Legal System
Family Division
The Juvenile and Circuit court have merged to become the Family Division of the Circuit Court. The Juvenile Court covered the areas of delinquency, neglect and abuse, adoption, emancipation and other related matters. The Circuit Court covered the areas of divorce, child custody, parenting time, support, personal protection orders and other related areas. The Family Division will operate in an efficient and effective manner as it helps to address many of this community's most difficult problems.
The Creation of the Family Division
Family litigation handled by the probate and the circuit courts was consolidated in a new Family Division, with cases involving a single family assigned to one judge. The legislation required that by July 1, 1997, agreements be reached among the chief judges of the probate and the circuit courts establishing plans for the operation of the Family Division.
As of January 1, 1998, every Circuit Court in Michigan has a Family Division that hears cases dealing with nearly every aspect of family law, including the followin:
- Adoption
- Child abuse and neglect
- Child and spousal support
- Child custody
- Delinquency
- Divorvce
- Person protection orders
- Emancipation of minors
- Name changes
- Parental consent waivers
- Parenting time
- Paternity
New Cooperative Parenting Pilot Project
Kent County adopted the Cooperative Parenting Pilot Program, which began on February 2, 2009, for all divorces involving minor children. The goal of the project is to determine whether the use of parenting time plans and selected non-adversarial language in court orders reduces domestic relations litigation. The pilot project will analyze a determined number of prejudgment divorce cases in Kent County that have been ordered to mediation.
