Oakland County Courthouse
Courtroom W2, First Floor
West Wing

Contact Information:

• Phone: (248) 858-1704
• Zoom ID: (248) 858-1704
• Chambers email: JudgeLangtonChambers@oakgov.com

Parties must connect to the e-file system for all cases.

• For cases filed prior to 2015, please contact the Oakland County Clerk’s Office at 248-858-0582 and request that it be converted to an e-file case.

In order to receive filings and notices from the court, parties (and attorneys) must attach their email addresses to MIfile.

• Information about connecting to the electronic system is available online: https://www.oakgov.com/government/courts/circuit-court/programs/efiling

Original documents mailed to chambers are not properly filed with the court and may be returned to you; it is your responsibility to properly file all documents prior to the expiration of any deadlines.

Referee Blanchard

• Zoom ID: 397-131-4129
• Case Specialist: Kelly Wormnest
  • Phone Number: (248) 858-5421

Referee Dietz

• Zoom ID: 679-334-3649
• Case Specialist: Kerisma Reed
  • Phone Number: (248) 858-0445

Please contact the assigned referee's case assistant with questions about scheduled FOC hearings

Information and Documents

• FOC Handbook
• SMILE Book

  • Instructions for virtual SMILE, which is now offered on the 2^nd Monday of each month at 9:30 am, noon and 7 pm.

Signatures: Where applicable, clients and their attorneys must both sign all proposed orders.

True Copies & Returning Orders: Because all documents must be presented for signature via the e-file system, the court is unable to extend the courtesy of also issuing true copies of documents and mailing copies to counsel.

Additional documents may be ordered through the County Clerk’s Office as needed.

For substitution of counsel: The opposing counsel(s) and party must sign the proposed order substituting counsel. An attorney may not substitute their client as counsel of record.

For withdrawal of counsel: All requests to withdraw without substitution shall be via motion and set for motion call.

• If a withdrawal request is granted, it is the responsibility of the withdrawing attorney to contact the clerk’s office and disconnect from the e-file system.
• It is also the responsibility of the self-represented litigant and/or new counsel to register for the e-file system.

All ex parte orders regarding custody, child support, or visitation must comply with MCR 3.207(B)(5).

All other proposed ex parte orders must comply with MCR 3.207(B)(6).

Scheduling Order:

• The court will issue scheduling orders as soon as possible with trials set approximately 60-90 days from the date of the settlement conference. 
• Unless excused by motion and order, all domestic cases shall be mediated. The court encourages attorneys to proactively select a mediator and confirm a mediation date prior to the settlement conference.
  • Attorneys of record should contact chambers with the name of the mediator and the confirmed date of mediation so that an appropriate scheduling order can be issued.Attorneys and clients must appear at all hearings.
• If the court issues a scheduling order, it will be the only notice of subsequent court dates, procedures, and filing deadlines

Adjournments:

• Without good cause shown by motion and order, the court does not generally adjourn settlement conference dates

Extension of Dates in Scheduling Order 

• The discovery cutoff is set in the scheduling order.   
• The court encourages counsel and litigants to communicate and work together.   
• The parties may stipulate to the extension of any dates in the scheduling order with the exception of trial, discovery cutoff, filing or submission deadlines, or mediation. 
• It is expected, however, that the parties began engaging in discovery before receiving the scheduling order.   
• The court will rarely reopen discovery after it closes; all requests to extend or reopen discovery requires a motion demonstrating good cause for the requested relief.   

Please refer to the applicable provisions of the scheduling order for additional instructions.

General Provisions

• The court will continue its practice of dispensing with oral arguments, if appropriate, and may request additional or responsive briefing. 
• After reviewing the motion, the court may direct that counsel and parties first meet with the assigned FOC team prior to any oral arguments on the matter. 
• All filings must comport with MCR 1.109(D)(1)(b) and contain appropriate information for both parties or counsel(s) of record. 
• All motions must have a specific request for relief and legal briefing supporting the proposed request. The court may dismiss motions for non-compliance with MCR 2.119(A).

Judge’s Copy of Motions or Briefs 

• Judge’s copies of motion documents, in the public file, are not required in any e-file case under MCR 2.119(A)(2)(d). 

Exhibits & Redacted Filings 

• See “Exhibit Submission” section below.

Motion Format 

• All motions must have a title succinctly stating the requested relief.   
  • Motions titled “motion,” or containing a substantially similar title, may be dismissed by the court.
• The hearing date shall be printed on the first page of the motion. 
• Chambers does not accept faxed, mailed, or e-mailed original documents for filing. 

Responsive Pleadings 

• Responsive pleadings must be filed no later than the deadline identified in MCR 2.119(C)(2)

Adjourned Motions

• If seven or more calendar days remain until the date of your praeciped hearing, please call the case management office to cancel the praecipe for your motion; chambers staff cannot cancel the praecipe on your behalf. 
  • A second praecipe does not cancel the first praecipe; the case appears on the docket twice. 
• If six or fewer days remain until the date of your hearing, please notify JudgeLangtonChambers@oakgov.com upon adjournment or cancellation of the motion.
  • It is the responsibility of the moving party to provide written notification to chambers that the motion is not proceeding as scheduled. 
• A renotice and repraecipe does not advise the court that the motion is off.   
• A party may only repraecipe a motion twice before the court dismisses the motion without prejudice.   
  • Restated, a single motion may only appear a total of three times on the docket.   
  • If the same motion appears on the docket a fourth time, the court will dismiss it and require it to be refiled and served with updated information. 

Abandoned Motions 

• Unless excused by the court, the moving party must appear for the motion. 
• To be excused by the court, the moving party must call chambers by 4pm on the Tuesday immediately before the motion’s scheduled hearing date and advise the clerk that the motion has been adjourned or withdrawn. 
• Failure to appear may result in a financial penalty under MCR 2.119(E)(4) and will result in dismissal of the motion. 

Praecipes filed late

• Unless added by court order, all non-emergency motions must be digitally praeciped: https://epraecipe.oakgov.com/OaklandCounty   
• The court will not consider motions filed with untimely, or improper, praecipes. 
• A Motion brought before this Court may not be repraeciped more than sixty (60) days from the motion's original date.
• If your case is not on the motion call list, please contact the case management office. 
• It is your responsibility to notify the opposing party that the motion is not on the docket.

Motions for Summary Disposition  

• The moving party shall set the matter during the court’s regular motion call docket and comply with the applicable provisions of the Michigan Court Rules.

Motions for Reconsideration

• Parties must file the motion and briefing in conformity with the Michigan Court Rules.

Motions to Settle Orders

• Parties must file a motion and provide the relevant portion of the hearing’s transcript, or specific timestamps of the proceeding, along with a proposed order.
• Parties may contact circuit court administration to review videos of hearings. 

Objections to Proposed Orders:

• An objection to a proposed judgment or order submitted under MCR 2.602(B)(3) (a/k/a “the 7-Day Rule”) must: (i) verify that the objecting party reviewed the related transcript or recorded hearing,and (ii) attach the relevant portion of the hearing’s transcript or provide specific timestamps of the recorded hearing concerning the disputed issues.

Emergency Motions

• The court may consider an emergency motion at any time.
• Parties seeking emergency relief shall email a copy of the motion (and any attachments) to JudgeLangtonChambers@oakgov.com after it is e-filed and call chambers at 248-858-1704.
• If staff are unavailable to answer your call, please leave a message with your name, case number, when you filed the motion, and when you e-mailed the motion to chambers. 

Evidentiary Hearing

• A party must file a motion to request an evidentiary hearing.
• Requests for hearing before a referee may be made at the Early Intervention Conference without filing a motion. 

Service Issues

• The court will not generally adjourn a moving party’s motion based on a non-moving party’s claim of improper service.
• The responding party should contact the moving party to ask for an adjournment of the motion or raise service issues in the response.

The court hears domestic motions only on Wednesday morning beginning at 8:30am.

• If your motion is heard via Zoom, the court will assign a time and attempt to call the case no later than 15 minutes after its assigned start time.

A party seeking a Personal Protection Order shall contact the PPO office (248-303-1534) for assistance in filing. The filing shall include a phone number where the petitioner can be reached if the court determines an interview is necessary.

If the court sets the matter for a hearing, the court will provide the date. The party requesting the PPO must serve it in accordance with the Michigan Court Rules and file an appropriate proof of service.

A party requesting to modify, terminate, or extend a PPO shall do so through e-file.

Original documents mailed to chambers are not properly filed with the court and may be returned to you; it is your responsibility to properly file all documents prior to the expiration of any deadlines.

The court will enforce all requirements regarding court filings addressed in the scheduling order.

Unless otherwise ordered, all trial and evidentiary hearings shall be held in-person before the Court, including the presentation of testimony from any parties and/or witnesses.

Adjournments

• After issuing a scheduling order, the court may not adjourn trial dates without prior contact to chambers.
• It is the responsibility of the parties to obtain a trial date from chambers and submit the proposed adjournment order to chambers via e-filing, with the new date and the reason for the adjournment, before the scheduled trial date.
• Court staff will not modify the trial date until chambers receives an appropriate stipulated order with the new date and the court does not hold dates open; the trial date is not officially moved until the court receives the stipulated order.
• The court will deny all requests to adjourn a case beyond time guidelines.

Trial Briefing

• The scheduling order identifies requirements for trial briefing. Noncompliance with the briefing requirements may result in the court not considering it.
• Parties are highly encouraged to file trial briefs, identifying uncontested and contested issues, in all cases.

Written Closing Arguments

• If both sides agree, the parties may submit written closings and findings of fact, in lieu of oral closing arguments, following the conclusion of trial.

General Provisions

Parties may not provide every exhibit combined into a single PDF document.

The file names of proposed exhibits shall only contain the following information: “Plaintiff’s Ex. 1.pdf,” “Plaintiff’s Ex. 2.pdf,” “Defendant’s Ex. A.pdf,” or “Defendant’s Ex. B.pdf,” etc.

It is your responsibility to submit documents with appropriate file names. Court staff will not, for example, rename “Defendant’s Ex. A – Incriminating Photos.pdf” to “Defendant’s Ex. A.pdf” for you.

• You will be asked to resubmit appropriately named files.

Audio files should be in .mp3 or .m4a format while video files should be in .mp4 or .mov format and conform to the same file naming scheme as documents.

• The court can accept files in .pdf, mp3, .m4a, .mp4, and .mov formats. Parties should contact chambers as soon as possible if they wish to use other formats.

The court does not accept Dropbox or other file sharing links (such as Google Drive) without prior permission.

• Please contact the court’s staff attorney for additional information.

For in person hearings, it is your responsibility to bring sufficient copies of all documents for opposing counsel, witnesses, clients, or other individuals for in-person hearings.

• Court staff are unable to make copies of documents or exhibits for you.

For trials and evidentiary hearing

Exhibits must be submitted to the court’s staff attorney (ostrowskik@oakgov.com) and the opposing party/attorney via email no later than one week before the trial per the scheduling order.

• Plaintiff shall use numbers and Defendant shall use letters.
• Exhibit stickers are not needed on each digital exhibit but are required for all physical exhibits.
• Every page of proposed exhibit must contain the notation “Page _ of _” and contain the current page and total number of pages in the exhibit.
• Exhibit exchange and filing must comply with the scheduling order’s provisions.

The parties shall submit all documents, photographs, and non-audio/video exhibits in individual PDF documents.

For motions

All proposed exhibits must be served on the opposing party with the underlying motion.

Non-confidential proposed exhibits should be appended to the motion filing with Plaintiff using sequential numbers and Defendant using sequential letters to separate each exhibit.

Any confidential exhibits omitted from the public file shall be tendered with a complete judge's copy to chambers (via email to JudgeLangtonChambers@oakgov.com) and opposing counsel no later than noon on the Thursday before the scheduled hearing date.

• Exhibits not provided to the other party/counsel via email may be excluded from consideration.

The motion filed in the public file must contain a placeholder page noting that an exhibit was omitted from the public file but provided directly to chambers and opposing counsel.

• For example—“Defendant’s Ex. C—Doctor Smith’s report dated 1/5/2022—omitted from public file but provided to chambers and opposing counsel”

The party offering an exhibit must first establish a legally appropriate foundation prior to the court’s consideration of the proposed item.

Consent Judgments & Settlements

If the case settles the day of trial and the parties wish to place the terms on the record in lieu of trial, the court will entertain the request without a written motion.

• The court will provide counsel with a return of judgment date.

In all other cases, the parties must e-file the final judgment documents containing the signatures of parties and counsel where applicable.

• The court strongly encourages parties to file their documents no later than seven (7) business days before the hearing to ensure sufficient processing time.
• The court will not take proofs without being in actual possession of the judgment documents.
• The court is unable to extend the courtesy of returns of judgment dates for cases settling prior to the morning of trial.

If the case settles prior to trial, parties may contact chambers for an earlier proofs date.

• The court will only move up a date for proofs if it 1) is in actual possession of all final judgment documents signed by the necessary individuals where applicable and 2) has reviewed the judgment document documents.
• The court encourages parties to file their documents, wait two full business days, and then contact chambers (JudgeLangtonChambers@Oakgov.com) for an earlier proofs date.

Only Plaintiff and counsel need to appear for proofs on a Complaint. If proceeding on a Counter-Complaint, Defendant and counsel are the only individuals needed at the hearing.

Default Judgments

A party must file and obtain a default against the non-moving party, from the county clerk, before presenting a default judgment to the court.

Please verify entry of default by the county clerk and that you properly served the clerk’s default before appearing for the default judgment hearing.

The party moving for a default judgment must comply with all applicable court rules before appearing for the default judgment hearing.

If the proposed judgment is attached to the motion, parties must also efile it, the Record of Divorce, and any Uniform Support Orders separately. The court cannot separate the proposed documents from the motion for the moving party.

• The court highly encourages parties seeking default judgments to e-file their proposed judgment documents at the same time as their motion.

No children are allowed in the courtroom unless given permission by the judge’s staff.

• For hearings held virtually, parents should ensure children are unable to hear or see the proceedings.

Hats and sunglasses are not allowed to be worn in the courtroom unless given specific permission by the judge’s staff.

• All parties must appear in appropriate attire.

Viewers are prohibited from recording, streaming, copying, or distributing court proceedings.

If your hearing occurs via Zoom, please ensure that you are comfortable using Zoom (and comfortable connecting to audio and video) before logging into your hearing.

• Parties, witnesses, and counsel are required to appear on camera.
• The court may permit, if requested on record and for good cause shown, a party’s request to appear by audio only.
• Court staff are not able to provide technical assistance.

The court will consider sanctions, including adjourning or dismissing a motion, if a party attempts to participate from a moving vehicle regardless of whether they are a passenger or driver.

All participants shall observe appropriate courtroom decorum and behavior; the court retains its contempt powers to sanction individuals participating remotely and may exclude a remote party for inappropriate behavior.

• Court staff will issue Zoom instructions via the e-file system with your case’s time at least 24 hours before the hearing.
• While court staff will attempt to call your case at its assigned time, we cannot guarantee it will occur exactly as scheduled.
• You may be placed in the virtual waiting room where staff will provide status updates via the messaging function.

The court will allow use of Zoom breakout rooms for conversations between counsel and clients.