Michigan Supreme Court plans rule that blocks access to district court records

LANSING — The Michigan Supreme Court is planning to block public access to district court records once criminal cases are bound over to circuit courts, in a move officials say is aimed at ensuring compliance with state laws related to expungement of criminal convictions.

But the new court rule, scheduled to take effect July 2, would apply to records for all criminal cases, regardless of whether a conviction expungement ever occurs. The rule would even apply to cases such as homicide and criminal sexual conduct, which are not eligible for expungement under Michigan law.

Michigan Press Association officials and attorneys plan to meet Tuesday to discuss the scheduled rule change, association spokeswoman Lisa McGraw said Monday.

The association "finds this development disturbing and overly broad," said McGraw. "We’ve had concerns about the unintended consequences of the new expungement law from the beginning."

John Nevin, a spokesman for the State Court Administrative Office, said Tuesday that under additional guidance about the rule change that the court issued Monday and that he provided to the Free Press Tuesday, "all potential public documents filed with the district court" will be sent on to the circuit court. That means "the amendment preserves the public's right of access to these records," at the circuit court level, according to the additional guidance about the rule.

The rule change is intended to make sure that when a conviction in the circuit court is expunged, records about that specific case are no longer available at the district court level, either. Earlier, Nevin said further guidance about the rule change would be issued by the court, but at that time he could not give assurances that in cases where no expungement had occurred, any and all records in the district court file would be made available in the circuit court. He earlier said records "the circuit court needs to process that case will be transferred."

Herschel Fink, general counsel for the Detroit Free Press, said the rule appears to violate case law from the U.S. Supreme Court and Michigan courts that says court records are open to the public.

Under the rule, public access to district court records in criminal cases would be blocked once a case is bound over to a circuit court. Similarly, public access to circuit court records would be blocked whenever a case is remanded back to the district court.

Justice David Viviano, in a partial dissent, said the court has a duty to ensure that court records are easily accessible to the public and he's opposed to a rule change that would undermine that.

"For many Michiganders, local district or municipal courts may be the easiest place to access a court record," Viviano said. "I see no good reason to force individuals wishing to access information about a felony case to obtain that information from the circuit court."

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on X, @paulegan4.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan Supreme Court may block access to district court records