Well-respected and influential attorneys who specialize in family law found themselves squabbling like parties in a bitter divorce in recent weeks over the state Judiciary's plans to move Family Court operations to Kapolei next year.

Nine O'ahu Family Court judges and their support staffs will be moved to the new $100 million Kapolei Family Court early next year. The project also includes a new juvenile detention facility to replace the undersized and aging detention home on Alder Street in Honolulu.

The dispute centered on language in a law passed in 2005 that funded construction of the the Kapolei court but which also provided that "court space and resources be retained for Family Court services in the existing Honolulu court location."

One trio of lawyers who have practiced in Family Court for decades — Paul Tomar, Edward Lebb and William Darrah — suggested suing the state over the planned Family Court move.

They said that despite the language in the funding law, they believe few resources will be left in operation at the current Family Court on the second floor of the Circuit Court building on Punchbowl Street.

The Department of Accounting and General Services, the state agency overseeing the construction project, "now proposes to transfer all of the operations of the Family Court to a new facility in Kapolei in the spring of 2010," according to Tomar, Lebb and Darrah.

A quartet of equally eminent family law practitioners — Charles Kleintop, Stephanie Rezents, Tim Luria and Richard Diehl — are adam-antly opposed to a lawsuit.

They are satisfied with the Judiciary's plans to move the court and leave behind a "triage" judge assigned to work in Honolulu to hear emergency matters and process time-sensitive paperwork, including requests for restraining orders against violent household members.

The issue came to a head at a meeting last month of members of the Family Law Section of the Hawaii Bar Association in which the idea of a possible lawsuit was voted down. Other ideas such as lobbying the Legislature couldn't be voted on because too many members left the meeting, leaving the remaining members one person short of a quorum.

"There was some acrimony," said Darrah. "Some people joked that it was like a custody fight."

In an e-mail, Tomar, Lebb and Darrah said they "deeply believe that the transfer of most/all Family Court services to Kapolei, due principally to transportation and other problems greatly exacerbated by a very bad economy, will gravely damage the ability of the Family Court to provide justice to the many, many thousands of Hawaii's families and children who are entitled to, and need, the protection of the Family Court."

The court handles divorces, child custody matters, restraining orders, juvenile and other family criminal proceedings, paternity disputes and a host of other issues involving the most sensitive and personal of legal problems.

"Each year the Family Court serves over 200,000 parents, children and others. In the last fiscal year alone there were over 19,000 new filings in the Family Court," the resolution authors said.

Nine Family Court judges on O'ahu handle more than 2,000 new cases each year, and "every new case is important," they said.

Transferring all that activity to one end of the island, without leaving resources closer to the center of Honolulu, will work a terrible hardship on families, the authors of the resolution said.

They took issue with suggestions that they are successful attorneys who tend to represent well-to-do clients and don't want the aggravation of regular early-morning drives to the new Kapolei facility.

"The transfer of Family Court services to Kapolei will not affect us, or our clients, who may have the resources to compensate us for the extra time we will have to take, and additional trouble which we will have to endure," the e-mail said.

"The real economic harm will be suffered by those unrepresented and by the less-established practitioners, whose clients may not have the same economic resources as ours do," the message said.

Tomar, Lebb and Darrah also complained that they have been unable to obtain detailed information from the Judiciary about what services, if any, will be retained in Honolulu.

Kleintop and his colleagues, who are satisfied with the plans to move the court, said information has been made available regularly and that more will be forthcoming.

It took the Judiciary more than three weeks to answer questions from The Advertiser about the Kapolei move.

Chief Justice Ronald T. Moon explained the plans for the "triage" judge who stays in Honolulu to handle some Family Court functions are still "a work in progress."

All Family Court judges will be in Kapolei, and early plans were to assign a lower court or part-time judge to the triage work. Budget restrictions "have complicated these plans," Moon said.

But the court is "committed to developing a solution to this important issue in time for the Kapolei deployment," he said.

Document filings will be accepted in Honolulu for Family Court matters and a document "courier service" will be established between the old and new courts, he said.

And two Honolulu courtrooms "will be upgraded with computer communication technology to facilitate video conferencing and video on-record appearances between Honolulu and Kapolei," he said.

Kids First, the family court's education program for divorcing parents and their children, will take place on alternating weeks at Kapolei and at the downtown Circuit Court complex, according to Moon. Now it is held Downtown every Wednesday afternoon.

Tomar, Lebb and Darrah plan to call another special meeting of the family law attorneys to discuss further their concerns about the move to Kapolei.