How to File an Answer and Counterclaim to a Complaint for Divorce with Children

These instructions are general instructions for use in any Michigan County. Please be aware that some steps will vary from county to county. Contact your circuit court clerk’s office to find out which steps might be different in your county.

Use the Do-It-Yourself Answer and Counterclaim for Divorce tool to prepare the forms you need. You will not file all of these forms at the beginning of your case; some you will use later. You will need to make copies of some of the forms. The instructions below explain which forms you need for each step and how many copies to make.

Some of the steps after this one may have slightly different information for you depending on how you will file with the court. Each court decides how it will accept documents for filing. Contact your court to find out which methods are available. Depending on your court, you may be able to file by:  

• In-person filing
• E-mail
• E-filing using MiFILE
• Mailing or dropping off documents

You can find contact information for your court on the Courts & Agencies page of Michigan Legal Help.

MiFILE is only available for some courts. Even in courts where it is available, you can only use it for some case types. Click this link to check if you can e-file.

There is no filing fee for filing an Answer to Complaint  or a Counterclaim for Divorce.

If you end up needing to file a motion later in the case, there is a $20 motion filing fee. If you can’t afford the fee, you can file a Fee Waiver Request with the court clerk. Use the Do-It-Yourself Fee Waiver tool to prepare the Fee Waiver Request.

The clerk of the court must automatically approve your fee waiver if any of these are true:

• You receive public assistance based on having low income (examples: FAP, SNAP, Healthy Michigan, CHIP, ESO, FIP, TANF, WIC, SSI);
• You are represented by a legal services program that receives funding from the Legal Services Corporation or the Michigan State Bar Foundation; or
• You are represented by a law school clinic based on having low income.

If you do not fit into one of these three categories, a judge will review your Fee Waiver Request. The judge must waive your fees if you show that your gross household income is under 125% of the federal poverty level. If your gross household income is over 125% of the federal poverty level, but you show that paying fees would be a financial hardship for you, the judge must also waive your fees.

To learn more, read Fee Waivers in Court Cases.

Sign and date your Answer to Complaint for Divorce. If you chose to sign electronically, this is already done. The electronic signature will look like this: /s/ Your Name. If you are also filing a Counterclaim for Divorce, sign and date it.

If you’re filing a Counterclaim, there are three other forms that the form tool created that you may need to use. They are:

• Application for IV-D Child Support Services
• Verified Statement
• Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Enforcement Act Affidavit

You only need these three forms if the plaintiff did not file them. If the plaintiff served you with copies of these forms, that likely means they have filed them. You can also check with the court clerk’s office to see if the forms were filed, or check MiFILE if your case was e-filed.

If you find that the plaintiff did not file these forms, sign the Application for IV-D Child Support Services and the Verified Statement created by the form tool. The Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Enforcement Act Affidavit has to be signed in front of a notary. There may be a fee for notarization. You may be able to get your document notarized at a bank or at the court clerk's office. Some copy and print shops also offer notary services for a fee. Contact the bank or other location to make sure that a notary will be available at the time you plan on going. 

-Find out if you need Friend of the Court copies. If electronic filing is not an option for your case, contact the clerk’s office to find out if you need to provide extra copies of the documents you file to the Friend of the Court (FOC). Some but not all courts require FOC copies. If your court wants FOC copies, ask how they want you to provide them. Some courts may want you to label the copies “Friend of the Court” and file them along with your other documents in the clerk’s office. Other courts may require you to mail or deliver the copies to the FOC office. 

-If you will be filing in person at the court, make the following copies. If your court requires FOC copies, make one extra copy of each document.

• Answer to Complaint for Divorce – 2 copies

If you are filing a Counterclaim, also make the following copies:

• Counterclaim for Divorce with Children – 2 copies
• Verified Statement – 2 copies (you only need to make copies if your spouse did not file this form)
• Application for IV-D Child Support Services (form DHS-1201D) – 2 copies (you only need to make copies if your spouse did not file this form)
• Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Enforcement Act Affidavit – 2 copies (you only need to make copies if your spouse did not file this form)

In some counties, the court clerk’s office will make the copies for you. You can call the clerk’s office ahead of time to ask if you need to make your own copies.

If you will be filing and serving papers electronically, you will not need copies.

Please note that completing the documents on Michigan Legal Help or LawHelp Interactive does not file anything with the court. If you need to find out how to file, go back to Step 1. Once you know how you will file, check Step 4 to make sure you have enough copies. If you are filing in person or need contact information for the court, click on Courts & Agencies for the address and phone number of the court.

File the following documents:

• Answer to Complaint for Divorce

If you are also filing a Counterclaim for Divorce with Children, file it at the same time as your Answer along with:

• Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Enforcement Act Affidavit (only if your spouse did not file this form)
• Verified Statement (only if your spouse did not file this form)
• Application for IV-D Child Support Services (form DHS-1201D) (only if your spouse did not file this form)

If you are filing in person at the court, give the clerk your forms and all copies. The clerk will return any copies the court does not need. If you are e-filing or email filing, upload PDFs of each form to the e-filing platform or to an email and submit it.

File and serve the forms within 21 days of the date your spouse had you served with the initial divorce papers, if the papers were given to you in person. Or if you received your initial divorce papers in the mail or outside of Michigan, file and serve your forms within 28 days of the date you were served.

You must serve the other party with a copy of everything you filed. If your spouse is represented by a lawyer, serve the lawyer instead. Serve the forms within 21 days of the date your spouse had you served with the initial divorce papers, if the papers were given to you in person. Or if you received your initial divorce papers in the mail or outside of Michigan, serve your forms within 28 days of the date you were served.

Serve one copy of each of the following forms, along with any attachments that you filed:

• Answer to Complaint for Divorce
• Counterclaim for Divorce with Children (if you filed one), along with the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Enforcement Act Affidavit, Verified Statement, and Application for IV-D Child Support Services (form DHS-1201D), if you filed them.

If you used MiFILE to file documents electronically, MiFILE will also serve the documents electronically if the other party is using MiFILE. If you are not both using MiFILE, you will need to serve the documents by e-mail, if possible. If you or the other party can't do this, or if you are not sure, you can serve by regular mail or personal delivery. If you serve by mail, send the papers to the other party’s last known address. 

If you are serving documents by e-mail, keep the following rules in mind:

• All documents must be in PDF format;
• The e-mail subject line must include the name of the court, case name, case number, and the title of each document being sent;
• If you e-mail a document at or before 11:59 p.m., it is considered served on that day. If you send the e-mail on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, it is considered served on the next business day;
• Do not delete any e-mails you send to the other party, especially e-mails that served court documents. You must keep a record of sent items until a judgment or final order is entered and all appeals have been completed.

If you served the other party using MiFILE, you will not need to file a Proof of Service. MiFILE will create and file a Proof of Service for you.

Otherwise, you will need to complete and file the Proof of Service you got when you used the Do-It-Yourself Answer and Counterclaim for Divorce. Fill in the date of service and who you served (the plaintiff or their attorney). Check the boxes next to the names of the forms you served and indicate which method of service you used. Date and sign the Proof of Service and file it. If you are filing in person, also file an extra copy for the Friend of the Court if your court requires FOC copies, and make a copy for your records. 

You and your spouse must each complete a Domestic Relations Verified Financial Information Form and exchange them unless you agree in writing not to.

Either make a written agreement not to exchange the form, or

Within 28 days after you serve the plaintiff with your Answer, 

• Complete the form with your income and asset information,
• Sign the form,
• Make a copy for your records, and 
• Serve (send) a copy to your spouse. Do not file the form with the court. 

Your spouse must also fill out their own copy of the form and send it to you within the 28 days.

Important!

If you are a survivor of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking by the other party, you may leave out any information which might lead to where you live or work, or where a minor child (if any) may be found. If you are self-represented and do not provide your address because of domestic violence, you will need to give this form to the other party at the first scheduled hearing instead of mailing it, unless you and the plaintiff agree otherwise or the court directs otherwise. If you leave out information, you must explain the reasons why in a sworn affidavit and file it with the court within 28 days after you serve the Answer.

How to serve this document:

You must serve (send) this document electronically if you can and if the other party has access to e-mail. If you or the other party can't do this electronically, or if you are not sure, you can serve it by regular mail or personal delivery.

If you are serving by e-mail, keep the following rules in mind:

• All documents must be in PDF format;
• The e-mail subject line must include the name of the court, case name, case number, and the title of each document being sent;
• If you e-mail a document at or before 11:59 p.m., it is considered served on that day. If you send the e-mail on a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, it is considered served on the next business day;
• Do not delete any e-mails you send to the other party, especially e-mails that served court documents. You must keep a record of sent items until a judgment or final order is entered and all appeals have been completed.

You must file a Proof of Mailing after serving the form. If you served by e-mail, cross out “first-class mail” and write "e-mail." In the space for the other party's address, write the e-mail address instead. If you are filing in person at the court clerk's office, also file a copy of the Proof of Mailing for the Friend of the Court if your court requires FOC copies. Get a copy of the Proof of Mailing for your records.

The Friend of the Court (FOC) assists the court in making custody, parenting time, and child support decisions. Depending on your court, you may be required to attend Friend of the Court mediation or another type of FOC meeting. You and/or the plaintiff may have to schedule this meeting, or the court may schedule it for you.

To learn more about the Friend of the Court, read Friend of the Court Overview.

If there has been domestic violence in your relationship with the other party, your case may be exempted from a Friend of the Court meeting. The FOC must screen your case for domestic violence. 

Depending on your county, you may also be required to attend the SMILE Program, an educational program for separated parents with minor children. The goal of SMILE is to help parents better understand the effects of divorce, the needs of their children, and their roles in promoting their children's healthy adjustment to divorce.

You may get notice from the court of a pre-trial hearing, sometimes called a settlement conference. At a pre-trial hearing, the parties tell the court if they are likely to settle all the issues in the case or not. If you get notice of a pre-trial hearing, make sure you attend it.

If you get to the pre-trial hearing in your case and you and your spouse have been unable to agree on all issues, consider hiring a lawyer. If you are unable to reach a settlement, then you will have trial on another date.

If you go to the pre-trial hearing and your spouse does not attend, you can ask the judge to enter a default against the plaintiff if you filed a counterclaim. Entering a default usually means your spouse can’t participate in the rest of the case unless they ask the court to set aside the default and the court grants that request. If a default is entered against your spouse, then you are responsible for finishing the case. This includes scheduling a hearing to enter a default judgment, preparing the Judgment of Divorce, and giving testimony at the final hearing before the judge signs the Judgment of Divorce. To learn more, switch to the instructions below on How to File a Default and Finish the Case.

After you have gone through the Friend of the Court process and pre-trial hearing, expect a final hearing to be scheduled in your case to either enter a Judgment of Divorce (JOD) with the terms you have agreed on, or to have a trial on the issues you haven’t agreed on. The hearing date will be scheduled for after the waiting period of 180 days. In some cases the judge may shorten the waiting period to as little as 60 days if you or your spouse request this and have a compelling reason.

You should get a copy of a proposed JOD and proposed Uniform Child Support Order from your spouse before the hearing, and possibly a Uniform Spousal Support Order. Read the documents carefully to see if you agree with the terms. If you and your spouse agree on all the terms, you should both sign to show your approval. 

These are brief instructions about attending your final court hearing when you and your spouse have agreed on all the terms of the Judgment of Divorce. For more detailed instructions about going to court, watch the Going to Court video. If you are going to have a trial where the judge will make decisions about your case, it is best to find a lawyer to help you.

Go to the court on the scheduled day and time. Dress neatly. Arrive 10 or 15 minutes early. Go to the clerk and tell them your name, that you are there for a hearing, and that you are representing yourself. Follow the clerk’s directions and do not interrupt any hearing in progress.

When your case is called, go to the place you are directed and answer any questions the judge has. Speak clearly and directly.

When the judge grants the divorce, they will sign the Judgment of Divorce and Uniform Child Support Order, and the Uniform Spousal Support Order if there is one. In some counties the court will file your orders for you. In other counties, this is the Plaintiff's responsibility.

You should be provided with a copy of the Judgment of Divorce and other final orders.

If the judge told the plaintiff that they need to update the Judgment of Divorce and/or UCSO before they can be signed, the plaintiff will need to update the document(s) and file them along with a Notice to Enter Order without Hearing. The Plaintiff must serve you with a copy of the updated Judgment and/or UCSO and the Notice to Enter Order without Hearing within seven days after the hearing.

If you believe that the plaintiff's new proposed Judgment of Divorce and/or UCSO is inconsistent with what the judge ordered at the hearing, you can file a written objection within seven days of being served with the documents. If you file an objection, use this Objection to Proposed Order from the Michigan Courts website. On the form, write specifically what is inaccurate or incomplete about the plaintiff's proposed Judgment and/or UCSO. File the completed Objection and send a copy to the Plaintiff. Look back to Step 6 for information on how to send it.

If you don't file an objection on time, the judge will sign the Judgment of Divorce and/or UCSO if they determine that the document(s) are consistent with what they ordered at the last hearing. If the court finds a problem with the Judgment and/or UCSO, the court will schedule a hearing and the clerk’s office will send you notice.

After the Judgment of Divorce is filed with the court clerk, the divorce is considered final. You and your spouse must obey the terms of the judgment and any other final orders the judge signed. If either party doesn’t do exactly what the judgment says, the other party can file a motion asking the court to enforce it.

If the court changed a party’s last name, that person will need to change their last name with the Social Security Administration and the Secretary of State.

For more information on what happens after your divorce, read the article Finishing Your Michigan Divorce with Minor Children.