(A) Grounds. The court may order a change of venue of a civil action, or of an appeal from an order or decision of a state board, commission, or agency authorized to promulgate rules or regulations, for the convenience of parties and witnesses or when an impartial trial cannot be had where the action is pending. In the case of appellate review of administrative proceedings, venue may also be changed for the convenience of the attorneys.(B) Motion Required. If the venue of the action is proper, the court may not change the venue on its own initiative, but may do so only on motion of a party.(C) Multiple Claims. If multiple claims are joined in an action, and the venue of one or more of them would have been improper if the claims had been brought in separate actions, the defendant may move to separate the claims and to transfer those as to which venue would have been improper. The court has discretion to
(1) order the transfer of all claims,(2) order the separation and transfer moved for, or(3) retain the entire action for trial.(D) Order for Change of Venue; Case Records.
(1) The transferring court must enter all necessary orders pertaining to the certification and transfer of the action to the receiving court. The court must order the party that moved for change of venue to pay the applicable statutory filing fee to the receiving court, unless fees have been waived in accordance with MCR 2.002.(2) The transferring court must serve the order on the parties and send a copy to the receiving court. The clerk of the transferring court must prepare the case records for transfer in accordance with the orders entered under subrule (1) and the Michigan Trial Court Records Management Standards and send them to the receiving court by a secure method.(3) The receiving court must temporarily suspend payment of the filing fee and open a case pending payment of the filing fee as ordered by the transferring court. The receiving court must notify the party that moved for change of venue of the new case number in the receiving court, the amount due, and the due date.(E)Payment of Filing and Jury Fees.(1) The party that moved for change of venue must pay to the receiving court within 28 days of the date of the transfer order the applicable filing fee as ordered by the transferring court. No further action may be had in the case until payment is made. If the fee is not paid to the receiving court within 28 days of the date of the order, the receiving court must order the case transferred back to the transferring court.(2) If a jury fee has been paid, the clerk of the transferring court must forward it to the clerk of the receiving court to which the action is as soon as possible after the case records have been transferred.
Mich. R. Civil. Proc. 2.222
Amended September 18, 2019, effective January 1, 2020.
