Resources for Trial Court Administration
Find schedules and other information on filing fees, process server fees, Crime Victim Rights fees, fines and costs schedules, interest and COLA rates, and more.
Current grant opportunities available from a variety of organizations.
Find resources and available services for the areas of court management, such as case processing, facilities, finance, human resources, jury services, records and case files, and trial court collections. Find guidance and information on operating a court with concurrent jurisdiction or a problem-solving court. Find tools for making courts more accessible and measuring performance.
Find policy and procedural manuals, standards and guidelines, and policy and procedure directives issued by the State Court Administrative Office to provide management assistance and direction to the trial courts on the administration of the courts' business.
Find out what technology initiatives are taking place at the state level and what local courts are doing. Find legal authority, standards and guidelines, implementation plans, and other resources on e-filing, digital recording, interactive video, digital imaging, electronic records management, and other technology.
Management Assistance
At the request of a trial court, the Trial Court Services division of the State Court Administrative Office will conduct management assistance projects to review court operations and procedures in the areas of:
general court administration, probation services, and friend of the court offices
policies and procedures
human resources
records and case file management
case processing
jury management
collection and enforcement of fines and costs
Contact your regional office to discuss your needs and to make arrangements with Trial Court Services.
Pilot Projects
Periodically, the Supreme Court and the State Court Administrative Office authorize pilot projects to implement and study various aspects of the justice system, including trial court administration in order to improve operations and outcomes of the justice system. The pilot projects currently in operation throughout the state are listed below. Details of those projects are available by contacting the division responsible for monitoring the project.
Swift and Sure Sanctions
The Swift and Sure Sanctions Pilot Program is designed as an alternative to traditional probation, swiftly imposing small amounts of jail time in the event that a probationer violates the terms of their probation, such as failing a drug test or missing a meeting with a probation officer. These penalties are designed to make the consequences for violating terms of probation more certain, without the need to impose long-term and costly sentences on probation violators. Generally, violators are sentenced to jail within 72 hours of the violation. Swift and Sure Sanctions grants began as a $1.0 million pilot program in the FY 2011-12 budget, with funding expanded to $6.0 million in FY 2012-13. Four courts currently receive grants to establish Swift and Sure Sanctions programs, ranging from $200,000 to $350,000, with more courts expected in FY 2012-13. This pilot is being monitored by the Problem-Solving Courts program staff in Trial Court Services. See minimum data standards.
E-Filing
E-filing projects are established to study the effectiveness of electronically filing court documents in lieu of traditional paper filings. The Supreme Court authorizes these pilots through administrative order. The Court has authorized pilot projects in Antrim, Grand Traverse, Leelanau County; Macomb County; Midland County; Oakland County; Ottawa County; and Wayne County. Details of the pilot projects can be found in the Michigan Supreme Court Administrative Orders.
Genesee County Parent Representation Pilot Project
The Genesee County Parent Representation Pilot Project is designed to improve legal representation to parents involved in child protective proceedings by providing a social worker to work exclusively with parent attorneys. The social worker will work at the direction of legal counsel to support the following goals: (1) engage parents in the child welfare process and court proceedings; (2) increase parent participation in services; (3) increase involvement in parent-child visitation; (4) accelerate reunification; (5) decrease recidivism; (6) assist the attorney in preparation both in and out of the court system to improve the quality of legal proceedings and understanding of the parent client; (7) reduce continuances requested by parent attorneys involved with the project due to lack of preparation; and (8) decrease time for parents to achieve permanency and reunification. This pilot is being monitored by Child Welfare Services.
Genesee County Section 1115 Grant Program: "Parents and Children Together"
In 2009, Michigan's Office of Child Support and the State Court Administrative Office received a federal Section 1115 grant to expand the 7th Circuit Court's child support problem-solving court program called "Parents and Children Together" (PACT). The expansion allowed PACT to provide holistic services (e.g., job training, substance abuse counseling, and earlier court involvement) to 600 economically at-risk families. Three hundred of these families (the "job-loss cases") already had child support orders in place, but had recently experienced a financial setback such as a parent's job loss. The other 300 families (the "new-establishment cases") had new paternity establishment and child support cases. The results: In the job-loss cases, early intervention meant payers had their orders right-sized sooner and, as a result, accrued smaller arrears. Those payers maintained their efforts to pay support longer than those who did not benefit from early intervention. Others parts of the early services helped more of the job-loss payers to secure new employment. In the new-establishment cases, the child support payers tended, on average, to contribute more child support when they received early intervention services. These parents paid more child support when they participated in formulating the support order and when they had also developed a rapport with child support staff. In addition, including a parenting time provision in the first child support order created compliance with those support orders. See the full federal report.