Divorce in Michigan With Children: The Wait, the Forms, and the Fee

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

Children don't turn a Michigan divorce into a second lawsuit. You still file one Complaint for Divorce in the Circuit Court, Family Division, for your county, one of you is still the Plaintiff and the other the Defendant, and the case still ends with one Judgment of Divorce signed by a judge. What children change is the clock, the paperwork, the fee, and who else receives copies. If you and your spouse have already worked out custody, parenting time, and support, the agreed, uncontested route is still open to you. Here is what its with-children version asks of you, in Michigan's own form names.

What children change about a Michigan case

Michigan's form catalog splits every divorce on a single question: are there minor children? A no, and the case uses the shorter set of papers and the no-children Judgment. A yes, and the packet picks up the with-children Judgment, two orders the Friend of the Court works from, and a sworn custody-jurisdiction affidavit. Nothing else about the route changes. There is still no joint filing in Michigan, so one spouse files and the other either answers or doesn't.

Which children count is worth getting right. A minor child of both of you puts the case on the with-children track. So does a child born to the wife during the marriage, because Michigan presumes that child is a child of the marriage. A case like that can't close on the no-children Judgment, which decides no custody, parenting time, or support. If you list a child of both of you while your case is still set to no children, our complaint interview stops you and sends you back to change that answer, which switches the packet.

The children answer even reaches the case number. Its two-letter suffix is DM (Divorce, Minor Children) rather than DO (Divorce, No Children), and our drafted documents print that code after the blank where the number goes.

The six-month wait and the hardship motion

The waiting period is the change families feel most. Michigan's divorce statute, MCL 552.9f, says no proofs or testimony may be taken for 60 days after the complaint is filed. Where there are dependent minor children under 18, that becomes six months from the filing day. Two details matter. The clock starts when you file, not when your spouse is served and not when you separated. And it blocks testimony, which means your final hearing can't happen inside it, however complete your papers are.

There is one way to shorten it. On a motion and a proper showing of unusual hardship or compelling necessity, the court may take testimony and enter judgment any time after 60 days from filing. Sixty days is the floor, so even a granted motion can't finish the case sooner than a childless divorce. Our sources don't define what counts as unusual hardship, so we won't guess here. The judge decides on what you show, and most families should plan around the full six months.

Use the wait to finish your Judgment and the two Friend of the Court orders and check them against what you agreed. The financial disclosure also lands here: each of you serves a Verified Financial Information Form (CC 320) within 28 days after the Defendant's first responsive pleading, unless you both waive it in writing or a consent judgment was already signed by both of you when the case was filed. Our Michigan divorce timeline lays out the whole clock, default route included.

The with-children papers, form by form

Most of the extra paperwork is official State Court Administrative Office forms, filled from your answers. The two drafted rows below exist because Michigan publishes no Complaint or Judgment of Divorce of its own. The table covers what children add or change, not the full packet.

Source: Michigan's approved court forms. Notary column per MCR 1.109(D).

The custody and support terms appear in more than one place on purpose. The Judgment carries them, and FOC 89 and FOC 10/52 carry them too, because the Friend of the Court administers custody, parenting time, and support from those two orders. Our with-children Judgment can also hold a short summary of the parenting-time schedule, with a sentence saying FOC 89 controls if the two ever differ. If your spouse doesn't respond and you go the default route, FOC 89 and FOC 10/52 are among the proposed orders you serve along with the motion for a default judgment.

One more choice can ride on the same Judgment. When the court grants the divorce, it may restore the wife's birth name, or the surname she legally bore before this marriage, if she asks, whether she filed or was served. The statute gives a husband no matching route, so his change is a separate case. That provision is about her own surname only. Our sources don't cover changing a child's surname, so we don't address it. For every paper in the packet, with or without children, see our guide to Michigan divorce papers.

MC 416: the affidavit each parent swears

The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Enforcement Act Affidavit is the one paper that changes how a with-children case gets signed. Michigan's court rules require this state form (MC 416) whenever custody or parenting time is to be decided, and state law has each party give the same facts under oath. Your copy is filed with the Complaint.

The form walks through the children's history in order. Item 1 lists each child and where the child lives now. Item 2 covers where the children have lived over the last five years, and item 3 their custodians. Items 4 through 6 ask about other proceedings and other claimants, and item 7 names the home state. The case number, the judge's name, and the notary or deputy clerk block stay blank for the court and the officer taking your oath.

Why the notary? Most Michigan divorce papers can be signed with a declaration under the penalties of perjury, and no notary is involved. An affidavit is the exception. The rules require an affidavit to be verified by oath or affirmation, and the penalty-of-perjury declaration can't stand in for that oath. So you swear MC 416 before a notary or a deputy clerk. If your spouse accepts service and files an Answer, they swear their own copy and file it with the Answer, and our packet pre-fills the children's facts from your answers for them to check. On the default route, where your spouse files nothing, only your copy exists, and the Default Request and Entry (MC 07) becomes the second sworn form.

Where the Friend of the Court comes in

Every Michigan divorce touches the Friend of the Court, and a case with children touches it at several points. We describe the office only through the papers our filing guide sends its way, because that is what our sources support. In order, those are:

• At filing. Your Verified Statement (FOC 23) goes in with the Complaint. It gives the office the identifying and employment details it needs to administer support.
• In the orders. FOC 89 and FOC 10/52 are the forms the office works from for custody, parenting time, and support, which is why they exist alongside your Judgment.
• At the end. Your final proposed Judgment travels with a completed FOC 100, the Domestic Relations Judgment Information form. You serve it on the office and normally on your spouse as well, then file a proof of service. If the judge's changes to the Judgment alter what the form says, the office gets a fresh FOC 100 within 7 days.
• After entry. Because your Judgment orders support, you deliver one copy of the entered Judgment to the court clerk at once for the Friend of the Court.

Intake procedures and local practices for the office vary from circuit to circuit, so the clerk in your county is the right person to ask how your court handles the first contact. What the office does after your Judgment is entered is outside what this article covers.

The $80 custody fee and how it disappears

Michigan's divorce filing fees come from statute, not from the county. Opening the case costs $175, which is the $150 civil filing fee plus the $25 electronic filing system fee, charged whether or not you file electronically. Under MCL 600.2529, a case where custody or parenting time of a minor child is to be decided adds $80, for $255 in total. A smaller $40 applies where only child support is at issue, and it isn't charged on top of the $80.

That $80 has an exit built in. The court must waive or suspend it when your final Judgment is submitted with the initial filing as a consent judgment, the case where both of you have already signed off. If the action becomes contested afterward, the court may require the $80 after all. Separately, if paying any of these fees is a hardship, the Fee Waiver Request (MC 20) asks the court to waive them on a showing that you can't afford to pay, and waiving the filing fee also waives the $25 electronic filing fee.

Court fees are only part of the picture. Our Michigan divorce cost breakdown sets these fees beside attorney pricing and the usual extras.

If you would rather plug in your own numbers, the divorce cost calculator has Michigan built in.

The final hearing when you have kids

Michigan doesn't finish a divorce on paper. Once the six months are up and your spouse has either answered or been defaulted, the court sets a hearing date, and the Notice of Hearing (FOC 7) tells your spouse when and where. At the hearing the judge takes proof in open court before granting the divorce, even when your spouse agrees. Our filing guide tells customers to expect questions on whether the court has jurisdiction, pregnancy, the breakdown of the marriage, and the division of property, and to ask the clerk what their court expects from each spouse.

In an agreed case, you bring a Judgment of Divorce that both of you have signed in its approval block, and the judge enters it. With children, that Judgment carries the custody and parenting-time terms through FOC 89 and support through FOC 10/52, so those orders go up with it. If the judge finds a term that isn't in accordance with law, you submit a corrected Judgment within 14 days or as the judge directs. Within 7 days after the Judgment is entered, you serve a copy on your spouse and file a proof of service. Our step-by-step Michigan filing guide walks the full sequence from the Complaint to that last proof of service.

What this guide can't settle for you

This article sticks to facts checked against Michigan's statutes, rules, and forms. Several questions parents ask fall outside that line.

• How much child support will be. Michigan calculates child support from its own guideline formula. We don't calculate it. Your packet carries the amount you and your spouse agreed to or the amount the court orders, and nothing in this guide should be read as an estimate.
• How a judge weighs custody. We don't describe the standards a Michigan judge applies to custody or parenting time. If you and your spouse disagree about either, your case is contested, and a Michigan family law attorney is the right next step.
• A child at risk of being taken abroad. Michigan normally requires one of you to have lived in the filing county for 10 days. MCL 552.9 drops that county rule when the complaint shows the Defendant was born in or is a citizen of another country, you have a minor child together, and the child is at risk of being taken out of the United States and kept abroad by the Defendant. Our self-help packet doesn't cover that case. Talk to an attorney.
• Safety. If your spouse has been abusive, don't ask them to sign the acknowledgment on the Summons. Use formal delivery by a sheriff, a process server, or another adult who isn't part of the case, and get legal help.

If none of that describes you and the job is turning an agreement into the papers a Michigan court requires, that is what our Michigan online divorce service is built to do.

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