: declaration, no notary

One block covers everything: "I have read this Motion, know the contents and verify that the statements are true to my personal knowledge and belief. I DECLARE UNDER PENALTY OF PERJURY THAT THE FOLLOWING IS TRUE AND CORRECT," followed by five numbered paragraphs and a single signature. No notary appears on the form.

No notary is needed. The signature block is an unsworn declaration under penalty of perjury, which is what 50 U.S.C. § 3931(b)(4) expressly allows. Signing it knowing the military statement is false is still a federal crime, and a state perjury exposure on top.

Getting the military-status answer right

The affidavit is only as good as the search behind it. The Defense Manpower Data Center runs the free lookup that courts and creditors rely on, and since 2026 it requires a free account even for a single record. Our guide to the DMDC SCRA website covers the search itself, what a "no information found" result does and does not prove, and the batch route for high-volume filers. The federal rules behind this form, including what happens when you genuinely cannot determine status, sit on the hub page.

If one was filed against you

A false affidavit is not a technicality. In May 2026 the Justice Department settled with a Florida property manager that swore a Navy sailor was not on active duty, took a default eviction judgment, and left him with an eviction on his record that a dozen landlords then refused to rent around: $60,000 to one servicemember plus a civil penalty . If a default judgment was entered against you while you were serving, it can be reopened; the default-judgment shield walks the deadlines.

Serving in Hawaii and looking for what the state adds to your own protections rather than court procedure? That is a different page: Hawaii SCRA benefits.