Michigan Court Information

Michigan follows all the other states in the U.S. in terms of the legal practices that are followed here. The courts of this state serve as the authorized custodians of the valuable personal records of the people residing in Michigan. You can therefore contact any Michigan court if you are looking for certain legal or personal information.

This is of course not the main reason why most people approach the courts. They do so for legal intervention and to seek justice. The state legal system is adequately armed to provide this service through various types of courts and different jurisdictions. There are trial courts with general jurisdiction and appellate courts that you can approach when you want a review of the decision made by a lower court.

Here are the state courts in Michigan:

•    The Supreme Court
•    The Appellate Court, or Court of Appeals
•    The District Courts
•    The Circuit Courts (for 57 circuits)
•    The Probate Courts

The state’s Supreme Court is located at the Michigan Hall of Justice, P.O. Box 30052, Lansing, MI 48909. The Supreme Court is at the top of the court system in the state and below this is the appellate court or Court of Appeals, which is followed by the trial courts. The trial courts can again be of two types – those having multiple judges, and ones that are presided over by a single judge.

Michigan's Supreme Court

http://courts.michigan.gov/supremecourt

is the website of the Supreme Court in Michigan.

Other than reviewing cases and filing judgments, the Supreme Court is also responsible for overseeing work done by the lower courts in the state. In this task, the Supreme Court is assisted by the State Court Administrative Office, which is a court agency. This Michigan court also works to change the state laws, and other issues related to administration.

Michigan's Court of Appeals

The appellate court, or Court of Appeals, is the intermediate level court where appeal cases come from the lower trial courts. There is a panel of 3 judges that hears all cases, and follow the principle that past precedents in deciding a case must be followed. There can however be disagreements with a past precedent and in such cases there is a conflict panel of 7 members that resolve the issue at hand.

The website of the Court of Appeals is

http://coa.courts.mi.gov

.

Legal Framework of Michigan: Rules and Regulations

Specific legal codes influence the mode of working of the courts in Michigan. In case you wish to send a written communication to any of the courts, you must remember to do it through prescribed forms. Thankfully, all such court forms can be obtained from the Michigan court website at http://courts.michigan.gov/.

The Michigan courts across the state are aided by the Michigan Judicial Institute, which is responsible for the development of legal research processes and the arrangement of relevant and educational law seminars. The legal references are also published by them.

There are certain ‘standards’ that the Trial Courts of Michigan, by law, are bound to follow. These courts also use recent communications data for the settlements of the cases that they hear.

The administrative functions of the courts of Michigan are taken care of by the Supreme Court of the state. This court arranges the resolution of Oral Arguments.

Information on trial courts by county, including district, probate, family and other courts, is available at:

http://courts.michigan.gov/scao/services/dirs/trialdir.htm