MiFILE Launch
Effective December 5, 2023, the 46th District Court will become a MiFILE court! Please click here for resources and to learn more about MiFILE.
We are happy to announce that the 46th District Court has been selected by the State Court Administrative Office (SCAO) to become a MiFILE court. We are incredibly excited at the opportunity to advance our court technology and open our court to e-filing. As a significant source of our courts' filings, we wanted to take the time to explain how this transition to MiFILE will affect how you conduct business. Below you will find important information about MiFILE and guidance on how you can prepare.
What is MiFILE?
MiFILE is the statewide e-filing system that provides the ability to electronically file documents in any Michigan court, 24 hours a day, without traveling to a courthouse and waiting in line. It also allows parties to electronically serve one another with documents and electronically receive notifications and documents from the courts.
What does this mean to you?
Once MiFILE goes live at 46th District Court, all attorneys submitting eligible case type filings with the court will be required to e-file as required by Michigan Court Rule 1.109(G)(3)(f). All other filers are required to e-file only in courts that have been granted approval to mandate e-filing. Check this list of courts that use MiFILE to see if you are required to e-File your documents in that court.
MiFILE E-filing Courts in Michigan
**Please note that since our court is in the beginning stages of the MiFILE implementation, you will not find the 46th District Court on this list. Once the court goes live with MiFILE, we will be placed on this list with the eligible case types accepted for e-filing.
Attorneys are required to e-file. However, they can request an exemption from e-filing. The amendment of MCR 1.109(G)(3) provides a single statewide process for requesting an exemption from the requirement to e-File in subrules (G)(3)(g)-(i). Although mandatory statewide electronic filing is the ultimate goal of MCR 1.109(G)(3)(f), there are valid reasons that a filer may not be able to file or be served electronically. For a brief overview of the Michigan Court Rules on mandatory e-filing and exemptions, see MiFILE Brief 6.
If you believe you qualify for an exemption from e-filing, please see MC 100, Request for Exemption from Use of MiFILE.
Helpful Resources
There are multiple online resources that you can read to prepare yourself and your staff for MiFILE. Below are some helpful links that will take you to these resources:
MiFILE Filer Informational Website
Register your Email with the State Bar of Michigan
The transition to MiFILE requires the service recipient list for each case in MiFILE to be populated one time from the party and attorney information maintained in the court's case management system; in some instances, the attorney email addresses in the case management system will have originated from a file maintained by the State Bar. This means that the email that you use with MiFILE will need to be registered with the State Bar of Michigan.
Sign Up for a MiFILE Account
You will need a MiFILE account to submit documents to the court. To get started, visit the MiFILE website and click "Sign Up" in the upper right corner. Creating an account is free.
MiFILE Login
MiFILE Tutorial - How to Register for a New Account
Prepare Your Staff
The way legal support staff assist with cases will be impacted once MiFILE goes live. There is functionality within MiFILE that allows users to build a network of firm attorneys and firm members. This functionality is called connections. Only an attorney may initiate a connection request with another user, but any user can receive a connection request from an attorney. We recommend attorneys not send Connection Requests to clients as they would have access to your
payment information through this feature. When a connection request is accepted, both connected users can file on one another's behalf, share payment information, and access one another's filing histories.
MiFILE Tutorials - What are Connections?
E-Service
Once MiFILE goes live, the way attorneys receive service will change from paper forms to e-service. Any MiFILE user can request to add themselves as a service recipient if they have a legal interest in the case and are filing a document in support of that request. Examples are an attorney appearance, a motion to intervene, a third-party complaint, an acceptance of trust, or a request for service as a person interested in the case through court-ordered appointment (such as a receiver).
Legal support staff for an attorney is not a service recipient and do not have a legal interest in the case, even if they are a connected user.
To ensure that legal support staff are timely notified of e-served documents, there is a feature that allows attorneys to "copy e-service" to any of their MiFILE Connections. This means that any time another user e-serves the attorney or the court e-notices a document through MiFILE, the attorney's connections will also get a copy of that e-served document.
MiFILE Tutorial - Choose Notification Settings
What are the Next Steps?
Our court is in the beginning stages of implementing MiFILE. Once we have a definitive go-live date, we will reach out to you again so that you can prepare. We understand that this is a significant change, but we are excited at the opportunity to provide e-filing to our community, and we are 100% in support of this e-filing initiative.
For further questions or concerns, please feel free to email the MiFILE help desk at mifilesupport@courts.mi.gov
