Search Marquette County Court Records

How to Search Marquette County Court Records

Official online case access runs through MiCOURT, the state court search system. The county court directory says plainly that court cases can be searched from the county website, and it links three court-specific portals. Circuit Court cases sit under the C25 endpoint, District Court cases under D96, and Probate Court cases under P52. Each portal is free to use. Each is a JavaScript search app, so a name or case number drives most lookups.

Pick the court level before you type. The county homepage at co.marquette.mi.us is the safest starting point for links to each court. A quick look at the county site shows how the court and clerk pages branch off the main navigation.

The county homepage groups every department, from the courts to the sheriff, in one place.

Below is a lead-in look at the county's own front door before the search steps.

From that homepage, the courts menu carries the MiCOURT links and the docket schedules for each judge. The steps below follow the path the county recommends.

1. Start on the Marquette County court directory or online services page, not a third-party search site.
2. Choose the court level first. Use Circuit Court for felonies, civil suits over $25,000, divorce, and personal protection orders. Use the 96th District Court for traffic, misdemeanors, small claims, and landlord-tenant cases. Use Probate Court for estates, guardianships, and mental-health matters.
3. Open the correct MiCOURT link: C25 for circuit, D96 for district, P52 for probate.
4. Search by party name or by case number. Use exact spelling and the full case number when you have it.
5. Read the result as a register of actions, which is a docket index rather than a full document image.
6. For sealed, older, or missing files, contact the court clerk directly for help.

The search form on each MiCOURT portal exposes a small set of fields. The table below lists what shows on the public case search so a first-time user knows what to expect.

Note: A public register of actions may appear online, but certified copies and full document images often require a clerk request or an in-person visit.

The Marquette County Judicial System

Michigan trial courts fall into four kinds: circuit, district, probate, and a few municipal courts. The state describes the circuit court as the trial court with the broadest powers. Marquette County sits in the 25th Judicial Circuit, the 96th District, and its own Probate Court. All three share the courthouse complex on West Baraga Avenue. Appeals climb from District Court to Circuit Court, then to the Michigan Court of Appeals, and last to the Michigan Supreme Court.

The county courts page ties every office together, from judges and magistrates to case-search links and ADA notices. A glance at that directory shows the reach of the local bench.

That same directory names the sitting judges and links each judge's online docket, which is a useful way to confirm a hearing.

Case flow: 96th District Court › 25th Circuit Court › Michigan Court of Appeals › Michigan Supreme Court

The table below lists the main courts and offices, what each handles, and how to reach them.

The bench includes Circuit Judges Andrew G. Griffin and Matthew J. Wiese, along with Chief Probate and Circuit Judge Cheryl L. Hill. District Judges Roger W. Kangas and Karl A. Weber hear the limited-jurisdiction docket, aided by magistrates and Director of Court Operations Charity Mason.

Comparing Marquette County Trial Courts

Three trial courts split the work, and each guards a different slice of the docket. The Circuit Court is the felony and big-money court. The District Court is the traffic, misdemeanor, and small-claims court. The Probate Court is the estate, guardianship, and mental-health court. The Michigan Courts site lays out these divisions for every county in the state.

The state trial-court page explains how circuit, district, and probate roles differ across Michigan. It is a helpful backdrop to the local split.

The comparison below shows where a given Marquette County case is most likely to live.

Small claims in the District Court cap at $5,500 per the county's own small-claims page. Attorneys cannot appear unless a lawyer is a party, and a business may send a knowledgeable full-time employee. Each party is limited to five new small-claims filings per week.

Types of Court Records Available in Marquette County

The three trial courts produce distinct kinds of records. Circuit Court files hold felony cases, large civil suits, divorce, and personal protection orders. District Court files hold traffic tickets, misdemeanors, small claims, and general civil disputes up to $25,000. Probate files hold estates, trusts, and guardianships. Most of these records are public, though some are sealed or restricted by law.

A criminal case file can include the complaint, the warrant, the bond, the arraignment, the preliminary exam, the plea, the verdict, and the sentence. A court charge record is narrower and lists only the charges filed after arrest, the statute cited, the level, and the court date. The two are not the same file.

The courthouse law library helps the public reach many of these materials in print and online. A look at the library page shows the research tools kept on the ground floor.

Library staff can point users to resources but cannot give legal advice. The list below sorts the main record families by court.

• Criminal records - felony files in Circuit Court and misdemeanor files in the 96th District Court.
• Civil records - large civil and equity suits in Circuit Court, smaller money claims in District Court.
• Family and divorce records - divorce, custody, and support handled by Circuit Court and the Friend of the Court.
• Probate records - estates, guardianships, and conservatorships in the Probate Court.
• Traffic records - citations, fines, and points through the 96th District Court.

What Marquette County Court Records Show

A court record is more than a name and a charge. Each file carries a case number, a case type, the parties, the assigned judge, and a running register of actions. The register lists every filing, hearing, order, payment, and judgment in date order. Financial fields track filing fees, fines, bond, and restitution where public.

Some data is always withheld. Court staff redact Social Security numbers, protected personal identifiers, minor names, and confidential medical or mental-health details. The table below breaks down the core fields a Marquette County case shows.

Legal Terms in Marquette County Court Records

Court files use words that are easy to misread. A quick glossary keeps a docket from feeling like code. The terms below appear across criminal, civil, and probate cases in the county courts.

Arraignment

The first hearing where charges and bond are addressed.

Bindover

The transfer of a felony case from District Court up to Circuit Court.

Bench warrant

A warrant a judge issues, often for a missed hearing or contempt.

Disposition

The outcome of a case or a single charge.

Register of actions

The dated docket history of everything filed in a case.

Set aside

The process that makes an eligible conviction nonpublic under Michigan law.

Reading these terms in context helps a searcher tell a charge from a conviction. A charge is only an accusation. A conviction is a finding of guilt entered after a plea or a trial.

Public Access Laws for Marquette County Court Records

Two bodies of law shape access here. The Michigan Freedom of Information Act covers county government and sheriff administrative records. The Michigan Court Rules and the clerks' own procedures govern court case files. Most registers of action are open, while sealed, juvenile, and mental-health files are not. For a criminal-history check that spans more than one case, the Michigan State Police ICHAT service is the right tool rather than a single court search.

The statewide case search at the Michigan Courts site adds appellate opinions and orders on top of the county trial-court portals. A look at that page shows how state and local searches fit together.

The callout below gathers the key statutes and rules with a plain-English note for each.

The Michigan Attorney General also publishes a FOIA overview that explains how to frame a records request to a county office.

Restricted and Confidential Court Records

Not every file is open. Juvenile delinquency, abuse and neglect, adoption, and many family-division matters are shielded. Access to those may require party status, attorney authority, or a court order. The county's juvenile and family court handles delinquency under age 17, along with emancipation, name changes, and parental-consent waivers. State law under MCL 712A.28 restricts juvenile records.

Michigan's set-aside process can make an eligible adult conviction nonpublic. The state court form is the SCAO MC 227 application, filed in the court where the conviction happened. A misdemeanor from the 96th District Court is filed there, while a felony from the 25th Circuit Court is filed in Circuit Court. Clean Slate changes that took effect in 2021 widened eligibility and started an automatic set-aside track. The Michigan State Police explain the conviction set-aside process in detail.

One limit surprises many people. A traffic conviction set aside under the act still stays on the Secretary of State driving record, so the court file and the driver record part ways.

Problem-Solving Justice Programs in Marquette County

Marquette County does not run a branded drug, sobriety, or veterans treatment court in its official navigation. It does operate several alternative-sentencing and treatment structures. The county's community-corrections effort is grant funded under Public Act 511 of 1988, and a local advisory board sets sentencing policies that follow state goals. These are problem-solving programs, not named specialty courts.

The Sheriff's Release Program adds work, school, and treatment release for eligible inmates. Work release lets a sentenced person keep a job while serving time, released to and from an approved employer schedule, at a cost of $25 per day. School release supports enrollment or job training, and treatment release routes people toward care rather than a cell.

The Prosecutor's Office runs a third initiative. It is one of a handful of offices in the country to adopt the Domestic Violence Blueprint for Safety, a county-wide model for responding to domestic violence. A U.S. Department of Justice grant of $743,000, awarded in October 2022, funds a county-wide domestic violence coalition and better services for victims.

Marquette County Sheriff and Jail Records

Sheriff Gregory S. Zyburt leads the Sheriff's Office, with Undersheriff Lowell A. Larson Jr. and Corrections Captain Brian H. Steede. The Marquette County Jail sits at 236 W. Baraga Avenue, next to the courthouse. It is an 80-bed, three-story facility that may hold up to 10 federal inmates, and it classifies people by the severity of the charge. The jail phone line is (906) 225-8435.

The county website does not publish a simple web jail roster. Inmate lookup after arraignment runs through the Marquette County Sheriff app, available on the Apple App Store and Google Play. Before arraignment, the jail may share only whether a person is lodged and the bond amount.

For the full roster path, app steps, and booking fields, see the Marquette County inmate records page. To check for an outstanding order, the warrant records page covers the Public Defender warrant list and the court phone lines that give the most current status.

Marriage, Divorce, and Probate Records

The County Clerk issues marriage licenses at the courthouse annex. A license costs $20 for county residents and $30 for non-residents, with a $25 fee to waive the three-day waiting period. Divorce files are Circuit Court documents, and the Clerk can supply them by email or phone. A divorce packet from the Clerk costs $50. Full detail on licenses, waiting periods, and certified copies lives on the marriage and divorce records page.

Probate matters run through their own court at the annex. The Probate Court oversees estates, trusts, guardianships, conservatorships, and involuntary treatment of the mentally ill. Some estate files are public, while mental-health and minor-guardianship details are restricted. The probate records page walks through search access and the register's contact details.

Testator

The person who made a will.

Executor

The person named to carry out a will.

Conservator

A person the court appoints to manage another's finances.

Marquette County Court Records Fees

Most record and copy fees run through the County Clerk, who is also the clerk of the Circuit Court. Vital records, record checks, and circuit court documents each carry a set charge. Online orders through the county's Permitium portal add a non-refundable $4 convenience and card-processing fee.

The schedule below lists common charges from the Clerk's vital-records and services pages.

General civil filing fees in the District Court scale with the claim, from $35 for suits up to $600 to $160 for suits between $10,000 and $25,000. A jury demand adds $50 and a motion fee is $20.

Federal Court Records for Marquette County

Some cases never touch the county courts. Federal crimes, civil rights claims, and federal-question suits go to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan. That district keeps a Marquette courthouse at the Federal Building on West Washington Street, along with offices in Grand Rapids, Lansing, and Kalamazoo.

The Western District homepage lists each court location and its contact details. A look at the court's front page shows the reach of the district.

Federal case files are searched through PACER, the national case-access system, and filed through CM/ECF. The Western District site links both tools and posts local rules.

The court's own Marquette page gives the exact federal address and phone line downtown. That page confirms the local federal presence.

Appeals from the Western District travel to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. The Marquette federal courthouse page rounds out the local picture.

History of the Marquette County Courthouse

The present courthouse stands on the site of the first county courthouse, which was finished in 1858 for about $4,300. Local architects Demitrius F. Charlton and R. William Gilbert designed the current building, and Northern Construction Company of Milwaukee built it for roughly $210,000. The dedication came on September 17, 1904. Native Upper Peninsula sandstone gives the walls a red hue, red granite columns from Maine weigh about 15 tons each, and a copper-sheathed dome shields a stained-glass dome above the main circuit courtroom.

The county's own history page tells the courthouse story in full, from the sandstone to the copper dome. A look at that page shows why the building still reads as a temple of justice.

Two famous cases keep the courthouse in the legal-culture record. In 1913, former President Theodore Roosevelt won a libel suit here and was awarded six cents, the price of a good newspaper. In 1959 the courthouse appeared in the film Anatomy of a Murder, drawn from John D. Voelker's novel and a real Upper Peninsula murder case. The building was rededicated in September 2004 after a major renovation.

Courthouse Location and Contact Information

The courthouse complex anchors downtown Marquette, near the corner of West Baraga Avenue and South Third Street. The Circuit Court and County Clerk, the 96th District Court, and the Probate Court all operate from this address and its annex. The ground-floor law library and public records windows sit inside the same complex.

The county history page adds the wider context of Michigan's largest county, roughly 1,873 square miles with about 55 miles of Lake Superior shoreline. A look at that page frames the courthouse within the county it serves.

The contact card below lists the primary court address and phone lines.

Note: Marquette courts still use remote options for many hearings, so anyone with a scheduled appearance should call ahead to confirm whether an in-person visit is required.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I search Marquette County court cases online?

Use MiCOURT, the state case-search system. The county links three portals: C25 for the 25th Circuit Court, D96 for the 96th District Court, and P52 for the Probate Court. Pick the court that fits your case, then search by party name or case number. The result is a register of actions, which is a docket index. Certified copies and full document images may require a clerk request or an in-person visit to the courthouse.

Which Marquette County court handles my case?

The Circuit Court hears felonies, civil suits over $25,000, divorce, and personal protection orders. The 96th District Court hears traffic tickets, misdemeanors, small claims, landlord-tenant disputes, and civil claims up to $25,000. The Probate Court handles estates, wills, trusts, guardianships, and mental-health matters. When in doubt, start with the District Court for smaller and everyday matters, and the Circuit Court for serious crimes and large disputes.

How do I get a certified copy of a court or vital record?

The County Clerk issues certified copies. A certified birth, death, or marriage copy costs $14 for the first copy and $7 for each additional copy of the same record. Divorce records and name searches are circuit court documents and can be ordered by email or phone. Online orders through the county Permitium portal add a $4 convenience and card-processing fee. Requests can also be made in person at the courthouse annex.

Are Marquette County court records free to view?

The online MiCOURT case search is free to use. It shows the public register of actions for most civil, criminal, traffic, family, and probate cases. Fees apply when you order certified copies, plain copies, or record checks from the Clerk. Some documents are sealed or restricted, including juvenile, adoption, and mental-health files. Those require party status, attorney authority, or a court order before they can be viewed.

How do I check for a warrant in Marquette County?

Warrant status is a public record. The Public Defender maintains a warrant list drawn from the 96th District and 25th Circuit Courts, but it warns the list may not be current. The most accurate check is a call to the District Court at (906) 225-8235 or the Circuit Court at (906) 225-8330. Anyone with an outstanding warrant should contact the issuing court or an attorney promptly to arrange a resolution.

How do I find someone in the Marquette County Jail?

The county website does not host a public web roster. Inmate lookup after arraignment runs through the Marquette County Sheriff app on the Apple App Store and Google Play. Before arraignment, the jail may confirm only lodged status and bond amount by phone at (906) 225-8435. For sentenced state prisoners, the Michigan Department of Corrections OTIS search covers current and recently discharged offenders under state supervision.

Can I clear a conviction from my record?

Michigan's set-aside process can make an eligible adult conviction nonpublic. File the SCAO MC 227 application in the court where the conviction happened, which means the 96th District Court for a misdemeanor and the 25th Circuit Court for a felony. Clean Slate changes widened eligibility and added an automatic track. One limit stands out. A set-aside traffic conviction still stays on the Secretary of State driving record.