How to File for Divorce in Michigan: Step by Step

By the FormsPal Editorial Team · Updated October 28, 2026 · 12 min read

A Michigan divorce starts with one spouse and one document. You file a Complaint for Divorce in the circuit court, your spouse responds or stays silent, a waiting period runs, and the case ends at a short hearing where the judge hears testimony and signs a Judgment of Divorce. Two things catch people off guard: there is no form the two of you sign together to open the case, and there is no way to finish on paperwork alone. This guide takes the steps in order for a couple who already agree on the terms, with the default route for a spouse who never answers.

1. Check that you can file in Michigan

The residency rule has a state part and a county part, both measured back from the day you file. One of you must have lived in Michigan for the 180 days immediately before filing, and one of you must have lived in the filing county for the 10 days immediately before it (MCL 552.9). The two parts don't have to belong to the same spouse. If you moved to Grand Rapids last week and your spouse still lives in Detroit, you can file in Wayne County, as long as one of you has the 180 days in the state.

A spouse who lives elsewhere adds a condition. When the Defendant doesn't live in Michigan on the day you file, or didn't when the marriage broke down, you also have to show that the two of you lived together in Michigan as a married couple, or that you have lived in Michigan in good faith for the year before filing (MCL 552.9f). Count every period on a real calendar, because the statute says no judgment of divorce is granted unless they were met.

One narrow exception drops the 10-day county rule: the Defendant was born in or is a citizen of another country, you share a minor child, and the child is at risk of being taken out of the United States and kept abroad by the Defendant. That case belongs with a Michigan family law attorney, and self-help packets, ours included, aren't built for it.

2. The ground, and who files

Michigan has one ground for divorce, and the legislature wrote the sentence. Your Complaint states that "there has been a breakdown of the marriage relationship to the extent that the objects of matrimony have been destroyed and there remains no reasonable likelihood that the marriage can be preserved" (MCL 552.6). The statute forbids any other explanation. You don't describe an affair or the year things went wrong, you plead that sentence and stop. There is no separation period to sit out first.

Whoever files is the Plaintiff, and the other spouse is the Defendant, on every paper from the Summons to the Judgment. With no joint filing, a couple who planned the divorce together still picks one person to sign the Complaint. The Defendant may admit or deny the ground without reasons, and an admission doesn't bind the judge. Agreement isn't required for the divorce, but it decides whether the case stays on the self-help path.

This guide assumes the terms are settled before you file: property, debts, spousal support, and, with children, custody, parenting time, and support. Our guide to an uncontested divorce in Michigan covers what that agreement has to include. If your spouse answers with a counterclaim instead of a plain Answer, the case is contested, and that's the point to call a licensed Michigan attorney.

3. Put the filing packet together

Michigan publishes standard forms for the procedural pieces of a divorce, but none for the documents that carry its substance. Those are drafted case by case: the Complaint for Divorce in numbered paragraphs, the Answer your spouse files on the agreed route, the Judgment of Divorce in a no-minor-children or with-minor-children version, and a Motion for Entry of Default Judgment of Divorce used only if your spouse files nothing.

Three state forms travel with every Complaint. The clerk issues the Summons (MC 01), whose second page later records how your spouse got the papers. The Verified Statement (FOC 23) gives the Friend of the Court the identifying and employment details it needs to administer support. The Record of Divorce or Annulment (DCH-0838) is the health department's vital-records report, which the clerk signs and sends to the state once the divorce is granted. Others are added when they apply: the UCCJEA Affidavit (MC 416) when custody or parenting time is decided, the Confidential Case Inventory (MC 21) when another family court case involves your family, and the Fee Waiver Request (MC 20).

Signed, or sworn before a notary

Nearly every Michigan form is signed under penalty of perjury, which MCR 1.109(D)(3) accepts in place of an oath, so no notary is needed. Affidavits must be sworn, and a divorce has at most two: the UCCJEA Affidavit (MC 416) in a case with children, where you swear your copy and your spouse swears one too if they file the Answer, and the Default Request and Entry (MC 07) on the default route. Each is sworn before a notary or a deputy clerk.

Our guide to Michigan divorce papers goes form by form, and the Michigan divorce with children guide covers the custody and support orders a family case adds.

4. File with the circuit court

You file in the Circuit Court, Family Division, for the county you chose under the residency rule. The caption on each paper reads STATE OF MICHIGAN, IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE COUNTY OF your county, FAMILY DIVISION. Every county sits in a numbered judicial circuit, though the number stays off the caption: Wayne is the 3rd Circuit, Oakland the 6th, and Kent the 17th.

MiFILE is Michigan's statewide e-filing system, but courts join it one at a time, and a self-represented filer only has to e-file where the court is approved to require it. Filing on paper with the clerk, in person or by mail, remains available.

The filing fee

The fees are fixed by statute, identical in every county (MCL 600.2529). Opening the case costs $175: a $150 civil filing fee and a $25 electronic filing system fee the clerk collects even on paper filings. Deciding custody or parenting time adds $80, for $255. The court waives or suspends that $80 when your final judgment goes in with the initial filing as a consent judgment, and it can require payment later if the case turns contested. Where only child support is decided, a smaller $40 charge applies instead.

If the fee is out of reach, file the Fee Waiver Request (MC 20) with your Complaint. The court must grant it when you show you can't pay, and the waiver takes the $25 e-filing fee with it. For what else a Michigan divorce can cost, see our breakdown of Michigan divorce costs, or try the divorce cost calculator with Michigan selected.

Write down your filing date. The waiting period counts from that day, not from service.

5. Get the Summons to your spouse

The clerk issues your Summons when you file, and someone other than you has to get it to your spouse. An uncontested case has two ways to do that.

Acknowledgment and an Answer

Your spouse signs the acknowledgment section on page 2 of the Summons, confirming they received the Complaint, with no sheriff or process server. They then file a short Answer responding to the Complaint's paragraphs, which keeps the case out of default. With children, they file their own sworn UCCJEA Affidavit alongside it. Don't use this route if your spouse has been abusive toward you.

Formal delivery

A sheriff, a process server, or another adult who isn't a party hands your spouse the Summons and a copy of the Complaint, then fills in the proof of service on page 2 of the Summons. There's no separate proof-of-service form.

Either way, move quickly. The Summons has a limited life and expires if service doesn't happen in time, which sends you back to the clerk.

6. If your spouse files nothing

A silent spouse can't block a Michigan divorce, but the silence adds steps in a fixed order. You file a Default Request and Entry (MC 07), sworn before a notary or deputy clerk, because its military-status section is the sworn statement the rules require before a default judgment. The clerk enters the default on that form. You mail your spouse a copy at the last known address, sign the certificate of mailing on page 2, and file it. After that, every paper you file is also served on your spouse.

The hearing then needs a motion. Once the court schedules it, serve the Motion for Entry of Default Judgment of Divorce, the Notice of Hearing (FOC 7), and the proposed Judgment at least 14 days ahead, and file the motion at least 7 days ahead unless the court sets another time. If the judge won't approve the proposed Judgment as written, a modified one is due within 14 days.

7. The waiting period and the financial form

No proofs or testimony may be taken until 60 days after filing, or six months after filing when there are dependent minor children under 18 (MCL 552.9f). For unusual hardship or compelling necessity, the court can take testimony any time after 60 days on a motion and a proper showing, but families should plan on the full six months. Our guide to how long a Michigan divorce takes walks through the calendar.

Disclosure happens during the wait. Each spouse serves a Verified Financial Information Form (CC 320) on the other within 28 days after the Defendant's first responsive pleading is served (MCR 3.206(C)(2)). It's exchanged, not filed. You can skip it by waiving it in writing together, or if a settlement agreement or consent judgment signed by both of you was filed with the case at the start.

Spend the rest of the wait on the Judgment. Check it against what you agreed, line by line, because a term is far easier to fix in a draft than after the judge signs.

8. The final hearing

Every Michigan divorce ends in open court. The statute grants a divorce when evidence of the breakdown is presented there, and the court rules don't let a divorce judgment enter as a matter of course, on default or by consent. After the wait, once your spouse has answered or been defaulted, the court sets the date, and the Notice of Hearing (FOC 7) tells your spouse when and where.

When everything is agreed, the hearing is short. The judge takes proof, and the questions cover jurisdiction, whether either spouse is pregnant, the breakdown of the marriage, and how the property is divided. No official source we rely on says which spouse must testify or attend, so ask the clerk what your court expects. You bring a Judgment of Divorce both of you signed in its approval block (MCR 3.210(E)). If the judge finds a term out of line with the law, you return a corrected judgment within 14 days or as the judge directs. With children, the custody, parenting-time, and support terms ride on the Friend of the Court orders (FOC 89 and FOC 10/52). Every case also sends that office a Domestic Relations Judgment Information sheet (FOC 100) with the final proposed Judgment, and a proof of that service goes into the court file.

9. After the judge signs

The divorce is granted when the judge signs, but a few tasks remain. Within 7 days, serve a copy of the entered Judgment on your spouse and file a proof of service. On the default route it goes by first-class mail, recorded on the Proof of Mailing (MC 302). If the Judgment orders support, give one copy to the court clerk right away for the Friend of the Court.

The clerk sends your Record of Divorce or Annulment to the state, and because the court rules also speak of filing it with the judgment, ask whether your original copy covers that. Order certified copies of the Judgment from the clerk (a small per-copy fee applies), since banks and other institutions will ask for one. A divided pension needs a separate EDRO or QDRO, which FormsPal does not prepare, so ask the plan administrator what it requires. For real estate, ask the county register of deeds.

For the bigger picture, see our Michigan online divorce overview. Michigan Legal Help, the state's own legal-help service, also publishes a plain-language introduction to divorce without children.

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