Circuit Court Records Division

E-Filing

In 2015, the Michigan Supreme Court Administrative Office (SCAO) worked with the Legislature, courts and other stakeholders in developing and passing legislation to authorize, design, and implement statewide e-filing for the future of Michigan's courts. This legislation was signed into law by Governor Rick Snyder on December 23, 2015, and took effect on January 1, 2016. The 20th Circuit Court of Ottawa County became one of five pilot courts for this statewide solution due to its history as a current E-filing courthouse, since E-filing's implementation in 2011. On November 13, 2017, the 20th Circuit Court went live with MiFILE the new statewide solution. This e-filing solution provides litigants the means to electronically file documents to the court, serve documents electronically to other parties, and receive notifications and documents from the courts, 24 hours a day.

Effective October 23, 2019, per Administrative Order No. 2019-4, the Clerk/Register's Office is required to post a list of case types, mandated filers, and types of filings that are electronically mandated as specified by the State Court Administrative Office. Please see below for this information.

E-Filing Mandates

E-File with MiFILE »

• What is E-Filing?

  Michigan's MiFILE solution is a simple web-based program that does not require any additional equipment or software on behalf of the filer and provides for a seamless integration with the Courts' existing imaging and case management systems. This program offers our constituents an avenue to access the courthouse beyond traditional business hours in a user-friendly manner. Filers can directly upload or drag documents from their desktops to the MiFILE system to file with the Court, serve other parties electronically, manage all previously submitted electronic filings, manage favorites and easily access their current caseload, and receive notifications as to when the documents are received by the court, when payment of a transaction occurs, when a filing is marked as filed and when a filing is marked as rejected.

  Currently we do not have the capability of accepting case initiating documents through MiFILE. The MiFILE system requires the filer to have an existing case number that is pulled directly from our case management system that the filer must associate their filings with. You may, however, electronically file documents on your existing caseload.

• User Fees

  MiFILE manages all billing transactions and account reconciliation with the Court. A filing may have one or more fees required for processing by the court. The end user will be charged with any fee mandated by the Circuit Court Fee Schedule. Please note these fees will be applied at time of filing and will adequately indicate the line item entry for each uploaded document and the fee that will be charged.

  The court does allow you to submit a fee waiver request to waive the fees associated with the case, but this may or may not be denied by the Judge. If the fee waiver is denied you will receive notification as to this denial and you will have to resubmit all documents with payment before the court will file these documents.

  In addition, a credit card user fee is also assessed at time of filing if a fee has been charged. This fee is a fixed percentage at 3% and is used to cover the credit card processing fee.

• How to Register with MiFILE

  Click here to E-file with MiFILE. You will be required to create a login profile and enter into an electronic User Agreement with the vendor of the software upon initial log in.

  Each attorney will have to create an account but the site will allow you to connect to other users. Connections will grant you rights to submit filings on behalf of another person or attorney and will allow you to view their filing history. This is helpful for law firms or organizations so as all support staff and attorneys can file on behalf of each other.

  There are various training resources, including FAQs and tutorials, located within MiFILE itself. The Vendor has also developed a MiFILE Quick Start Guide as well as a detailed MiFILE User Guide.

• MiFILE Resources
  • MiFILE Frequently Asked Questions
  • MiFILE Quick Reference Guide
  • MiFILE User Guide
  • MiFILE Document Standards
  • MiFILE Standard Rejection Reasons & Solutions
  • Michigan Legal Help – E-filing Information