Rule 3.925.Open Proceedings; Judgments and Orders; Records Confidentiality; Destruction of Court Records; Setting Aside Adjudications

MCR 3.925 handles the public face of a juvenile case and the paperwork it leaves behind. It answers two related questions with different answers: hearings are presumptively open, while the files those hearings generate are not.

Open proceedings

Subrule (A)(1) opens juvenile proceedings on the formal calendar and preliminary hearings to the public. Subrule (A)(2) is the exception, and it is narrow in three ways. It works on motion of a party or a victim. It closes the proceedings only during the testimony of a child or of the victim. And its purpose is to protect the welfare of that witness. In deciding, the court weighs the nature of the proceedings, the age, maturity, and preference of the witness, and, where the witness is a child, the preference of a parent, guardian, or legal custodian about whether the proceedings are open or closed. One closure is off the table: the court may not close the proceedings during the testimony of the juvenile where jurisdiction is requested under MCL 712A.2(a)(1).

Record, judgments, and orders

Subrule (B) requires a record of all hearings, with formal calendar proceedings recorded stenographically or by mechanical or electronic recording as provided by statute or MCR 8.108. A plea of admission or no contest must be recorded, and so must any agreement with or objection to the plea. Subrule (C) sends the form and signing of judgments to MCR 2.602(A)(1) and (2) and permits service of judgments and orders by first-class mail to a last known address, by e-mail under MCR 2.107(C)(4), or by electronic service under MCR 1.109(G)(6)(a).

Who may see the file

Subrule (D)(1) restricts records of a case brought under Chapter XIIA of the Probate Code, MCL 712A.1 et seq., to persons having a legitimate interest. The rule then supplies a list that is expressly not exhaustive, covering the juvenile, the juvenile's parent, guardian, or legal custodian, the juvenile's guardian ad litem and counsel, the department or a contracted child caring institution or child placing agency where related to an abuse or neglect investigation, law enforcement personnel, a prosecutor, a member of a local foster care review board, the tribe of an Indian child, and a court of this state.

Subrule (D)(2) treats the confidential files more strictly. Those files are defined in MCR 3.903(A)(3) and take in the social case file plus legal case file records made confidential by statute, rule, or order. Access requires a court finding of legitimate interest, and the court weighs the nature of the proceedings, the welfare and safety of the public, the interest of the minor, and any restriction imposed by state or federal law.

Destruction and setting aside

Subrule (E) permits destruction of case files and other court records only as prescribed by the records retention and disposal schedule under MCR 8.119(K), and adds a line worth noting: destroying a case record does not negate, rescind, or set aside an adjudication. Subrule (F) sends the setting aside of juvenile adjudications to MCL 712A.18e and MCL 712A.18t, and the setting aside of a conviction to MCL 780.621 et seq. Subrule (G) requires that when an adult's juvenile offense record is made available to the appropriate agency under MCL 791.228(1), the record state, for each adjudication, whether the juvenile had an attorney or voluntarily waived one.