Third Judicial Circuit Court of Michigan Filing Rules

Stipulated ADR orders must identify the ADR process, the discovery deadline, the ADR completion date, the facilitator/mediator name, and state that ADR shall be completed no later than 60 days after the close of discovery.

A praecipe and notice of hearing must be submitted for each motion and each adjourned date.

Parties must disclose the use of AI.

The moving party must file a Notice of Hearing, Proof of Service, and Electronic Praecipe.

After a scheduling order is issued, the moving party must file only a notice of hearing with the date and time from the order.

Stipulated orders selecting an alternative ADR process must be filed within 120 days of the first responsive pleading.

Motions for Summary Disposition must be filed within 30 days after the close of discovery.

Joint Final Pre-Trial Orders are due 32 days before trial.

Judgment of Divorce and related orders must be submitted no later than 48 hours before the hearing.

Motions for Summary Disposition must be filed no later than 30 days after the close of discovery.

Adjournment of case evaluation is by motion; parties may stipulate to adjourn discovery through case evaluation only if case evaluation has never been adjourned.

Change from Track #1 to Track #2 may be submitted by stipulation and order.

Adjournment of Case Evaluation must be by motion.

The Court will not grant adjournments over the phone.

For general motions, only the moving party may request adjournments (with notice to all parties) and a maximum of two adjournments is allowed.

Parties having Zoom connection difficulties or needing a call-in number should call 313-224-5430.

The courtroom email is only for submitting the specified documents; other correspondence must go to the admin assistant or courtroom clerk.

The Court no longer accepts email regarding adjournments or case status from attorneys or their staff; parties must call the court instead.

Emails to the Court must include the case number and party names in the subject line.

Email is the preferred way to communicate with the Court; emails must include all parties, case name and number in the subject line, and a contact cellphone number.

The parties must file a joint pre-trial brief by the ordered deadline and provide a judge's copy to the Court.

All motions, joint final pretrial orders, trial briefs, jury instructions, appeals, and motions for reconsideration must be emailed to the courtroom in addition to e-filing.

Judge's copies of motions, responses, and replies must be mailed or dropped off with labeled exhibits; all copies must be bound; failure will result in non-consideration.

Judge's copies must be emailed to chambers after the motion is filed with the Clerk's Office.

Hard copies of General Motions must be submitted in advance of the hearing date.

The courtroom is paperless: parties must not email or mail copies of general motions or responses/replies to the courtroom unless the Court requests otherwise.

The courtroom is completely electronic: email copies of all motions, responses, and pre-trial orders to chambers and do not mail hard copies.

Paper copies of motions and responses are not required to be filed.

The Third Circuit Court is an e-filing court and litigants must register at mifile.courts.michigan.gov.

Motions must be praeciped through the ePraecipe portal for the court to address them.

The motion for default judgment must be served at least 7 days before the hearing.

Plaintiff Counsel is responsible for serving the Defendant.

A motion may be dismissed for improper service if a proof of service is not timely filed.

Counsel must accept email service; service is effective upon transmission unless the sender knows the email was not received.

Personal service is required for individuals under MCR 2.105, and certified/mail alone is not proper service on a corporation.

Orders must not be submitted on letterhead; such orders will be rejected.

All exhibits must be tabbed in a binder.

Orders submitted via e-file for signature must not contain firm lettering; those that do will be rejected.

Joint jury instructions must include separate indexes for preliminary and final instructions, list JI number and title, and each instruction must be on a separate page in size 14 font, case specific and gender specific.

Documents sent to the Court must be in PDF format, attached as separate PDFs, and include the case number in the document name and email subject line.

Motions and responses are limited to 20 pages; reply briefs are limited to 5 pages.

Reply briefs are limited to 5 pages.

Attorneys must obtain court approval for summary disposition motions/briefs or responses over 20 pages; reply briefs are limited to 5 pages.

Exhibits submitted with the emailed Judge's Copy of a motion are limited to 20 pages in total.

Reply briefs are limited to 10 pages, excluding attachments and exhibits.

Parties filing discovery motions must use the free virtual Discovery Mediation program, available Fridays 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. via Zoom, by scheduling with mediator coordinator Tina Sykes.

For summary disposition motions, the moving party must e-file the motion first, then contact the judicial attorney for a hearing date, then file a Praecipe and Notice of Hearing.

Motions to compel discovery must state that the movant conferred or attempted to confer in good faith before filing.

Attorneys must discuss motions to compel and other discovery motions with opposing counsel before filing.

Motions are typically heard on Fridays at 9:00 am unless otherwise approved.

Any document may be designated Confidential if the producing party in good faith determines it contains confidential or proprietary information.

Subsequent motions must be filed separately and the appropriate fee paid.

Pro hac vice admission requires verification from the State Bar of Michigan that all fees are paid and requirements met before the hearing.

Proposed orders must not be filed as a separate filing contemporaneously with a motion; attach the order as a proposed exhibit instead.