Rule 3.901.Applicability of Rules

MCR 3.901 answers the first question in any juvenile case: which rules are in play. The rules in this subchapter, in subchapter 1.100, and in subchapter 8.100 govern practice and procedure in the family division of the circuit court in every case filed under the Juvenile Code. Everything else stays out unless the subchapter reaches for it.

A closed set of rules

Subrule (A)(2) reverses the assumption a civil practitioner brings to the courthouse. Other Michigan Court Rules do not apply to juvenile cases in the family division on their own force. They apply only when a rule in this subchapter specifically provides for them. A familiar rule from the general civil chapters is not available here unless a juvenile rule borrows it by name.

Evidence and privilege

Subrule (A)(3) does the same thing to the Michigan Rules of Evidence: they do not apply to proceedings under this subchapter except where a rule in the subchapter specifically so provides. Privileges are carved out of that exclusion and continue to apply, and MCL 722.631 governs privileges in child protective proceedings. The practical effect is that an evidentiary objection often turns on whether the particular hearing rule calls for legally admissible evidence.

The map in subrule (B)

Subrule (B) sorts the subchapter into tracks, so a reader can tell at a glance whether a rule reaches the case at hand:

• MCR 3.901-3.906, 3.911-3.930, and 3.991-3.993 apply to delinquency proceedings and child protective proceedings.
• MCR 3.907 applies to delinquency proceedings and designated proceedings.
• MCR 3.931-3.950 apply only to delinquency proceedings.
• MCR 3.951-3.956 apply only to designated proceedings.
• MCR 3.961-3.979 apply only to child protective proceedings.
• MCR 3.981-3.989 apply only to minor personal protection order proceedings.

The shared block is where the structural rules live: judges and referees, counsel, service and notice, pretrial procedure, confidentiality of records, and review of referee recommendations and appeals. The track-specific blocks carry the hearings themselves. A rule that sits in the delinquency block does not travel to a child protective case, and a rule in the protective block does not travel back.

Subrule (B) opens with the qualifier that runs through the whole rule, that these assignments hold unless the context otherwise indicates. Read together with subrule (A), the message is that the juvenile subchapter is meant to be self-contained, and that a gap in it is not an invitation to reach into the general rules.