HONOLULU -- Hawaii taxpayers will pay $95 million for a new courthouse in Kapolei next year, even though the workload for Honolulu's civil and criminal judges has fallen dramatically in the last decade.

A KITV investigation revealed that judges handling lawsuits have half the caseload they did 10 years ago. It means many courtrooms sit unused for hours every day.

The fourth floor of Circuit Court, where civil cases are heard, is pretty much a ghost town in the afternoon many days. Only one was in use on Friday and that was for a wedding.

The 10 courtrooms dedicated to civil cases hosted only 10 jury trials last year.

"That is troubling and there is a danger that the public can lose its access to the courts," Hawaii Bar Association President Richard Turbin said.

Court statistics show that the number of lawsuits has dropped by more than half since 1995. So have the number of jury trials. Turbin thinks the cost of going to court is scaring people away.

"Unfortunately, the price of litigation has traveled beyond what the average person can afford," Turbin said.

Another big factor is changes in the auto insurance laws, which discourage lawsuits for anything but the most serious accidents.

The courts system strategy for avoiding lawsuits is to emphasize something called alternative dispute resolution.

A scene like last week, where more than 100 jurors were called for a sex abuse case against a priest, is rare. Even that case settled, which both sides preferred.

"You don't get an apology out of a jury trial," attorney Mark Bernstein said.

The number of felony jury trials has also dropped by half, even though the number of felony cases has remained about the same. That could be because prosecutors and new laws encourage plea agreements.

Facing so fewer jury trials could mean an opportunity for the judiciary to find new uses for courtrooms and judges.