Michigan Criminal Records

Michigan sells its state criminal history to anyone for $10 a search, and since 2023 it has been erasing convictions from that same file automatically, without anyone asking. Those two facts together make a Michigan background check a snapshot with a short life: what ICHAT shows today can be set aside tomorrow, and a copy made last year may show a conviction the state itself no longer reports. The court files are in 83 counties' circuit courts and the district courts below them, most of them now searchable through one statewide portal. This page gives the Michigan rule and the Michigan search for each record, with government sources only.

The Michigan State Police's criminal history page says what the public record contains: "A criminal history record includes personal descriptors regarding the person and information on misdemeanor convictions and felony arrests and convictions. ICHAT allows the search of public criminal history record information maintained by the Michigan State Police, Criminal Justice Information Center." ICHAT, the Internet Criminal History Access Tool, "is the only public resource for name-based Michigan criminal history background checks," with "tutorials for government/charitable users, billed users, pay-as-you go users, and guest users," and "search results are available to view and print online immediately once payment is approved." The fee is $10 a search, set by statute, and a name and date of birth are entered for each. Suppressed and set-aside records, juvenile records, and non-public arrests are not in the ICHAT result; the fingerprint version is for the person's own review and for the employers and licensing bodies the statutes name.

Felonies are tried in the circuit courts, one per county or group of counties, and misdemeanors in the district courts, with the preliminary examinations for felonies also in district court. The state's MiCOURT case search searches the case management system used by most trial courts in the state by name, case number or date, with the docket entries and dispositions, and the Michigan Courts site's own search covers the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court, with opinions since 1996. The courts not on MiCOURT, mostly a few large ones with their own systems, run their own searches or search only at the counter, and the county pages on this site link each. As everywhere, a court index is a name search, and the criminal records page explains what a copy of one misses.

Michigan's Clean Slate law rewrote the set-aside statute, MCL 780.621 and following, and the State Police describe the automatic part on their Clean Slate page: "an eligible felony conviction will be automatically set aside 10 years after either imposition of the sentence for the conviction or completion of any term of imprisonment with Michigan Department of Corrections, whichever occurs later," with eligible misdemeanors set aside after seven years, up to two felonies and four misdemeanors in a lifetime, and the violent, sex and traffic offenses the statute lists excluded. The State Court Administrative Office records the date it began: "On April 11, 2023, at 12:00 a.m., the Michigan State Police's 'rules engine' will run for the first time. This will begin the process to automatically set aside convictions in accordance with MCL 780.621g." A person who does not want to wait, or whose conviction is not in the automatic class, applies to the convicting court under the same statute after the waiting period the law sets.

A set-aside conviction is removed from the public ICHAT record and from the court's public index, and the person may say it did not happen. A copy sold before the set-aside keeps it, and the federal rule on complete and up to date public records, on the criminal records page, is what forces the copy to catch up.

Michigan's Freedom of Information Act, MCL 15.231 and following, "provides that persons can receive copies or make inspections of most public records upon written request," as the State Police FOIA page puts it, and its exemptions in MCL 15.243 let an agency withhold investigating records that would interfere with a proceeding, identify an informant or invade privacy, while the fact of an arrest and the booking are released. Who is in custody is in the Department of Corrections' OTIS offender search, which covers prisoners, parolees and probationers under the Department's supervision and people discharged within the last three years, and, in its own words, does not contain "information about prisoners in county jails or city" lockups or "anyone who has been arrested and convicted but not yet sentenced." Those are on the county sheriffs' rosters, linked from the county pages. The arrest records page covers the rest.

A Michigan judgment can be enforced for ten years from entry under MCL 600.5809(3), "the period of limitations is 10 years for an action founded upon a judgment or decree rendered in a court of record of this state," and renewed by a new action or motion within that period. A judgment lien recorded against real property is shorter: under MCL 600.2809, "a judgment lien expires 5 years after the date it is recorded," and may be rerecorded once. The court records page covers where the civil dockets are searched.

Michigan is divided into two federal judicial districts under 28 U.S.C. 102. The Eastern District's Southern Division covers the counties of Genesee, Jackson, Lapeer, Lenawee, Livingston, Macomb, Monroe, Oakland, Saint Clair, Sanilac, Shiawassee, Washtenaw and Wayne, with court at Ann Arbor, Detroit, Flint and Port Huron, and its Northern Division covers Alcona, Alpena, Arenac, Bay, Cheboygan, Clare, Crawford, Gladwin, Gratiot, Huron, Iosco, Isabella, Midland, Montmorency, Ogemaw, Oscoda, Otsego, Presque Isle, Roscommon, Saginaw and Tuscola, with court at Bay City. The Western District's Southern Division covers Allegan, Antrim, Barry, Benzie, Berrien, Branch, Calhoun, Cass, Charlevoix, Clinton, Eaton, Emmet, Grand Traverse, Hillsdale, Ingham, Ionia, Kalamazoo, Kalkaska, Kent, Lake, Leelanau, Manistee, Mason, Mecosta, Missaukee, Montcalm, Muskegon, Newaygo, Oceana, Osceola, Ottawa, Saint Joseph, Van Buren and Wexford, with court at Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Lansing and Traverse City, and its Northern Division covers Alger, Baraga, Chippewa, Delta, Dickinson, Gogebic, Houghton, Iron, Keweenaw, Luce, Mackinac, Marquette, Menominee, Ontonagon and Schoolcraft, with court at Marquette and Sault Sainte Marie. A federal case from any Michigan county is on one of those dockets and on PACER, whose prices and gaps are on the criminal records page.

Whether a person has a Michigan conviction: ICHAT answers it for $10, by name and date of birth, from the state's own file, set-aside convictions left out.

Whether a person was charged in a county: MiCOURT answers it for the courts on the system, and the clerk's counter for the rest.

Whether a person is in custody now: the county sheriff's roster answers it, and OTIS answers it for state prison and parole.

Whether an old case can still be found: a set-aside conviction is gone from ICHAT and the court's public index, a judgment lien lapses at five years and the judgment at ten, and a copy that predates the set-aside is reached through the federal rule.