An Open Letter to Chief Justice Vladimir Devens

Aloha Chief Justice Devens,

We’ve never met, but I am certain that a few, or perhaps even many, of your colleagues are loyal readers of Jail Mail.

Although you’d be perfectly justified to ask, “Who the fook is that guy?!” I assure you, as a professional bail agent, I’ve been in the judiciary trenches for over two decades. Through the experience of bailing out thousands of clients, I’ve developed a keen eye for character assessments based on limited information.

Judging by the fact that you deferred making a speech immediately following your confirmation, my conclusion is clear: you are a doer, not a talker. As Benjamin Franklin famously put it, 

“Well done is better than well said.” 

So, let’s go!

My Strongest Thought for your Consideration: The Devens Endowment

The Judiciary as a Financial Clearinghouse

The Hawaii Judiciary currently operates as a massive financial clearinghouse—a mid-sized bank that, for some reason, refuses to collect interest and reinvest in itself. Every month, millions of dollars flow through its doors in the form of cash bail, court costs, and various criminal and civil payments. The Judiciary also serves as a giant escrow agent, holding massive sums in restitution fees, criminal fines, and filing fees.

I know you know exactly how the Hawaii State Bar Association and Office of Disciplinary Counsel are funded; yes, off the interest passively earned through the IOLTA account. 

For readers unfamiliar with the term—which, until I researched this piece, I had no clue about either—an IOLTA (Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts) is a pooled, interest-bearing account used by attorneys to hold client funds. Below are links, so you can review the exact details:

• HSBA IOLTA Information
• Complying with Rule 11 IOLTA

Under Hawaii Supreme Court Rule 11, the interest generated by these stagnant sums is automatically remitted to the Hawaii Justice Foundation to fund legal aid and public outreach. It is a proven financial engine that turns idle capital into a public good—a model the Judiciary could easily scale for its own multimillion-dollar endowment. 

Since Chief Justice William S. Richardson already has the naming rights to the UH Law School, the next best thing is to name the endowment after yourself. The Devens Endowment—I really like the sound of that.

A Deeper Dive

According to the Judiciary’s own FY 2025 Report on Non-General Funds, the institution manages a portfolio of trust and special fund accounts totaling tens of millions of dollars. As of the start of the 2026 fiscal year, these accounts held a combined balance that could easily serve as the seed for a high-yield endowment. 

Right now, this mountain of capital is just sitting there, stagnant and unproductive. We are talking about tens, perhaps hundreds, of millions of dollars in idle liquidity that is currently making exactly zero percent for the people of Hawaii.

By failing to move these "trust" funds into high-yield, commercial-grade accounts, the Judiciary is leaving a fortune on the table. It is time to treat the third branch like the sophisticated financial entity it actually is. During the Recktenwald tenure, periodically, an ambitious senator or representative would stifle judiciary money requests and play politics with the release of funds, trying to intervene in matters they had no business influencing.

A prime example of this was the 2017 Retaliation via Budget and Pensions fiasco. Following court rulings that required the legislature to fund Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) administrative expenses, lawmakers introduced punitive measures, including bills to cut judges' pensions and create a new Senate confirmation process for the renewal of judicial terms. 

While these measures did not ultimately pass, they were widely viewed by legal experts as an attempt to use financial and structural power to influence the courts. By establishing its own revenue source through an endowment, the Judiciary can finally exercise its true independence, ensuring it is no longer beholden to a legislature that uses the budget as a weapon of retaliation.

Let Banks Fight for your Business

I asked Gemini, Google’s version of ChatGPT, to scour the internet and provide a few options for the highest yield and strongest financial stability for commercial deposits. My top two choices are Prime Alliance Bank and Live Oak Bank. Here’s the rundown:

• Prime Alliance Bank (Business Savings):
  • Current APY: 3.75% (on balances over $200k)
  • The Fit: A top choice for "storing" massive amounts of capital. They specialize in high-balance reserves, offering some of the highest risk-free rates in the country for commercial entities.
• Live Oak Bank (Business Savings):
  • Current APY: 2.85% – 3.80% (Tiered for Institutional)
  • The Fit: Highly reputable for specialized business banking. They offer expanded FDIC insurance coverage (often up to $10M through sweep networks), which would be a primary concern for a government entity like the Judiciary.

The Power of Compound Interest: One-Year Growth

To give you some real numbers, we will use a conservative average APY of 3.5%. This accounts for market fluctuations while remaining realistic for high-yield commercial accounts.

The Math (Baseline: $10M):

• Principal: $10,000,000.00
• Compounding: Monthly

You don’t even have to go to law school to be amazed by the magic of compound interest.

Again, I know you don’t know me from Adam, but the idea is solid. I’ve actually run this by a few of the best legal minds in Hawaii, and they agreed. 

I offer this for your consideration and wish you the best as you strengthen and potentially future-proof the Hawaii Judiciary’s financial independence.

Invested in the future of our courts 😉 

- Jail Mail Nick