Rule 3.212.Postjudgment Transfer of Domestic Relations Cases

Families move. A judgment entered in one county can end up governing people who all live somewhere else, with a distant friend of the court office still administering it. MCR 3.212 moves the case: a transfer carries both a change of venue and a transfer of all friend of the court responsibilities, so the file and the office that services it travel together.

Who may ask

Under subrule (A)(1) a party, a court-ordered custodian, or the friend of the court may move for a transfer, the court may transfer on its own motion, and a consent order may do it where subrule (B) is satisfied. Subrule (A)(2) carves out one category: a postjudgment transfer in an action initiated under MCL 780.151 et seq. is controlled by MCR 3.214.

The four conditions

A motion by a party or a court-ordered custodian succeeds only if all of subrule (B)(1) is satisfied:

• the transfer is sought on the basis of the residence and convenience of the parties, or other good cause consistent with the best interests of the child;
• neither party nor the court-ordered custodian has lived in the county of current jurisdiction for at least 6 months before the motion was filed;
• at least one of them has lived in the county the case would go to for at least 6 months before the motion was filed; and
• that county is not contiguous to the county of current jurisdiction.

Subrule (B)(2) removes those conditions when the court or the friend of the court starts the transfer. Subrule (C) adds a duty: unless the court orders otherwise for good cause, a friend of the court that learns of a more recent final judgment involving the same parties in another county must initiate transfer of the older case there, when no parent, no affected child, and no other party still lives where the older case was filed.

Orders, records, and money

Subrule (D)(1) has the transferring court enter every order needed to certify and move the case, and it may not enter one until all pending matters are resolved. The moving party pays the statutory filing fee directly to the receiving court unless fees are waived under MCR 2.002, and the fee is waived where the court or the friend of the court initiated the transfer. Until fees and court-ordered past-due costs are paid, nothing further happens in the transferring court absent good cause and substantial harm.

Under subrule (D)(2) the transferring court serves the transfer order on the parties and sends a copy to the receiving court, and the clerk and the friend of the court each prepare their case records in accordance with the orders entered and the Michigan Trial Court Records Management Standards, then send them by a secure method. Under (D)(3) the receiving court temporarily suspends payment of the fee, opens a case pending payment, and tells the party the new case number, the amount due, and the due date. Where the court orders past-due fees and costs paid to the transferring friend of the court, subrule (D)(4) holds the order and records back until payment, and the transfer order becomes void if payment does not arrive within 28 days of entry.

After the transfer

Subrule (E) gives the moving party 28 days from the due date to pay the receiving court, freezes activity there until the fee is paid absent good cause and substantial harm, and sends the case back if the deadline passes unpaid. Subrule (F) puts the transferee friend of the court to work reviewing the file for orders tied to the old court or county, and it may obtain ex parte orders moving those provisions to the new court.