How to Find Ingham County Court Dockets
The county uses one website for hearing schedules. It lives at courts.ingham.org. The two tools that matter here are the Court Hearing Schedule search and the Daily Court Schedule. Both are free. Both list public hearings only. Sealed cases, juvenile matters, and personal protection orders do not appear, because court rule MCR 3.705 keeps PPO information off the public web.
The steps below work for the Court Hearing Schedule. The Daily Court Schedule is even simpler and is covered further down.
- Open the Court Hearing Schedule at https://courts.ingham.org/CourtHearingSchedule/. The page loads a search form with fields for court, name, case number, and date range.
- Pick the court you need: Circuit, Probate, or 55th District. The form searches one court at a time, just like the main case search.
- Enter a name or case number. For a name search, last name with at least two letters works; first name takes one letter. For a known case, the case number returns the fastest result.
- Set a date range. The default window shows the next several weeks. Widen the range to see past hearings or to look further out.
- Click Search and review the results list. Each row shows the case number, party name, hearing date, time, judge, courtroom, and hearing type.
- For a quick look at today's calendar across all three courts, open the Daily Court Schedule at https://courts.ingham.org/CourtHearingSchedule/Schedule.jsp. It lists every public hearing set for the current day in one feed.
If the docket result is sparse, try widening the date range, or try the Court Record Search at https://courts.ingham.org/CourtRecordSearch/. The case search shows the full docket history for a single case, while the hearing schedule shows only future and recent hearings.
What an Ingham County Docket Shows
A docket entry is short. It is meant to be a quick read, not a full case file. The table below lists the fields a typical Ingham County hearing entry holds and what each one tells you.
| Field | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Case Number | The unique court file number. Format usually includes year, case-type suffix, and a sequence number. Use this number to pull the full record from the Court Record Search. |
| Court | Tells you which Ingham court owns the case: 30th Circuit, Probate, or 55th District. Each court has its own clerk and its own forms. |
| Hearing Date | The day the hearing is set. Dates can move, so check again the day before. |
| Hearing Time | Start time. Many judges set several cases at the same time slot and call them in order. |
| Judge | The judge or magistrate hearing the case. Useful for finding the right courtroom and for looking up that judge's livestream link. |
| Courtroom | Room number or division. Probate, Circuit, and 55th District use different buildings, so the courtroom field matters when you are heading in person. |
| Hearing Type | The kind of event: arraignment, pretrial, motion, bench trial, jury trial, sentencing, status conference, probate hearing, etc. |
| Parties | Plaintiff or petitioner and defendant or respondent. Victim names are suppressed in criminal listings. |
| Disposition | Result, where one has been entered: held, adjourned, continued, dismissed, plea entered, judgment, or similar. Future hearings leave this field blank. |
Court Hearing Schedule vs Daily Court Schedule
Both tools live at courts.ingham.org and both pull from the same court data. They answer different questions.
The Court Hearing Schedule at https://courts.ingham.org/CourtHearingSchedule/ is a search. Use it when you know a name, a case number, or a date range. It is good for tracking a specific case forward in time or for confirming a setting on a future date.
The Daily Court Schedule at https://courts.ingham.org/CourtHearingSchedule/Schedule.jsp is a feed. It lists every public hearing for the current day across the three Ingham courts, with no search needed. Use it when you want to scan today's calendar, find a courtroom for a hearing already on the books, or see what a judge has stacked up that morning.
The search-field table below covers the Court Hearing Schedule portal.
| Field | Type | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Court | radio / dropdown | yes | Pick one: Circuit, Probate, or 55th District. The tool searches one court at a time. |
| Last Name | text | yes for name search | Minimum two letters. Wildcard match, so "SM" returns Smith and Smithton. |
| First Name | text | yes for name search | Minimum one letter. |
| Case Number | text | yes for case search | Exact match. Fastest route when the number is known. |
| Date Range | date fields | optional | Sets the window for hearings shown. Default is a near-term range; widen for a long lookahead. |
| Search | button | n/a | Runs the query and returns a hearing list. |
| Clear | button | n/a | Resets the form. |
Both tools omit sealed cases and PPO matters. Both feed off live court data, so a result that shows today may move by tomorrow if a judge adjourns the case.
Which Ingham County Courts Publish Dockets Online
Ingham County has three trial courts, and all three feed the courts.ingham.org schedule tools. Each handles a different slice of the docket.
- 30th Judicial Circuit Court. The general trial court. It hears felony criminal cases, civil cases above the district threshold, family matters, divorce, custody, juvenile cases, name changes, business court, and appeals from the 55th District Court. Its dockets show up in both the Court Hearing Schedule and the Daily Court Schedule. Detail on filings and contacts sits on the Circuit Court page.
- Ingham County Probate Court. Handles wills, decedent estates, trusts, guardianships, conservatorships, developmental disability matters, and mental health treatment proceedings. Probate hearings appear in the schedule tools, though some confidential matters such as mental health treatment hearings are limited. The Probate Records page covers Probate Register's Office details.
- 55th Judicial District Court. The limited-jurisdiction court for misdemeanors, traffic, civil infractions, small claims, landlord-tenant, civil cases within the district limit, and felony preliminary hearings. The 55th covers all of Ingham County except Lansing and East Lansing. It posts dockets through the same county schedule tools and runs its own livestream page.
The state appellate courts (Michigan Court of Appeals, Michigan Supreme Court) do not run through the county docket portal. Federal cases tied to Ingham County route through the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan and do not appear here either.
Dockets vs Full Case Records
A docket and a case record are not the same thing. The docket is a short list of events. The case record is the whole file: pleadings, motions, exhibits, orders, transcripts, and final judgments. The docket points you toward the file. It does not replace it.
The county schedule tools give you docket-style hearing data: when, where, who, what type. The Court Record Search gives you the full docket for a single case, including filings and orders going back to 1986 for civil and probate and to 2000 for criminal. For paper documents, certified copies, or anything sealed from public view, you go to the clerk.
| Docket / Hearing Schedule | Full Case Record | |
|---|---|---|
| Format | List of hearings and short event lines | All filed documents, orders, and transcripts |
| Best Tool | Court Hearing Schedule; Daily Court Schedule | Court Record Search; Clerk of the Circuit Court; Probate Register |
| Access | Free, online, no login | Some online; paper copies and certified copies require the clerk and a fee |
| Use | Confirm a hearing; track a calendar; find a courtroom | Read pleadings; review orders; pull evidence; get certified copies |
| Limits | No sealed cases, no PPO data | Same confidentiality limits, plus restrictions on juvenile, adoption, and mental health files |
For a quick check of where a case stands today, the docket is enough. For anything you plan to file with, rely on, or hand to a lawyer, get the certified record from the Clerk of the Circuit Court or the matching court clerk.
Watching Hearings Remotely
Ingham courts moved a lot of hearings to remote access during the pandemic and kept many of those tools in place. The Circuit Court navigation includes a "Watch Hearings Online" link. The 55th District Court runs its own livestream page.
The Circuit Court page lets you find a judge by name and click through to that judge's livestream room. The schedule entry tells you which judge has the case, so the workflow is: look up the case in the Court Hearing Schedule, note the judge, then go to the Watch Hearings Online list and click the matching link.
The 55th District Court lists current livestream links for Hon. Donald Allen, Jr.; Hon. Richard Hillman; and Magistrate Stefani Godsey. The 55th page also notes that not all court proceedings are available by livestream. Some hearings, such as confidential matters or in-chambers conferences, stay off the public feed. If a hearing you expect to watch does not show up, call the court ahead of time to confirm whether it is being streamed.
Etiquette matters on remote hearings. Mute when not speaking. Dress as you would in court. Do not record the feed; Michigan court rules limit recording, and the 55th publishes a media coverage page with the rules.
Missing a Court Date and Bench Warrants
Missing a hearing is not minor. In most Ingham courts, a failure to appear leads to a bench warrant, called a capias in some filings. The 55th District Court publishes a warrant list and is the most common source of bench warrants tied to missed traffic and misdemeanor dates. Circuit Court can issue bench warrants on felony, family, and civil contempt matters. Probate can issue them on certain failure-to-appear orders.
The first step after missing a date is to call the court clerk for that case. Ask whether a bench warrant has issued, whether a walk-in arraignment is allowed, whether a bond must be posted, and whether a motion to set aside the bench warrant is needed. For the 55th District Court, the general line is (517) 676-8400. Circuit Court contacts run through the Clerk of the Circuit Court.
For details on warrant types and how to clear one, see the Warrant Records page. Resolving the warrant fast keeps the case from spiraling: an active bench warrant can lead to arrest on a routine traffic stop, can suspend a driver's license in traffic matters, and can complicate any other case the same person has open.
Rescheduling and Continuances
A continuance is a court-approved reschedule. You cannot just skip a hearing because the new date does not work. The court has to grant it.
The path to a continuance in Ingham courts is the same in broad strokes across Circuit, Probate, and 55th District: file a written motion with the clerk that handles the case, explain the reason, give the new date you want, and serve the other side. In criminal cases the prosecutor's office is the other side; in civil and family matters it is the opposing party or counsel. Some judges set short windows for motion practice and require the request a set number of days in advance.
Common reasons that get granted are illness, a conflicting court date in another county, an attorney scheduling conflict, witness availability, and discovery still in process. Common reasons that get denied are vacations, work conflicts that were known at scheduling, and last-minute requests on the day of trial. The judge has wide discretion. The hearing schedule will update after the continuance is granted, but there can be a lag; check both the case docket in the Court Record Search and the Court Hearing Schedule to confirm the new date is set.
Self-represented filers should look at the Circuit Court family center, the 55th District self-help page, and Michigan SCAO forms before filing a continuance motion. Using the wrong form is a common reason a motion is rejected at filing.