​Opinion & Order Search Tips

The Opinion & Order Search feature allows for easy retrieval of Michigan Supreme Court and Michigan Court of Appeals opinions. There are four methods available for searching: By Party Name, By Docket Number, By Keyword, and Advanced.

The search results include links to PDF copies of unpublished Court of Appeals opinions issued since July 1996, Supreme Court opinions and published Court of Appeals opinions issued since January 2001, Court of Appeals orders issued after January 1, 2005, and Supreme Court orders issued after September 21, 2005.

Opinions of the Michigan Court of Appeals are available the business day following the release date of the opinion.  

Notes:

• Published opinions released earlier than the above dates are available online from Thomson West, the official publisher of the Michigan Reports and the Michigan Appeals Reports. Several search methods are available at the Michigan Official Reports page to enable you to access historical Michigan Reports.
• To facilitate user access, published opinions will appear on this website before they have been reviewed by the Editor's Office and forwarded to the official publisher of the Michigan Reports and the Michigan Appeals Reports. When the official opinion is later uploaded to the web site, it will be flagged with this icon: &. Official opinions will be uploaded to this web site before they are available on any other web site.

By Party Name

Use the By Party Name search to locate a Court opinion or order for a specific party name. The party name can be the name of an individual or organization.

1. In the Party Name box, enter at least four characters of the name of the party.
2. Select either Supreme Court or Court of Appeals or Both to search simultaneously. (Both is selected by default.)
3. Click the Search button to begin the search.

Party Name Hints 

• Party names in certain case types, such as adoption and termination of parental rights, are suppressed to protect the privacy interests of the minor children. Thus, searching for opinions by party name may not produce any results for those case types.
• For a person, the format must be LastName FirstName. There should be no comma and only one space separating the Last Name from the First Name. (For example: Smith Tracy) It is not required to enter both a Last Name and a First Name, however, entering the First Name or at least part of the First Name will help narrow the search. In addition, if the party name is an organization, simply enter that name, minimum four characters. (For example: ABC Inc.)
• Once the search is complete, the resulting list of opinion and order links will display in alphabetical order of the party name. To open the opinion, click the desired Case Title link or the corresponding PDF icon. To view the Docket Sheet, click the View Docket Sheet link.

By Docket Number

Use the By Docket Number search to locate the Court opinions and orders for a specific docket number. The docket number is also known as the case number. Choose either Supreme Court or Court of Appeals.

1. In the Case Docket Number box, type the desired docket number.
2. Select either Supreme Court or Court of Appeals. Both courts cannot be searched simultaneously under the By Docket Number Search. (Neither court is selected by default.)
3. Click the Search button to begin the search.
 

By Keyword

Use the By Keyword search to perform a full text search on all Court opinions and orders based on a specific keyword. Select a search scope and then type the keyword or phrase and then press Enter or click the Search button.

1. ​In the Search Scope box, select All Opinions and Orders, Michigan Supreme Court, or Court of Appeals. (All is selected by default.) By default, the search results include published and unpublished opinions.
2. In the Keyword box, type the keyword or phrase. A docket number cannot be entered with this method of searching.
3. Click the Search button to begin the search.  
4. Once the search is complete, the resulting list of opinion links displays in descending release date order. Scroll through the list of matching cases and use the Next> Last>> <<First and <Previous links, located at the top of the screen, to view additional results. To open the opinion, click the desired Case Title link or the corresponding PDF icon. To view the Docket Sheet, click the View Docket Sheet link. 

Keyword Hints

• The  Keyword search allows keywords such as AND, OR, NOT and NEAR as well as groups of words enclosed in parentheses and/or double-quotes. Wildcard searches with * or ? characters are also allowed. (The * wildcard searches for any number of characters where as the ? wildcard searches for only one character.)
  The text searching is not case sensitive.
• Certain common words will be excluded from your search, whether they are enclosed in quotes or not. Such words include: BUT, FOR, THE, IF, etc.
• Parentheses may also confound a search because they operate similarly to quotes when they enclose letters or words. This may impact a search for a court rule or statutory citation, among others. In such situations, use an asterisk to retrieve all cases citing the base court rule. Example: 7.215*.

Examples

Advanced

Use the Advanced search to locate Court opinions and orders by selecting criteria in the provided fields. The required fields are the Date and Status fields. Both of these fields have default values. The remaining fields are optional. Use any combination of these optional fields to help narrow the search. A docket number cannot be entered with this method of searching.

Required Advanced Fields

1. The Date Range field is set to all dates. If desired, specify a date range. When entering a date, always enter in this format: m/d/yyyy. (ie: 02/07/1998)
   
   Note: Keep in mind that the published opinions begin with January 2001 and the Court of Appeals unpublished opinions begin with July 1996.
2. From the Status drop down list, select the court(s) and type of opinions. By default, the Status drop down list is set to All Opinions.

• All Opinions includes both Supreme Court and Court of Appeals published opinions released since January 2001 and unpublished Court of Appeals opinions released since July 1996.
• Court of Appeals Published includes only Court of Appeals published per curiam and authored opinions released since January 2001.
• Court of Appeals Unpublished includes only Court of Appeals unpublished per curiam and memorandum opinions released since July 1996.
• Court of Appeals All includes Court of Appeals published opinions released since January 2001, Court of Appeals unpublished opinions released since July 1996, and Court of Appeals orders issued after January 1, 2005.
• Supreme Court includes only Supreme Court opinions released since January 2001.
• Supreme Court and COA Published includes both Supreme Court and Court of Appeals published opinions released since January 2001.

3.  Click the Search button to begin the search.

Optional Advanced Fields

1. Use the Author drop down list to select the name of the writing justice or judge for published authored opinions. The drop down list includes the names of both Supreme Court justices and Court of Appeals judges, listed separately in alphabetical order. Because Supreme Court justices often have prior service on the Court of Appeals, their names may be used to retrieve published authored opinions from both courts depending on the option selected in the Opinion Type field.  
2. Use the Panel Member drop down list to select the name of a panel member for a case. The search will retrieve cases where the specified judge was a member of the three-judge Court of Appeals panel that issued the opinion. The drop down list includes the names of Supreme Court justices, Court of Appeals judges and Visiting judges, listed in alphabetical order. This option is not available for the Supreme Court opinions, however. The names of the Supreme Court justices may be used to retrieve prior Court of Appeals opinions in which the justices participated while members of the Court of Appeals bench.
3. Use the Case Type drop down list to select a practice area. The Case Type category is determined when a case is first filed at the Court of Appeals. (Some examples include: Adoption, Assault & Battery, Child Abuse, etc.)
4. Use the Lower Court drop down list to select either the trial court or administrative agency to help narrow the search.
5. Click the Search button to begin the search.