Michigan Process Server Service in All 83 Counties Under MCR 2.103 to 2.106

Who may serve a summons

Any legally competent adult who is not a party or an officer of a corporate party. MCR 2.103(A) names those conditions and no others, so a company that is a party cannot have one of its own officers deliver the papers. The SCAO proof form gives this same server a checkbox of its own.

MCR 2.103(A); form MC 01

Officers with a certificate

Service inside Michigan by a sheriff, a deputy sheriff or bailiff holding office in the county where the issuing court sits, an appointed court officer, or an attorney for a party is proved by a certificate. MCL 600.1910 adds a medical examiner, a court officer, a constable, and a deputy of any of these officers.

MCR 2.104(A)⁠(2); MCL 600.1910(1)⁠(b)

Writs that seize property or restore possession

A writ of restitution, or process requiring seizure or attachment of property, goes only to a sheriff or deputy, a bailiff or court officer the court has named for that purpose, a State Police officer when the state is a party, or a city or village police officer when that city or village is a party. A writ of garnishment is the exception: any adult qualified under 2.103(A) may serve it.

MCR 2.103(B)

Process requiring an arrest

Only a sheriff, deputy sheriff or police officer, or a court officer the court has named for that purpose.

MCR 2.103(D)

Someone inside a hospital, home or governmental institution

Personal service there is made by the person in charge of the institution or by someone that person designates.

MCR 2.103(C)

Life of a summons

Expires 91 days after the date it is issued; the day of issue is not counted. The summons carries its own last valid date and a statement that it is invalid unless served on or before that date, and form MC 01 must bear the court seal.

MCR 2.102(B)⁠(8)–⁠(9), (D); form MC 01

Second summons

Within the 91 days, on a showing of due diligence in trying to serve the original, the assigned judge may order a second summons for a definite period of no more than 1 year from issue, on just conditions. A duplicate summons does not extend the original. The 91 days are tolled while a motion challenging the summons or its service is pending.

MCR 2.102(D)

Defendant still unserved at expiry

The action is deemed dismissed without prejudice as to that defendant unless the defendant has submitted to the court’s jurisdiction. For a defendant added later, the time runs from the first pleading naming that defendant. A clerk’s failure to enter the dismissal order does not keep the action alive.

MCR 2.102(E)⁠(1)–⁠(2)

Setting the dismissal aside

Only on stipulation, or when service was in fact made (or the defendant submitted) within the summons period, proof was filed or its absence is excused for good cause, and the motion was filed within 28 days after notice of the dismissal order (or promptly after learning of it when no notice was given).

MCR 2.102(F)

Eviction and land contract cases

The 91-day expiry, deemed dismissal and set-aside rules do not apply to summary proceedings to recover possession of realty, which MCR 2.102(G) describes as governed "by MCL 600.5701-600.5759 and by subchapter 4.200 of these rules."

MCR 2.102(G)

An individual, resident or not

Two methods: delivery of the summons and complaint to the defendant personally, or registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, delivery restricted to the addressee. Mail service is made when the defendant acknowledges receipt, and the signed return receipt is attached to the proof.

MCR 2.105(A); MCL 600.1912

Papers left at the home

No Michigan rule allows leaving an adult defendant’s papers with a relative or housemate at the home. That, or any other manner, needs an order under MCR 2.105(J) first, on a showing that service cannot reasonably be made under MCR 2.105. If the defendant’s name or present address is unknown, the motion sets out the diligent inquiry made; a hearing is held only if the court directs.

MCR 2.105(A), (J)⁠(1)–⁠(3)

Registered mail means certified too

Wherever a Michigan court rule says registered mail, certified mail is included, but then the receipt of mailing must be postmarked by the post office. Where a rule itself says certified mail, no postmarked receipt is required.

MCR 2.105(L)⁠(1)–⁠(2)

A nonresident with a Michigan representative

Serve an agent, employee, representative, sales representative or servant of the defendant in Michigan, and also send the papers by registered mail to the defendant’s last known address.

MCR 2.105(B)⁠(1)

A minor

Serve the person having care and control of the minor and with whom the minor resides.

MCR 2.105(B)⁠(2)

A defendant with a guardian or conservator

When a guardian or conservator has been named by the court and is acting, serve the guardian or conservator.

MCR 2.105(B)⁠(3)

A sole proprietor using an assumed name

Serve the person in charge of the business office and send the papers by registered mail to the individual’s usual residence or last known address.

MCR 2.105(B)⁠(4)

Corporations, Michigan or foreign

Serve an officer or the resident agent; or serve a director, trustee or person in charge of an office and send the papers by registered mail to the principal office. For a corporation that stopped keeping up its organization or whose term expired, serve its last presiding officer, president, cashier, secretary or treasurer. The resident agent is the corporation’s agent for process under the Business Corporation Act, and the Nonprofit Corporation Act says the same of a nonprofit’s agent.

MCR 2.105(D)⁠(1)–⁠(3); MCL 450.1246(1), 450.2246(1)

Corporation without a resident agent

When the corporation failed to appoint and maintain a resident agent or file the certificate, let its organization lapse, or outlived its term, registered mail goes both to the corporation or an appropriate officer and to the Corporation Division of the state’s Corporations, Securities & Commercial Licensing Bureau.

MCR 2.105(D)⁠(4); MCL 450.1241

Limited liability companies

Serve the managing member, the non-member manager or the resident agent; or serve a member or person in charge of an office and send the papers by registered mail to the registered office. With no agent, or when reasonable diligence fails, deliver or send by registered mail to the administrator: the director of the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs or a designated representative.

MCR 2.105(H)⁠(1)–⁠(3); MCL 450.4207(2), (4); MCL 450.4102(2)

Partnerships and associations

A partnership or limited partnership: any general partner or agent, or the person in charge of a partnership office plus registered mail to a general partner or agent at a usual residence or last known address. A partnership association or unincorporated voluntary association: an officer, director, trustee, agent or person in charge, plus registered mail to an office, or to another member if no office can be located.

MCR 2.105(C), (E)

Insurers

Where a statute permits it, two summonses and a copy of the complaint may go to the insurance commissioner (the rule still names the Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation) by delivery or registered mail.

MCR 2.105(F)

Counties, cities, townships, villages and schools

The rule names whom to serve for each: the board chair or county clerk; the mayor, city clerk or city attorney; the village president, clerk or a trustee; the township supervisor or clerk; the school district president, secretary or treasurer; and officers of other public bodies. Service may always go to the person in charge of that officer’s office plus registered mail to the officer there.

MCR 2.105(G)

Agents by appointment or by law

An agent authorized by written appointment or by law may be served. When a statute routes service on a private defendant through a public officer, registered mail to that officer’s office is enough.

MCR 2.105(I)

Nonresident drivers

For a Michigan road accident, process on a nonresident driver or owner may be left with the Secretary of State, with the plaintiff’s affidavit of nonresidence. Notice and a copy must then go to the defendant forthwith: served personally by the sheriff or constable of the county where the defendant resides, or sent by registered mail by the plaintiff or counsel, who then makes an affidavit attaching the summons, the notice and the registry receipt.

MCL 257.403(a), (d)

Defendants outside Michigan

A Michigan court’s process has no territorial limit. Jurisdiction comes from the Constitution and the jurisdiction statutes: presence or domicile in Michigan when served, or long-arm contacts such as the transaction of any business in Michigan or a tort with consequences here; the defendant then has 28 days to answer instead of 21.

MCR 2.105(K)⁠(1)–⁠(2), MCL 600.705, 600.715; MCR 2.108(A)⁠(2)

Time to answer

21 days after personal delivery in Michigan; 28 days when served outside Michigan or by a method that sends the papers by registered mail; at least 28 days after publication or posting is completed.

MCR 2.108(A)⁠(1)–⁠(3)

Contents of the proof

A certificate or verified statement giving the manner, time, date and place of service, and the server’s official capacity, if any. The place is the address of service or, without one, another description of the location. Mail service adds the return receipt the defendant signed. The back of form MC 01 is a Certificate of Service / Nonservice, so the same page records an attempt that did not succeed.

MCR 2.104(A)⁠(2)–⁠(3); MCR 2.105(A)⁠(2); form MC 01

Acknowledged service

A written acknowledgment of receipt of the summons and complaint, dated and signed by the defendant or a person authorized to receive service, is itself proof of service, and form MC 01 carries an acknowledgment block for it.

MCR 2.104(A)⁠(1); form MC 01

How a private server verifies it

A written statement verified under MCR 1.109(D)(3): by oath or affirmation, or by the signed and dated declaration that it was examined and is true "under the penalties of perjury". A knowingly false declaration may be punished as contempt of court.

MCR 1.109(D)⁠(3); MCL 600.1910(1)⁠(c)

Proof filed late, or never filed

Service stands even when no proof reaches the file. At any time on just terms a judge may let the process or the proof be amended, unless it clearly appears that this would materially prejudice the substantive rights of the party against whom the process issued; the amendment relates back to the original issuance or service unless the court finds relation back would unfairly prejudice that party.

MCR 2.104(B), 2.102(C); MCL 600.1910(2)

Challenging the service

Insufficient service is a ground for summary disposition that must be raised in the defendant’s first motion under MCR 2.116 or in the responsive pleading, whichever is filed first, or it is waived. Improper service alone ends a case only if it failed to inform the defendant within the time for service.

MCR 2.116(C)⁠(3), (D)⁠(1); MCR 2.105(K)⁠(3)

Publication and posting

Only on a 2.105(J) order. Publication runs once a week for 3 consecutive weeks in a newspaper, now one with print and website versions plus the statewide notice repository (effective May 1, 2026). Posting runs 3 continuous weeks at the courthouse and at least 2 other public places, by a person the order designates from MCR 2.103(B)(1)–(3). Either way, the order is mailed by registered mail, return receipt requested, to the last known address before the last publication or posting week, unless no address can be found after diligent inquiry; the moving party arranges the mailing and proves it by a verified statement attaching the order as mailed and a return receipt. Publication is proved by the publisher’s affidavit; posting by a verified statement of the designee.

MCR 2.106(A), (D)–⁠(G); ADM 2022-⁠31

Election days and places of worship

Civil process may not be served on an elector entitled to vote, on the day of that election, or on a person at a 501(c)(3) organization’s worship meeting on its worship property or going to or from it within 500 feet. On an affidavit showing sufficient cause, a judge may issue a restraining order or authorize the issuance and service or execution of a writ on election day, and may order service or execution of process despite the worship limit.

MCL 600.1831(1)–⁠(2)

Sundays and legal holidays

Before 2005 PA 201, MCL 600.1831 also barred Sunday service; the act rewrote the section, effective November 10, 2005, leaving the election-day and worship limits. The holiday statute states that it does not invalidate the service of a summons or other legal process.

MCL 600.1831; 2005 PA 201; MCL 435.101(8)

People privileged from civil process

Anyone going to, attending or returning from court proceedings where their presence is needed is privileged from service if service could not otherwise have been made on them. A person brought into Michigan by or after waiver of extradition on a criminal charge is privileged from personal process in civil actions arising out of the same facts, until convicted or, if acquitted, until there is a reasonable opportunity to return to the state the person came from. A member of the legislature is privileged from civil process only on a day the member’s house has a scheduled meeting, and not even then against process executed by certified mail, return receipt requested.

MCL 600.1835(1)–⁠(3)

Subpoena for a case in another state

Michigan adopted the Uniform Interstate Depositions and Discovery Act at MCL 600.2201 to 600.2209, where section 2207 asks courts to read it for uniformity with the other enacting states; a foreign subpoena is one issued under authority of a court of record of another state, a term that covers the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, federally recognized Indian tribes and U.S. territories. Submit the foreign subpoena to the circuit court clerk in the county where discovery is to be conducted; the clerk promptly issues a Michigan subpoena that incorporates its terms and lists every counsel of record. The request is not an appearance, and SCAO tells clerks it opens no new case and carries no filing fee; a motion to quash or enforce the subpoena pays the ordinary motion fee.

MCL 600.2201–⁠600.2203, 600.2207–⁠600.2209; MCR 2.305(E); SCAO TCS-⁠2013-⁠10

Serving a Michigan subpoena

Anywhere in Michigan in the manner of MCR 2.105, with the attendance and mileage fee tendered at the time of service in cash, money order, cashier’s check or an attorney’s check. It may instead be mailed with a postage-paid acknowledgment card stating that the attendance and mileage fees are given to the witness after the witness appears at court; if the card is not returned, it is served under MCR 2.506(G)(1). A discovery subpoena allows at least 14 days to comply unless the court shortens it, and the MC 11 proof records service of the subpoena together with any required fees and attachments.

MCR 2.506(G)⁠(1)–⁠(2); MCR 2.305(A)⁠(3), (A)⁠(5); MCL 600.2204; form MC 11

Rules verified October 2026 against the Michigan Supreme Court’s official publications: Michigan Court Rules (MCR 1.108, 1.109, 2.102 to 2.108, 2.116, 2.305, 2.506), ADM File No. 2022-31 (MCR 2.106, effective May 1, 2026), Administrative Order No. 2026-3, form MC 01, form MC 11, SCAO memo TCS-2013-10; and against the Michigan Compiled Laws and session records on the Legislature’s site: MCL 600.1831, MCL 600.1835, MCL 600.1910, MCL 600.1912, MCL 600.2201, MCL 600.2202, MCL 600.2203, MCL 600.2204, MCL 600.2205, MCL 600.2206, MCL 600.2207, MCL 600.2208, MCL 600.2209, MCL 600.2552, MCL 600.2559, MCL 600.701, MCL 600.705, MCL 600.711, MCL 600.715, MCL 600.745, MCL 450.1241, MCL 450.1246, MCL 450.2246, MCL 450.4102, MCL 450.4207, MCL 257.403, MCL 435.101, 2005 PA 201, House Fiscal Agency analysis of HB 4133 (2005). General information, not legal advice. The rule or statute controls.