Uncontested Divorce in Michigan: The Answer, the Signed Judgment, and the Hearing

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

Plenty of states hand cooperating couples a form they can sign side by side to open the case. Michigan doesn't. One of you files a Complaint for Divorce and is the Plaintiff from that day on, the other is the Defendant, and those labels stay on every caption even if the two of you worked out each term over the same dinner table. So "uncontested" in Michigan isn't a box you tick when you file. It describes what the Defendant does after the case exists, and what both of you put your names to before a judge reads it.

This guide stays on that agreed route and its fallback. For the filing sequence itself, from residency through certified copies, our step-by-step guide to filing in Michigan walks it in order.

What "uncontested" means without a joint filing

Michigan grants a divorce on one ground only. The Complaint states that there has been a breakdown of the marriage relationship to the extent that the objects of matrimony have been destroyed and no reasonable likelihood remains that the marriage can be preserved, and the statute bars the Plaintiff from explaining the ground in any other words. Nobody has to prove an affair, cruelty, or anything else.

The same statute settles a common worry. Your spouse does not have to agree to the divorce. The Defendant can admit the ground or deny it without saying why, and even an admission doesn't bind the court, which decides on the evidence it hears. A spouse who refuses to "give" you a divorce can make the case contested, but can't veto it.

That leaves two ways a Michigan case finishes without a fight over terms. In the first, your spouse takes part: they acknowledge the papers, file an Answer, and sign a Judgment that records what you agreed. In the second, your spouse stays silent, the clerk enters a default, and the judge enters a Judgment on your proofs alone. Michigan Legal Help lists default, a negotiated judgment, a mediated agreement, and trial as the ways cases end. Only trial is a contest in the everyday sense.

Ground, the Defendant's right to admit or deny, and no consent requirement: MCL 552.6, via the Michigan Legislature.

Is your case ready for the agreed route?

An agreed Michigan case doesn't need a perfect relationship. It needs a finished set of answers and a spouse who will put their name to them. Run through these points before anyone files.

• Every term is decided and written down. How you divide property and debts, whether either of you pays spousal support, and, when you have minor children, custody, parenting time, and child support. A term the two of you plan to "figure out later" is an open issue the court would have to decide.
• You can reach your spouse, and they're willing to sign. The cooperative route depends on your spouse receiving the papers, signing for them, and filing an Answer. If you don't know where they live, this route isn't available as described here.
• Residency is met. One of you has lived in Michigan for the 180 days before filing, and one of you in the filing county for the 10 days before filing. An out-of-state spouse adds a condition, covered on the page linked below.
• Nobody is at risk. If your spouse has been abusive, don't ask them to sign anything for you. Have the papers formally delivered instead, and talk to a local advocate or attorney about the protections that apply.

Your spouse's part: the acknowledgment and the Answer

After you file, the clerk issues a Summons (MC 01) with your Complaint, and those papers have to reach your spouse. On the agreed route, your spouse doesn't wait for a process server. Page 2 of the Summons carries an acknowledgment section, and a cooperating spouse signs it to confirm they received the Complaint. The acknowledgment is part of the Summons itself, so no separate form is needed for this step.

Next, your spouse files an Answer to Complaint for Divorce. It responds to the Complaint paragraph by paragraph, and filing it is what keeps the case out of default. Michigan doesn't publish an Answer form, any more than it publishes a Complaint or a Judgment, so the Answer is drafted for the case, from the same facts as the Complaint, and the two line up.

A few things travel with the Answer depending on your family:

• With minor children, your spouse files their own copy of the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Enforcement Act Affidavit (MC 416) along with the Answer. It is an affidavit, so they swear to it before a notary or a deputy clerk, separately from yours.
• With other family court cases involving any of you, pending or finished, your spouse files their own Confidential Case Inventory (MC 21) with the Answer. It is filed, not served on you.
• The Answer itself needs no notary. Like most Michigan court papers, it is signed with a declaration under the penalties of perjury.

We don't quote a deadline in days for the Answer, because our verified Michigan sources don't give one. Don't sit on service either: a Summons has a limited life.

Two signatures on the Judgment of Divorce

The Judgment of Divorce is the order the judge signs. It recites the findings and divides property and debts. As with the Answer, Michigan has no adopted state form for it, so it is drafted for your case, in one of two versions, one for a marriage with no minor children and one for a marriage with them. The Judgment also records how it came about, on the consent of both parties or by default.

On the agreed route, the end of the Judgment carries an approval block. Both of you sign it, marking the Judgment approved as to form and content, before the hearing, and you bring that signed Judgment for the judge to enter. Michigan's court rule on consent judgments (MCR 3.210(E)) adds a safeguard that surprises some couples: the judge isn't required to sign whatever the two of you agreed to. If a term isn't in accordance with the law, you submit a corrected Judgment within 14 days or on whatever schedule the judge sets. That's a correction, not a fight, and it doesn't make the case contested.

A case with minor children repeats its agreed terms on state orders the Friend of the Court works from, FOC 89 for custody and parenting time and FOC 10/52 for support, both entered alongside the Judgment. Our guide to a Michigan divorce with children covers that track. Even in a fully agreed case, the Domestic Relations Judgment Information (FOC 100) goes to the Friend of the Court with the final proposed Judgment, and the entered Judgment is served on your spouse within 7 days, with a proof of service filed.

What a consent judgment signed at filing changes

Timing matters more than most people expect. Two Michigan rules reward a Judgment that is already signed by both of you and goes in at the very start of the case, not weeks later.

The financial information form. Each spouse normally has to serve a Domestic Relations Verified Financial Information Form (CC 320) on the other, within 28 days after the Defendant's first responsive pleading. It discloses income, assets, and debts, and it is exchanged between you rather than filed with the court. You're excused in two situations. The first is a written waiver from both of you. The second is a settlement agreement or consent judgment that both of you had already signed when the case was filed. An agreement signed later in the case doesn't fit that second exception, although a written waiver still can.

The custody fee. The statutory filing fee is $175, and a case that decides custody or parenting time adds $80, for $255. The court waives or suspends that $80 when the final judgment is submitted with the initial filing as a consent judgment, and can require it after all if the case later turns contested. A Fee Waiver Request (MC 20) covers anyone who can't afford the fees.

Fees and the consent-judgment waiver: MCL 600.2529, via the Michigan Legislature. The CC 320 rule is MCR 3.206(C)(2), in the Michigan Court Rules, chapter 3.

For the full money picture, see our breakdown of Michigan divorce costs, or put your own numbers into the divorce cost calculator.

The hearing that happens anyway

This is the part couples on friendly terms tend to find least welcome. Michigan's statute has the court enter a Judgment when evidence of the breakdown is presented in open court, and the court rules say a divorce judgment isn't entered as a matter of course, by consent or on default. There's no route that finishes on the papers alone, however complete and well signed they are.

The hearing also can't happen right away. The court can't take proofs until 60 days have passed since filing. When there are dependent minor children under 18, the wait is six months, though on a motion showing unusual hardship or compelling necessity the court can hear the case any time after 60 days. Both clocks start on the filing date, not the date your spouse answers. Our guide to how long a Michigan divorce takes goes through the clock in detail.

Once the wait is over and your spouse has either answered or been defaulted, the court sets the date, and a Notice of Hearing (FOC 7) tells your spouse when and where. At the hearing, expect the judge to ask about the court's jurisdiction, whether anyone is pregnant, the breakdown of the marriage, and how property is being divided. No official source we've read says which spouse has to attend or testify, so ask the clerk. With a Judgment both of you signed, the hearing is short, but it is still a courtroom.

Waiting periods: MCL 552.9f, via the Michigan Legislature.

When your spouse files nothing: default

Because consent isn't required, a spouse who ignores the papers doesn't stop the case. It just moves to a different set of documents, in a fixed order:

1. Ask for the default. You file a Default Request and Entry (MC 07). It has to be sworn before a notary or a deputy clerk, because its military-status section serves as the sworn statement the court rules require before a default judgment.
2. Give notice of it. The clerk enters the default on that same form. You mail a copy to your spouse by first-class mail at their last known address, sign the certificate of mailing on page 2, and file that copy. From then on, everything you file is also served on your spouse, with a proof of service.
3. Move for the Judgment. Once the court gives you a hearing date, you serve a Motion for Entry of Default Judgment of Divorce, the Notice of Hearing (FOC 7), and the proposed Judgment (with any custody or support orders) at least 14 days before the hearing. The motion itself is filed at least 7 days before the hearing unless the court sets another time.
4. Hand up the Judgment. The proposed Judgment goes to the court before the judge takes your proofs. If it isn't approved, you submit a modified version within 14 days.
5. Serve the result. Within 7 days after entry, you mail the Judgment to your spouse and file a Proof of Mailing (MC 302), signed by hand by whoever mailed it.

A default Judgment carries no approval block, since only the court signs it, and the motion is drafted because Michigan publishes no form for it. Default isn't a contested case. What you give up is the second signature, and with it the consent-judgment relief described above.

What turns an agreed case contested

Agreement in Michigan is tested at several points, and it can come apart at any of them.

• A counterclaim instead of a plain Answer. If your spouse files a counterclaim asking the court for something different, the case is no longer uncontested. That's the point to bring in a licensed Michigan attorney.
• A refusal to sign the approval block. A spouse who answers but won't sign the Judgment as written has, in effect, reopened the terms. The court then has an open question to decide.
• A child the paperwork missed. A minor child of both of you, or a child born to the wife during the marriage, puts the case on the with-children track, with custody, parenting time, support, and the six-month wait. Treating that case as childless isn't allowed.
• Pieces the Judgment can't carry alone. Dividing a pension or retirement plan takes a separate order (an EDRO or QDRO) that the plan will accept. That isn't a dispute, but it is extra legal work, and FormsPal doesn't prepare it.

A term sent back for correction doesn't belong on this list. The cases that belong with a lawyer are the ones where you no longer want the same thing. To see every document each route uses, our Michigan divorce papers guide lists them, along with which ones are sworn and which are signed.

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