If you do not fit into one of these three categories, a judge will review your Fee Waiver Request. You are represented by a law school clinic based on having low income.You are represented by a legal services program that receives funding from the Legal Services Corporation or the Michigan State Bar Foundation or.You receive public assistance based on having low income (examples: FAP, SNAP, Healthy Michigan, CHIP, ESO, FIP, TANF, WIC, SSI).The clerk of the court must automatically approve your fee waiver if any of these are true: Your case will not start until you pay the filing fee or your Fee Waiver Request is approved. If you are unable to pay the filing fee, you can ask the court to waive it. There may be more costs, such as charges for having papers served on your spouse, motion filing fees, and costs for alternative dispute resolution services (mediation). It will cost you at least $175 to file a complaint for divorce without minor children. The State Court Administrative Office keeps a chart of courts that use e-filing. Even in courts where it is available, you can only use it for some case types. MiFILE is only available for some courts. You can find contact information for your court on the Courts & Agencies page of Michigan Legal Help. Depending on your court, you may be able to file by:

Contact your court to find out which methods are available. Each court decides how it will accept documents for filing. Some of the steps later in this checklist may have slightly different information for you depending on how you will file with the court. The instructions below explain which forms you need for each step and how many copies to make. You will need to make copies of some of the forms. You will not file all of these forms at the beginning of your case some you will file later.

Use the Do-It-Yourself Divorce tool to prepare the forms that you need. Contact your Circuit Court Clerk’s Office to find out which steps might be different in your county. Specific instructions for your county are not yet available. Please be aware that some steps will vary from county to county.

Note: These instructions are general instructions for use in any Michigan County.

Consent judgment