Rule 3.219.Dissemination of a Professional Report
Subchapter 3.200 — Domestic Relations Actions · Last verified September 5, 2026
Full Text of Rule 3.219
Plain-English Summary
MCR 3.219 is a single paragraph with no lettered subdivisions, yet it does real work: it keeps an outside report from reaching the judge alone. When a court leans on a community resource to help resolve a custody, visitation, or change of domicile dispute, the resource's written findings and recommendations must be shared before the court rules.
When the rule applies
Several conditions line up. There must be a dispute; it must involve custody, visitation, or change of domicile; and the court must use a community resource to assist its determination. The rule says nothing about whether a court should reach for outside help, and it names no particular kind of resource. It governs what happens once the court has drawn on outside help.
What goes out, and to whom
The court must assure that copies of the written findings and recommendations of the resource are provided to the friend of the court and to the attorneys of record for the parties, or to the parties themselves if they are not represented by counsel. Notice what that does. The obligation runs to the court, not to the resource that prepared the report, so the court cannot treat distribution as somebody else's task. And the friend of the court is a named recipient alongside the lawyers, which puts the office that will live with the resulting order on the same footing as the parties.
Objections come before the decision
The attorneys for the parties, or the parties if they are not represented by counsel, may file objections to the report. The timing is the whole point of the sentence: objections may be filed before a decision is made. Distribution and objection work as a pair, because a party cannot test a report it has not seen, and a report the parties never contest arrives at the bench unexamined.
The rule names no form for the objections, no page limit, and no deadline beyond that single boundary. What it fixes is sequence. The written findings and recommendations go out, the friend of the court and the parties have them in hand, the parties have their say in writing, and only then does the court decide the custody, visitation, or domicile question in front of it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who receives a professional report in a Michigan custody case?
MCR 3.219 requires the court to assure that copies of the written findings and recommendations of the community resource are provided to the friend of the court and to the attorneys of record for the parties. Where a party has no lawyer, the copies go to that party directly.
Can I object to a professional report before the judge rules?
Yes. The rule provides that the attorneys for the parties, or the parties if they are not represented by counsel, may file objections to the report before a decision is made. The right to object is tied to the timing of the court's decision rather than to a set number of days.
Does MCR 3.219 apply to a change of domicile dispute?
It does. The rule reaches a dispute involving custody, visitation, or change of domicile where the court uses a community resource to assist its determination. Each subject is named in the same sentence and carries the same distribution and objection requirements.
Whose responsibility is it to send out the report?
The court's. The rule directs that the court must assure copies are provided, so the duty does not sit with the community resource that wrote the report or with a party who wants it circulated.
Does the rule cover the entire report or only part of it?
The rule names the written findings and recommendations of the resource as what must be provided. That is the material the friend of the court, the attorneys, and any unrepresented party are entitled to receive under this rule.