Dismissal, almost without exception
If a personal injury lawsuit is filed in Hawaii after the applicable statute of limitations has run — the general two-year deadline under Haw. Rev. Stat. § 657-7, or the six-year outer boundary on a medical malpractice claim — the court will almost always dismiss the case as time-barred. This happens regardless of how strong the underlying claim actually is or how serious the injury turned out to be.
Courts apply these deadlines strictly
Statutes of limitations exist specifically to create a firm, predictable cutoff, and Hawaii courts generally enforce them that way. Being close to the deadline, or having a sympathetic reason for the delay that doesn't fit a recognized legal exception, isn't on its own a basis for a court to excuse a late filing.
A genuinely distinctive risk: the 6-year malpractice repose period
Because Hawaii's medical malpractice statute of repose bars a claim more than six years after the malpractice occurred, regardless of when it was actually discovered, there's a real risk of losing a claim even with a genuine, good-faith discovery argument. Someone who reasonably didn't discover an injury until close to the six-year mark may find that the repose period has already run by the time a claim could realistically be filed — a hard outer limit that the ordinary discovery rule can't extend past.
Negotiations end along with the legal leverage behind them
One of the more painful practical consequences: once the statute of limitations has actually run, an insurance company has no legal obligation to keep negotiating, to make any offer, or to pay anything at all — even if settlement talks were active and seemingly productive right up until the deadline passed.
If there's any doubt at all
Because the consequence of missing a deadline is generally permanent, and because Hawaii's rules genuinely differ depending on the type of claim and whether discovery-based timing applies, the only reliable way to know where things actually stand is to confirm the exact date with a licensed Hawaii attorney as early as possible.