Rule 3.930.Receipt and Return or Disposal of Exhibits in Juvenile Proceedings

MCR 3.930 handles the physical life of evidence in a juvenile case: where exhibits go, who gets them back, when the court may throw them out, and what happens when the material is confidential. It is a housekeeping rule with real consequences, because an exhibit nobody collects can vanish on a schedule the rule sets.

Receipt, under subrule (A)

Except as a statute or court rule requires otherwise, materials intended to be used as evidence at or during a trial are not filed with the clerk of the court. They go to the judge for introduction into evidence as exhibits. Once introduced, they are received and maintained as provided by the Michigan Supreme Court trial court case file management standards.

The subrule then adds a line that governs far more than storage: as defined in MCR 1.109, exhibits received and accepted into evidence under this rule are not court records. That classification matters because rules written for court records do not reach material the rule places outside the category.

Return or disposal, under subrule (B)

At the conclusion of a trial or hearing, the court directs the parties to retrieve the exhibits they submitted. One category is carved out of that direction, and one deadline runs behind it:

• Weapons and drugs are returned to the confiscating agency for proper disposition rather than to the party who offered them.
• If the parties do not retrieve their exhibits as directed within 56 days after the conclusion of the trial or hearing, the court may dispose of them without notice to the parties.

The absence of notice is the point worth marking. The rule builds the warning into the court's direction at the end of the proceeding, so a party who leaves an exhibit behind gets no second reminder before it goes.

Confidentiality, under subrule (C)

Some material stays with the court. If the court retains discovery materials filed under MCR 1.109(D) or an exhibit submitted under this rule after a hearing or trial, and the material is confidential as provided by MCR 3.903(A)(3) or by court order under MCR 8.119(I), the court must continue to maintain that material in a confidential manner. The duty follows the material for as long as the court holds it, and the end of the hearing does not end it.