HB-4532, As Passed Senate, December 5, 2013

SENATE SUBSTITUTE FOR

HOUSE BILL NO. 4532

     A bill to amend 1961 PA 236, entitled

"Revised judicature act of 1961,"

by amending sections 832, 859, and 1427 (MCL 600.832, 600.859, and

600.1427), section 859 as amended by 2005 PA 326.

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:

     Sec. 832. (1) The probate judge or chief probate judge clerk

of the probate court shall have possession of the seal, records,

books, files, and papers belonging to the probate court in the

respective county or probate court district . Each judge shall keep

a true and correct record of each order, sentence, and decree of

the court, and of all other official acts made or done by him, and

of all wills proved therein with the probate thereof, of all

letters of authority and of all other things proper to be recorded

in the court.and, in accordance with supreme court rules, shall

maintain every record created by or filed with the probate court.

     (2) The records, except as otherwise provided by law, may be

inspected without charge by all persons interested.

     (3) The probate court shall maintain an alphabetical index to

the records of probate court proceedings in each county.

     Sec. 859. (1) The following testimony before a probate judge

shall be recorded:

     (a) Testimony in contested matters.

     (b) Testimony in matters pertaining to the admission to a

hospital or other facility for mentally ill or developmentally

disabled persons.

     (c) Testimony in matters pertaining to persons having a

contagious disease.

     (d) Testimony in other matters if requested by an interested

party.

     (e) Testimony and other proceedings required by supreme court

rule.

     (2) In matters not governed by subsection (1), testimony

before a probate judge, probate register, or deputy probate

register may be given orally without a record being made of the

testimony.

     (3) The court shall keep sufficient index of the testimony and

the court shall keep the index and the original notes for at least

10 years as prescribed by supreme court rules. The reporter or

recorder need not transcribe the testimony unless a transcript is

ordered by the court or a party. Except in those cases in which the

testimony is transcribed and filed with the record of the case,

notes pertaining to a hearing for the admission of any person to a

hospital or other place of detention as a mentally ill or

developmentally disabled person or as a person with a contagious

disease shall be destroyed only after the discharge of the person

from the hospital or facility.

     (4) Notes may not be destroyed until after 10 years after the

date of the hearing or as provided in subsection (3), whichever is

longer.

     Sec. 1427. All writs, process, proceedings and records in any

court within this state , shall be in the English language, (

except that the proper and known names of process, and technical

words, may be expressed in the language heretofore and now commonly

used, ), and shall be made out on paper, in a fair, legible

character, in words at length, and not abbreviated; but such

abbreviations as are now commonly used in the English language may

be used, and numbers may be expressed by Arabic figures, or Roman

numerals, in the customary manner.in the manner and on any medium

authorized by supreme court rules. If a signature is required on

any document filed with or created by a court, that requirement is

satisfied by an electronic signature as prescribed by supreme court

rules.

     Enacting section 1. This amendatory act does not take effect

unless House Bill No. 4064 of the 97th Legislature is enacted into

law.