Rule 3.201.Applicability of Rules

MCR 3.201 is the map at the front of subchapter 3.200. It names the actions that fall inside the domestic relations rules, says what governs everything the subchapter leaves alone, and defines the vocabulary the later rules rely on.

What the subchapter covers

Subrule (A)(1) lists the core actions: divorce, separate maintenance, the annulment of marriage, the affirmation of marriage, paternity, support, and the custody of minors or parenting time. Subrule (A)(2) adds two more compact proceedings — an expedited proceeding to determine paternity or child support, and a proceeding to register a foreign judgment or order.

Subrule (A)(3) does the quiet work. It reaches proceedings that are ancillary or subsequent to the actions in (A)(1) and (A)(2), provided they relate to the custody of minors, parenting time with minors, or the support of minors and spouses or former spouses. A postjudgment fight over parenting time is not a new lawsuit, but it sits inside the subchapter because it follows one.

Children who have turned eighteen

Subrule (B) heads off a reading that would end support cases too soon. For child support purposes in this subchapter, the words minor and child may take in children who have reached the age of majority, in the circumstances where the legislature has so provided.

Everything else, and one exception

Subrule (C) ties domestic relations practice back to the rest of the Michigan Court Rules: those rules govern except as this subchapter provides otherwise. The subrule changes exactly one number. The interrogatory limit set in MCR 2.309(A)(2) becomes thirty-five in a domestic relations action.

Four defined terms

Subrule (D) draws lines that a clerk's office and a friend of the court office both depend on.

• A case is an action commenced in the family division of the circuit court by one of the case initiating documents in (D)(1): an original complaint, a transfer of an action from another court or tribunal, a foreign judgment or order, a petition under MCR 3.222(C), a consent judgment under MCR 3.223, or a complaint and notice or a request for entry of a consent agreement and a consent judgment or order under MCR 3.230.
• A file is the repository that collects the pleadings, documents, and materials for a case, and one file may hold more than one case involving a family.
• Jurisdiction is defined as the authority of the court to hear cases, make decisions, and enter orders on cases.
• Case initiating document is then widened by (D)(4) to include a statement, letter, or other document filed in lieu of a complaint to open a case and request relief under the Summary Support and Paternity Act, or to register a foreign judgment or order under the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act or the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Enforcement Act.

The case and file distinction is what allows several matters involving one family to travel together without merging into a single action.