State Resources
Michigan
ICHAT gives anyone a Michigan criminal history for $10, online, instantly. The court search covers participating courts rather than all of them, and Michigan splits its trial courts three ways — which is where searches go wrong.
At a glance
| Record | Held by | Cost | Online |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business and entity search | LARA, Corporations Division | Free to search | Yes |
| UCC filings | Department of State — UCC | Fee for official searches | Yes |
| Professional licenses | LARA — professional licensing | Free | Yes |
| Property and land records | County register of deeds and local assessor | Free online in most counties | By county |
| Court records | MiCOURT Case Search (participating courts) | Free | Yes |
| Criminal records | Michigan State Police — ICHAT | $10 per search | Yes |
| Vital records | MDHHS, Vital Records | Certified copies carry a fee | Yes |
| Unclaimed property | Department of Treasury | Free | Yes |
| Voter and resident records | Secretary of State — Michigan Voter Information Center | Free | Yes |
Worth knowing about Michigan
ICHAT: $10, online, no consent needed
The Michigan State Police run the Internet Criminal History Access Tool, and anyone can use it. Search the official MSP criminal history database for $10 per search, pay by card, get the result online.
No consent form and no fingerprints for the name-based version. That puts Michigan in the group of states where you can simply buy the answer — Kansas, Missouri, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Washington, South Carolina, Colorado, Hawaii.
ICHAT returns Michigan felonies and serious misdemeanors reported to the state repository. It won’t have local ordinance violations, and it won’t have anything from other states.
It matches on name and date of birth, so a common Michigan name returns other people. Confirm anything it shows against the court record before it goes in a report.
Three trial courts, and MiCOURT doesn’t cover all of them
Michigan splits trial work three ways, and each has its own records:
- Circuit court — felonies, civil over $25,000, divorce, family. One per county.
- District court — misdemeanors, civil to $25,000, small claims, landlord-tenant, traffic.
- Probate court — estates, guardianship, mental health.
The statewide MiCOURT Case Search covers participating courts, and participation isn’t universal. A court that hasn’t joined is searchable only through its own county system or in person.
So run MiCOURT, then check whether the specific district court you care about is in it. The district court is where an eviction lives, and an eviction is usually the most useful record on a locate.
Record by record
Business and entity search
Open business search →- Held by
- LARA, Corporations Division
- Cost
- Free to search
Free entity search returning status, formation date, resident agent and the registered office, with filed documents viewable.
Michigan requires an annual statement. Note that entity records are with LARA — the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs — not a Secretary of State corporations division, which trips people up.
UCC filings
Open UCC →- Held by
- Department of State — UCC
- Cost
- Fee for official searches
UCC financing statements are filed with the Department of State while business entities are at LARA. Two agencies, two systems.
A UCC-1 names the debtor, the secured party and the collateral, and the secured party is usually a lender.
Professional licenses
Open LARA →- Held by
- LARA — professional licensing
- Cost
- Free
LARA covers most Michigan professional and occupational licenses with a free verification search returning name, status, dates and disciplinary action.
Property and land records
- Held by
- County register of deeds and local assessor
- Cost
- Free online in most counties
No statewide property search. The county register of deeds holds documents. Assessment is done at township or city level, not county — a Michigan quirk that surprises people.
Oakland, Wayne, Macomb and Kent are the deepest online. Michigan also has a principal residence exemption on property tax, and whether a property carries it’s the local assessor’s own record of whether the owner claims to live there.
Court records
Open MiCOURT →- Held by
- MiCOURT Case Search (participating courts)
- Cost
- Free
Free case search across participating circuit, district and probate courts. Search by party name.
Coverage isn’t every court in the state — check whether the specific court is participating before treating an empty result as meaningful.
Criminal records
Open ICHAT →- Held by
- Michigan State Police — ICHAT
- Cost
- $10 per search
Open to the public, $10, results online. Michigan felonies and serious misdemeanors reported to the state repository.
Local ordinance violations aren’t in it. Neither is anything from another state.
Vital records
Open vital records →- Held by
- MDHHS, Vital Records
- Cost
- Certified copies carry a fee
Births, deaths, marriages and divorces from the state office, with county clerks also issuing. Michigan restricts certified copies to people with a direct interest.
Unclaimed property
Open unclaimed property →- Held by
- Department of Treasury
- Cost
- Free
Free name search. The holder named on a reported item is a confirmed bank, insurer or employer relationship with a last known address.
Voter and resident records
Open Voter Information Center →- Held by
- Secretary of State — Michigan Voter Information Center
- Cost
- Free
Individual registration lookup confirming status, jurisdiction and precinct. Michigan restricts the bulk voter file.
Public records requests in Michigan
- Statute
- MCL 15.231 et seq. (Freedom of Information Act)
- Response deadline
- Five business days, extendable by ten
- Appeal to
- Agency head appeal, then circuit court
- Appeal window
- 180 days to sue
Five business days to respond, with one ten-business-day extension the agency must claim in writing.
Michigan gives you an internal appeal first — you write to the head of the public body, who has ten business days to decide. That step is free and resolves a lot, particularly on fee disputes.
Michigan is unusually strict about fees: agencies must publish a written procedure and fee schedule, must use the lowest-paid capable employee’s rate, and must discount the first $20 of a request for an indigent requester. A fee estimate that ignores those rules is challengeable on its own.
You have 180 days to sue. A prevailing requester recovers costs and attorney fees, and punitive damages are available where the refusal was arbitrary and capricious.
Note: the Michigan legislature and the governor’s office have historically been exempt from FOIA, which is unusual and worth knowing before you request from either.
What Michigan will not give you
- The legislature and governor’s office. Historically exempt from Michigan FOIA entirely.
- Set-aside convictions. Michigan has broadened expungement, including automatic set-aside for some offenses.
- Driver and vehicle records. Closed under the federal Driver’s Privacy Protection Act.
- Juvenile records. Not public.
- Courts not participating in MiCOURT. A coverage gap, not a records restriction — go to that court directly.
Course
Investigating with PACER and Court Records
State courts are only half of it. Federal court records carry bankruptcies, judgments and civil suits that no state search will ever show you — and most people overpay for them or never look at all.
See the court records courseRelated
- Ohio — 88 county portals and no statewide search
- Indiana — free statewide MyCase
- Wisconsin — CCAP, free and deep
- Property records: finding the owner
- Appealing a public records denial
Fees and procedures verified August 2026. Clerks change their counter rules more often than the statutes change — call before you drive.