How to Search Ontonagon County Court Records
No single county webpage lists every Ontonagon County court case. The main tool is MiCOURT Case Search, a Michigan Courts portal that may return civil, traffic, criminal, family, and probate cases depending on the court chosen. For local records, a user selects the relevant court, such as the 32nd Circuit Court, the 98th District Court, or the Ontonagon County Probate Court when it appears in the court list. The county's own pages link to payment portals but do not host a separate docket database.
The first decision is court level. Circuit Court holds felony criminal files, higher-value civil cases, divorce, custody, and personal protection orders. The 98th District Court holds misdemeanors, traffic and civil infractions, landlord-tenant matters, and small claims. Probate Court holds estates, guardianships, and conservatorships. Before searching, gather the full party name, the year, and the case number if it is known, since Michigan case numbers often end in a two-letter case-type code.
The official Ontonagon County website serves as the navigation hub for these offices and links each court from one place.
From that home page, a visitor can reach the Circuit Court, District Court, Probate Court, and Clerk pages, each of which lists the office floor and phone. A typical search then follows a short sequence.
- Open MiCOURT Case Search and pick the Ontonagon court that fits the case type.
- Enter a party last name, or a full case number if you already have one.
- Narrow the results by case type and filing date where those filters appear.
- Open the matching case to read the register of actions, parties, and hearing entries.
- Contact the clerk of that court for a certified copy, an older file, or any document image not shown online.
Note: Michigan courts cannot post most document images to the internet, so a full copy usually means a call or visit to the clerk who owns the file.
Which Ontonagon County Court Holds the Record
Michigan runs a four-level court system, and Ontonagon County touches every level. The 98th District Court is the entry point for misdemeanors, traffic tickets, and smaller civil disputes. The 32nd Circuit Court is the primary trial court for felonies, larger civil claims, and family matters. Appeals rise from these trial courts to the Michigan Court of Appeals, and the Michigan Supreme Court is the state court of last resort. The Ontonagon County Probate Court sits alongside the trial courts for estates and protective proceedings.
The 32nd Circuit Court has served Gogebic and Ontonagon Counties together since 1891, so a single circuit judge presides over both counties. Judge Michael Pope is the current Chief Judge of the circuit. The 2025 family court plan names the county clerk's office as the central access point for family-division filing, records storage, and case scheduling in each county, which is why circuit and family records route through the Ontonagon County Circuit Court and the county clerk rather than a separate family clerk.
That page confirms the Circuit Court's second-floor location and points payment and record questions to the clerk. The ladder below shows how a case can move upward on appeal.
Case flow: District Court › Circuit Court › Michigan Court of Appeals › Michigan Supreme Court
| Court | Jurisdiction | Case Types |
|---|---|---|
| Michigan Supreme Court | Statewide, final review | Final appeals, court rules, oversight |
| Michigan Court of Appeals | Appeals from circuit and probate | Reviews trial-court and many agency decisions |
| 32nd Circuit Court | Gogebic and Ontonagon Counties | Felonies, civil over $25,000, divorce, custody, PPOs |
| Ontonagon County Probate Court | Ontonagon County | Estates, guardianships, conservatorships, juvenile |
| 98th District Court | Gogebic and Ontonagon Counties | Misdemeanors, traffic, landlord-tenant, small claims |
Comparing Ontonagon County Trial Courts
Because four offices share the same building, people often send a request to the wrong one. The distinction is not the address but the case type. A felony and a divorce belong to Circuit Court, a speeding ticket belongs to District Court, and a will belongs to Probate Court. Friend of the Court is not a court that holds public case files at all; it enforces support and parenting-time orders. Michigan Legal Help lists the 98th District Court as the venue for landlord-tenant, land contract, small claims, and civil traffic infractions.
The Ontonagon County District Court page names Judge Michael D. Findlay, Magistrate Sarah Anderson, and Probation Officer Paula Domitrovich, and notes that some fines can be paid online.
That page is the quickest way to confirm which judge and staff handle a district matter. The table below sorts the four offices by the records each one keeps.
| Office | Handles | Where to Ask |
|---|---|---|
| 32nd Circuit Court | Felonies, civil over $25,000, divorce, PPOs | 906-884-4699 or County Clerk |
| 98th District Court | Misdemeanors, traffic, landlord-tenant, small claims | 906-884-2865 |
| Probate Court | Estates, guardianships, conservatorships | 906-884-4117 Probate Register |
| Friend of the Court | Child support, custody and parenting-time enforcement | 906-884-4670 |
Types of Court Records Available in Ontonagon County
Ontonagon County court records span every case type the trial courts hear. Circuit civil files cover claims above the district-court limit, injunctions, and post-judgment enforcement. Circuit criminal files hold the full felony record, from the district-court preliminary stage through bindover, plea or trial, verdict, and sentencing. District records cover misdemeanors, the early stage of felony cases, and the county's traffic docket. Probate files hold estates, wills filed with an estate, and protective proceedings for adults and minors.
Family and juvenile records sit apart from ordinary public files. Divorce judgments may be public, but child details, Friend of the Court data, adoption, and juvenile matters carry extra confidentiality. The Ontonagon County Probate Court page lists Judge Michael D. Findlay and Probate Register Cayla Karttunen for estate and guardianship questions.
That page is the right starting point for any probate record. The main categories break down as follows.
- Criminal records - felony files in Circuit Court and misdemeanor files in the 98th District Court.
- Civil records - large claims in Circuit Court and smaller disputes, landlord-tenant, and small claims in District Court.
- Family records - divorce, custody, paternity, and support, filed through the county clerk for the family division.
- Probate records - estates, wills, guardianships, and conservatorships kept by the Probate Register.
- Traffic records - civil infractions and traffic misdemeanors on the District Court docket.
What Ontonagon County Court Records Show
A public case entry is built from a common set of fields. Michigan case numbers usually pair a year with a two-letter case-type code, so a reader can often tell a criminal case from a domestic one at a glance. The register of actions lists filings, hearings, orders, and payments in date order. Financial lines may show fines, costs, restitution, bond, and any balance due. Certain details are always withheld, including Social Security numbers, protected addresses, minor identifiers, and sealed material.
| Field | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Case Number | Court-assigned number, often with a year and a two-letter case-type code |
| Filing Date | Date the complaint, petition, citation, or bindover was filed |
| Parties | Plaintiff and defendant, petitioner and respondent, or estate and ward |
| Charges / Cause | The criminal charge, civil claim, traffic violation, or probate petition |
| Disposition | Dismissed, pled, convicted, judgment entered, closed, or transferred |
| Sentence / Judgment | Fines, costs, probation, restitution, or the money awarded |
Searching MiCOURT Case Search
MiCOURT is a case-information search, not a full document library. Michigan's records-management guidance explains that courts are barred from posting document images to the internet under MCR 8.119(H), though public documents can be viewed at courthouse terminals. A search still returns useful case-level detail: the case number, parties, court, case type, filing date, status, and the register of actions when the court participates. Knowing which fields the portal exposes makes a name or number search faster and cuts down on dead ends.
The field set is short and forgiving, so a last name alone is often enough to start.
| Field Label | Type | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Court | Selection | Yes | Choose the Ontonagon circuit, district, or probate court first |
| Case Number | Text | Optional | Use the full number, often with a year and case-type code |
| Party Name | Text | Optional | Name searches generally need at least a last name |
| First Name | Text | Optional | Narrows a broad party search |
| Case Type | Filter | Optional | Civil, criminal, traffic, family, or probate when available |
| Filing Date Range | Date | Optional | Narrows older searches where supported |
Note: A clean-slate or nonpublic rule can hide an eligible record from the public search even when the court still holds the case internally.
Public Access Laws for Ontonagon County Court Records
Court files in Michigan are governed by court rule, while other government records fall under the state Freedom of Information Act. Court sittings are open by default, and case records are public unless a rule, statute, or sealing order restricts them. That split matters in practice: a records request works for sheriff administrative records, but a court case file is obtained through the clerk under the court rules. The statutes below set the main boundaries for Ontonagon County court records.
Key Statutes:
MCR 8.119 - Court records are public unless a rule, law, or sealing order limits access, and document images are not posted online.
MCL 15.231 - Michigan's FOIA policy favors public access to the records of public bodies, separate from court-case files.
MCL 600.1420 - Court sittings are open to the public unless a judge excludes people for good cause or another law requires closure.
MCL 780.621 - Eligible Michigan convictions can be set aside by application or Clean Slate, which limits public criminal-history visibility.
MCL 712A.28 - Juvenile case records are not treated as ordinary public files and open only as the statute and court rules allow.
Records That Are Restricted or Confidential
Some Ontonagon County court records are closed to the general public no matter how a search is run. Juvenile delinquency and child-protection files are limited to parties, parents, counsel, and agencies with a recognized interest. Adoption records shield birth and adoptive parent names unless a court order allows disclosure. Mental-health proceedings are confidential under state law, and any file sealed by a judge or a conviction set aside under Clean Slate should not surface as an ordinary public record.
Sealing and set-aside are separate ideas that people often blur together. A set-aside applies to an eligible conviction and changes what appears in a state criminal-history report, while sealing is a court order over a specific file. A person seeking relief should first pull the exact court, case number, charge statute, and sentence date from the court record, then check eligibility under the set-aside law. Juvenile, adoption, and mental-health matters follow their own confidentiality rules and should not be called expungement without checking the governing statute.
Note: A charge can appear in a district or circuit court file before it reaches any statewide criminal-history system, so the two sources will not always match.
Ontonagon County Sheriff and Jail
Law-enforcement records are handled outside the courthouse. Incident reports, booking confirmation, jail custody status, and warrant confirmation go to the Ontonagon County Sheriff's Department, which is the only official custody contact located for the county. No official online jail roster, booking list, or warrant search was found on county pages, so a phone call is the reliable first step. A caller should have the person's full legal name, date of birth, approximate arrest date, and arresting agency ready.
Ontonagon County Sheriff's Department
620 Conglomerate
Ontonagon, MI 49953
906-884-4901
County jails hold pretrial detainees and people serving short sentences, which is different from state prison. The Michigan Department of Corrections OTIS search covers state prisoners, parolees, and probationers, not county-jail inmates, while MSP ICHAT returns public criminal history but excludes warrants and jail custody. For full roster detail see the Ontonagon County inmate records page, and for active warrants see the warrant records page.
Marriage, Divorce, and Probate Records in Ontonagon County
Marriage and divorce records live in different offices. Certified marriage copies come from the County Clerk / Register of Deeds, while a divorce is a circuit and family-division case tied to the 32nd Circuit Court and the county clerk. Friend of the Court joins in on support, custody, and parenting-time enforcement. The Ontonagon County Friend of the Court page lists Shannon Clinesmith and a direct line for those family-support questions.
That office does not release full public case files, but it is the correct contact for enforcement matters tied to a divorce or custody record. Probate records, including estates and guardianships, come from the Probate Register. The terms below appear often in these files. See the marriage and divorce records and probate records pages for the full process.
- Testator
- A person who makes a will.
- Executor
- The person named in a will to carry out its terms, called a personal representative in Michigan.
- Conservator
- A person appointed to manage the finances of someone who cannot manage them alone.
- Guardian
- A person appointed to make personal or care decisions for a protected adult or minor.
- Disposition
- The final or current outcome of a charge, claim, or case.
- Bindover
- Transfer of a felony case from District Court to Circuit Court for further proceedings.
Ontonagon County Vital Record Fees
The clearest published fees for the courthouse are the vital-record fees at the County Clerk / Register of Deeds. A certified birth, marriage, or death record costs $10 for the first copy and $3 for each additional copy of the same record. An official Vital Records Request form must be completed and uploaded for online purchases, and a copy of photo identification is required for a certified birth certificate. Checks are made payable to the Ontonagon County Clerk.
Court case copy and certification fees are set by the court and are not published as a single county schedule, so those amounts should be confirmed with the clerk who holds the file.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Certified birth, marriage, or death record, first copy | $10 |
| Each additional copy of the same record | $3 |
| Court case copies and certification | Set by the court, confirm with the clerk |
| Register of Deeds recording and search fees | Per the office fee schedule |
| GovPros online payment service fee | Separate from the payment amount |
Property Fraud Alerts and the Register of Deeds
The County Clerk also serves as Register of Deeds, keeping the county's recorded land documents. That office now offers Property Fraud Alerts, a free program that notifies a subscriber when a document is recorded against a monitored name. The clerk page links both an information sheet and a sign-up form, giving property owners a way to watch for fraudulent deeds or liens rather than discovering them later.
The same office runs an online Register of Deeds public record search where recorded documents can be located and purchased. Together the alert program and the search portal turn recorded-document access into an ongoing monitoring tool, not just a one-time lookup.
Visiting the Ontonagon County Courthouse
Nearly all in-person records work starts at the Ontonagon County Courthouse, 725 Greenland Road. The court offices are stacked by floor: the County Clerk / Register of Deeds is on the first floor, and the Circuit Court, District Court, Probate Court, and Prosecutor are on the second floor. The county location page maps the building for visitors coming into the Village of Ontonagon.
That map is the most reliable guide to the courthouse, since official pages do not publish turn-by-turn highway directions. The office cards below cover the four contacts most records visitors need.
32nd Circuit Court
725 Greenland Road, 2nd floor
Ontonagon, MI 49953
906-884-4699
98th District Court
725 Greenland Road, 2nd floor
Ontonagon, MI 49953
906-884-2865
Ontonagon County Probate Court
725 Greenland Road, 2nd floor
Ontonagon, MI 49953
906-884-4117
County Clerk / Register of Deeds
725 Greenland Road, 1st floor
Ontonagon, MI 49953
906-884-4255
Courthouse Hours and the Lunch-Hour Rule
Courthouse hours run 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., but not every office keeps the same lunch schedule. The County Clerk, Register of Deeds, Friend of the Court, and Treasurer stay open all day. All other offices close for lunch from noon to 1:00 p.m. That gap matters because the Circuit Court, District Court, Probate Court, and Prosecutor are among the offices that close at midday. The county offices page is where the address and this hours note are published.
Reading that page before a trip saves a wasted drive during the lunch closure. Because the Clerk and Register stay open through noon, vital-record and recorded-document errands are the easiest to fit into a short midday visit.
Note: If a hearing, jury summons, or records appointment has a fixed time, confirm arrival and parking details with that specific office beforehand.
Legal Self-Help at the Ontonagon County Courthouse
The courthouse holds an Ontonagon County Legal Self-Help Center, a free resource for people handling a case without a lawyer. It gives visitors public computers and access to the MichiganLegalHelp.org tools, and staff can explain legal information, point to forms, and make referrals, though they cannot give legal advice. The center is open Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The Legal Self-Help Center page lists the courthouse address and the remote schedule.
Remote navigator help runs by Zoom, and the schedule is precise. Navigators are available Monday through Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and Friday from 9:00 a.m. to noon, with the last session starting 30 minutes before close. On the first Thursday of each month, navigator service does not begin until 11:00 a.m. Planning a visit or a call around those windows is the surest way to reach a navigator.
On-Tran and Countywide Transportation
Ontonagon County has no fixed courthouse bus stop, but it does have countywide public transit. On-Tran, the local provider, serves all residents including seniors and people with disabilities. For a court visitor without a car, calling ahead to arrange a ride is more useful than looking for a set route. The county On-Tran page lists the transit director and the Industry Park Road address.
That page is the local starting point for booking a trip to the courthouse. The State of Michigan also lists the service on its alternative-transportation directory, which describes On-Tran as countywide public transportation.
The state's alternative transportation listing confirms the same countywide coverage and a second contact number.
Between the county page and the state listing, a rider has two official contacts to confirm times and pickup before a courthouse trip.
History of the 32nd Circuit Court
The 32nd Circuit Court has bound Gogebic and Ontonagon Counties together since 1891. Before that, under Michigan's 1850 Constitution, the entire Upper Peninsula formed one judicial district that held two court terms a year in Ontonagon. Daniel Goodwin of Detroit served as judge until 1881, and William D. Williams was judge in 1887 when Gogebic County was separately organized. The circuit's first trial, on June 24, 1887, was a criminal case for the illegal sale of liquor.
The circuit has long handled divorce and custody disputes, matters that in recent years merged with children's cases once heard in probate court to form a Family Division. Judge Roy Gotham served from 1991 through 2015, and Judge Michael Pope has presided since 2016. That shared, cross-county history explains why some modern Ontonagon family, divorce, and probate-adjacent records still connect to both circuit and probate court structures.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I search Ontonagon County court records online?
Start with MiCOURT Case Search, pick the Ontonagon court that matches the case type, and search by party name or case number. The portal shows case-level information such as parties, filing date, status, and the register of actions. It does not post document images, so a certified copy or a full document means contacting the clerk of the court that holds the file.
Which court has my case in Ontonagon County?
Felonies, larger civil claims, divorce, and personal protection orders are in the 32nd Circuit Court. Misdemeanors, traffic tickets, landlord-tenant disputes, and small claims are in the 98th District Court. Estates, guardianships, and conservatorships are in the Probate Court. When a case type is unclear, the County Clerk on the first floor can point a visitor to the right office.
Is there an online jail roster for Ontonagon County?
No official online jail roster or booking list was located for the county. Custody questions go to the Sheriff's Department at 906-884-4901. The state OTIS search covers prison inmates and people on state supervision, not county-jail detainees, and ICHAT returns criminal history but not current custody or warrants.
How much does a certified vital record cost?
A certified birth, marriage, or death record is $10 for the first copy and $3 for each additional copy of the same record. Requests use the county's Vital Records Request form, and a birth certificate requires a copy of photo identification. Court case copy and certification fees are set by the court and should be confirmed with the clerk.
Are Ontonagon County court records public?
Most are. Court sittings are open and case records are public unless a rule, statute, or sealing order limits them. Juvenile, adoption, and mental-health matters are confidential, and set-aside convictions drop out of public criminal history. Michigan's FOIA covers county executive records, while court files follow the court rules and clerk procedures.
Why did my online search return no results?
A blank result does not always mean no case exists. The court may not participate fully in MiCOURT, the record may predate online coverage, or a clean-slate rule may have suppressed it. Older files, sealed matters, and full documents often live only with the clerk, so a direct call to the court office is the next step.
Can I get help if I do not have a lawyer?
Yes. The Ontonagon County Legal Self-Help Center inside the courthouse offers public computers, free MichiganLegalHelp.org tools, and staff who explain legal information and locate forms. Remote navigators are available by Zoom on a set weekly schedule. The staff can help find and prepare forms but cannot give legal advice on a specific case.