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The Court Opinions page allows for easy retrieval of Michigan Supreme
Court and Michigan Court of Appeals opinions. There are three methods available
for searching: Docket Number Search,
Field Search and Text Search. Opinion
searches on this web site will include:
The opinions are available on this web
site in Adobe Acrobat PDF file format. If required, you may download
Adobe's free Acrobat Reader.
Docket Number Search
Use the Docket Number Search to
locate the Court opinions for a specific docket number. The docket number
is also known as the case number. Choose either the Supreme Court or
the Court of Appeals.
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In the Enter the docket number box,
type the desired docket number.
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Select either the Supreme Court or
the Court of Appeals. Both courts cannot be searched simultaneously
under the docket number search. (The Court of Appeals is selected by
default.)
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Click the Search button to begin the search.
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Use the New Search button to
clear out the search criteria, allowing new search criteria to be entered.
Once the search is complete, the
resulting list of opinion links will be displayed in descending release date
order. To open the opinion, single click on the desired Case Title
link. The opinion will open in a separate window, in Adobe PDF file
format. For instructions on how to search the opinion for a specific word
or phrase, click here.
For a list of Supreme Court justices',
Court of Appeals judges' and other judges' initials, click here.
Use the Field Search link
to go directly to the Field Search criteria page. Use the Text Search link
to go directly to the Text Search criteria page.
PLEASE NOTE::
To facilitate user access, published opinions will appear on this web site
before they have been reviewed by the Editor's Office and forwarded to the
official publisher of the Michigan Reports and the Michigan Appeals
Reports. When the official opinion is later uploaded to the web site, it
will be flagged with this icon:
&.
Official opinions will be uploaded to this web site before they are available
on any other web site.
Go to Docket Number Search
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Field Search
Use the Field Search to locate
the Court opinions by selecting criteria in the provided fields. The required
fields are the Opinion Type and Date fields. Both of these fields
have default values. The remaining fields are optional. Use any
combination of these optional fields to help narrow the search. A docket
number cannot be entered with this method of searching.
Required Fields
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From the Opinion Type drop down
list, select the court(s) and type of opinions. By default, the Opinion Type
drop down list is set to All Opinions.
All Opinions Includes both
Supreme Court and Court of Appeals published opinions released since January
2001 and unpublished Court of Appeals opinions released since July 1996.
Court of Appeals Published Includes only Court of Appeals published per
curiam and authored opinions released since January 2001.
Court of Appeals Unpublished Includes only Court of Appeals unpublished
per curiam and memorandum opinions released since July 1996.
Court of Appeals - All Includes both Court of Appeals published opinions
released since January 2001 and unpublished opinions released since July 1996.
Supreme Court Includes only Supreme Court published opinions released
since January 2001.
Supreme Court and COA Published Includes both Supreme Court and Court of
Appeals published opinions released since January 2001.
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The other required field is the Date
Range. By default, the date range is set to All Dates. From the Date
Range drop down list, choose from All DatesThis Week, Last
Week, This Month, Last Month and Select Range.
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When a specific date range category is selected, the
corresponding dates are automatically inserted into the date boxes.
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When Select Range is chosen, the
date boxes are cleared and you can manually input any range of dates.
Keep in mind that the published opinions begin with January 2001 and the Court
of Appeals unpublished opinions begin with July 1996.
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In addition, when entering a date,
always enter in this format: mm/dd/yyyy. (ie: 02/07/1998)
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Opinions of the Michigan Court of Appeals are available the
business day following the release date of the opinion.
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Click the Search button to begin
the search.
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Use the New Search button to
clear out the search criteria, allowing new search criteria to be entered.
Optional Fields
To further narrow the search, choose
from any of the following optional fields:
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In the Party Name box, enter at
least four characters of the name of the party. For a person, the format must
be LastName FirstName. There should be no comma and only one
space separating the Last Name from the First Name. (For example: Smith Tracy)
It is not required to enter both a Last Name and a First Name, however,
entering the First Name or at least part of the First Name will help narrow the
search. In addition, if the party name is an organization, simply enter that
name, minimum four characters. (For example: ABC Inc.)
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Use the Opinion Author drop down
list to select the name of the writing justice or judge for published authored
opinions. The drop down list includes the names of both Supreme Court
justices and Court of Appeals judges, listed separately in alphabetical
order. Because Supreme Court justices often have prior service on the
Court of Appeals, their names may be used to retrieve published authored
opinions from both courts depending on the option selected in the Opinion Type
field.
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Use the Panel Member drop down
list to select the name of a panel member for a case. The search will retrieve
cases where the specified judge was a member of the three-judge Court of
Appeals panel that issued the opinion. The drop down list includes the names of
Supreme Court justices, Court of Appeals judges and Visiting judges, listed in
alphabetical order. This option is not available for the Supreme Court
opinions, however. The names of the Supreme Court justices may be used to
retrieve prior Court of Appeals opinions in which the justices participated
while members of the Court of Appeals bench.
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Use the Case Type drop down list
to select a practice area. The Case Type category is determined when a case is
first filed at the Court of Appeals. (Some examples include: Adoption, Assault
& Battery, Child Abuse, etc.)
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Use the Lower Court drop down
list to select either the trial court or administrative agency to help narrow
the search.
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Click the Search button to begin
the search.
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Use the New Search button to
clear out the search criteria, allowing new search criteria to be entered.
Once the search is complete, the
resulting list of opinion links will be displayed in descending release date
order, with the exception of a Party Name search. When a
party name is included in the search, the links are displayed in alphabetical
order of the party name. Scroll through the list of matching opinions
using the <<Prev and Next>> links, located at the top and
bottom of the search results page. To open the opinion, single click on
the desired Case Title link. The opinion will open in a separate
window, in Adobe PDF file format. For instructions on how to
search the opinion for a specific word or phrase, click here.
For a list of Supreme Court justices', Court of Appeals judges' and other
judges' initials, click here.
Use the Docket Number Search link to go directly to the
Docket Number Search criteria page. Use the Text Search link to go
directly to the Text Search criteria page.
PLEASE NOTE:: To facilitate user access,
published opinions will appear on this web site before they have been reviewed
by the Editor's Office and forwarded to the official publisher of the Michigan
Reports and the Michigan Appeals Reports. When the official opinion is
later uploaded to the web site, it will be flagged with this icon:
&.
Official opinions will be uploaded to this web site before they are available
on any other web site.
Go to Field Search
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Text Search
Use the Text Search to locate the
Court opinions for specific keywords or phrases. Choose either the Supreme
Court, the Court of Appeals or both courts.
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In the Search For box, type the
keyword or phrase. (See Text Search hints below)
A docket number cannot be entered with this method of searching.
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Select either the Supreme Court, Court
of Appeals, or Both Courts. (Both Courts is selected by
default.) A docket number cannot be entered with this
method of searching.
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By default, the search results include only published opinions.
If you would like to include unpublished opinions in the search results, check
the Include Unpublished Opinions box.
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Click the Search button to begin
the search.
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Use the New Search button to
clear out the search criteria, allowing new search criteria to be entered.
Once the search is complete, the
resulting list of opinion links will be displayed in descending release date
order. Scroll through the list of matching opinions using the <<Prev
and Next>> links, located at the top and bottom of the search results
page. To open the opinion, single click on the desired Case Title link.
The opinion will open in a separate window, in Adobe PDF file
format. For instructions on how to search the opinion for a specific word
or phrase, click here.
For a list of Supreme Court justices',
Court of Appeals judges' and other judges' initials, click here.
Text Search Hints
The text search allows keywords such as AND,
OR, NOT and NEAR as well as groups of words enclosed in parentheses
and/or double-quotes. Wildcard searches with * or ? characters
are also allowed. (The * wildcard searches for any number of characters
where as the ? wildcard searches for only one character.)
The text
searching is not case sensitive.
Certain common words will be excluded from your search, whether they are enclosed in quotes or not.
Such words include: BUT , FOR , THE , IF etc.
Parentheses may also confound a search because they operate similarly to quotes when they enclose letters or words.
This may impact a search for a court rule or statutory citation, among others.
In such situations, use an asterisk to retrieve all cases citing the base court rule. Example: 7.215*.
Examples
felony AND firearm AND marijuana
Finds opinions containing all three of the words: ''felony and 'firearm' and
'marijuana' anywhere in the text of the opinion.
firearm OR marijuana
Finds opinions containing either 'firearm' or 'marijuana'.
felony NEAR firearm
Finds opinions containing the word 'felony' and the word 'firearm' within 50
words following 'felony'.
firearm AND NOT felony
Finds opinions containing the word 'firearm' but not 'felony'.
Fire* AND NOT gun
Finds opinions containing any word beginning with 'fire' but not containing the
word 'gun'.
gun?
Finds opinions containing any word beginning with 'gun' and one additional
character. For example: gun or guns.
"felony firearm"
Finds opinions containing the words 'felony' and 'firearm' side-by-side,
exactly as entered.
(firearm felony)
Finds opinions containing the words 'felony' and 'firearm' side-by-side,
exactly as entered. Same as "felony firearm".
murder prison sentence
Finds opinions containing any of the words 'murder' and/or 'prison' and/or
'sentence'. If you desire to find opinions that contain all of the words, enter
AND between each of the words.
"summary disposition" AND fire*
Finds opinions containing the words 'summary' and 'disposition' side-by-side,
exactly as entered and any word that begins with fire.
Use the Docket Number Search
link to go directly to the Docket Number Search criteria page.
Use the Field Search link to go directly to
the Field Search criteria page.
PLEASE NOTE:: To facilitate user access,
published opinions will appear on this web site before they have been reviewed
by the Editor's Office and forwarded to the official publisher of the Michigan
Reports and the Michigan Appeals Reports. When the official opinion is
later uploaded to the web site, it will be flagged with this icon:
&.
Official opinions will be uploaded to this web site before they are available
on any other web site.
Go to Text Search
Return to Top
Other Useful Tips
Search
the opinion for a specific word or phrase
Once the opinion is opened in PDF format, use the 
button to find a specific word or phrase.
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Click the button.
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Type the word or phrase.
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Click Find.
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Use the  button
to find all subsequent occurrences of the word or phrase.
Return to Top
Search Tips last updated on: January 12, 2009
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