Sec. 8176.
(1) If a new district is proposed by law, that new district shall not be created and any district judgeship proposed for the district shall not be authorized or filled by election unless each district control unit in the proposed district, by resolution adopted by the governing body of the district control unit, approves the creation of the new district and each judgeship proposed for the district and unless the clerk of each district control unit adopting that resolution files a copy of the resolution with the state court administrator not later than 4 p.m. of the sixteenth Tuesday preceding the August primary for the election immediately preceding the effective date of the new district. The state court administrator shall immediately notify the elections division of the department of state with respect to each new judicial district and district judgeship authorized pursuant to this subsection.
(2) A resolution required under subsection (1) that is filed before the effective date of the amendatory act that authorized that new district is a valid approval for purposes of this section only if the filing occurs within the 2-year state legislative session during which the amendatory act was enacted. A resolution required under subsection (1) that is filed after the effective date of the amendatory act that authorized that new district is a valid approval for purposes of this section only if the filing occurs not later than 4 p.m. of the sixteenth Tuesday preceding the August primary for the election immediately preceding the effective date of the new district.
(3) By proposing a new district and 1 or more district judgeships for the district, the legislature is not creating that district or any judgeship in the district. If a district control unit, acting through its governing body, approves the creation of a new district and 1 or more district judgeships proposed by law for that district, that approval constitutes an exercise of the district control unit's option to provide a new activity or service or to increase the level of activity or service offered in the district control unit beyond that required by existing law, as the elements of that option are defined by 1979 PA 101, MCL 21.231 to 21.244, and a voluntary acceptance by the district control unit of all expenses and capital improvements which may result from the creation of the new district and each judgeship. However, the exercise of the option does not affect the state's obligation to pay the same portion of each judge's salary which is paid by the state to other district judges as provided by law, or to appropriate and disburse funds to the district control unit for the necessary costs of state requirements established by a state law which becomes effective on or after December 23, 1978.
(4) Each district judgeship created pursuant to subsection (1) shall be filled by election pursuant to the Michigan election law, 1954 PA 116, MCL 168.1 to 168.992. The first term of each district judgeship shall be 6 years, unless the law permitting the creation of the new district and 1 or more judgeships provides for a term of a different length.
(5) The reformation of the seventy-eighth, seventy-ninth, eighty-first, eighty-second, eighty-third, and eighty-seventh judicial districts pursuant to the 2002 amendatory act that added this subsection does not require the approval of the district control unit under this section or section 8175.
History: Add. 1984, Act 95, Imd. Eff. Apr. 23, 1984 ;-- Am. 1990, Act 54, Imd. Eff. Apr. 11, 1990 ;-- Am. 1994, Act 138, Imd. Eff. May 26, 1994 ;-- Am. 2002, Act 92, Eff. Mar. 31, 2003
Compiler's Notes: Section 2 of Act 54 of 1990 provides:“If a new judicial circuit of the circuit court is created under this amendatory act pursuant to section 550a, the change in the composition of the affected judicial circuits shall take effect for judicial purposes on January 1, 1991. If the fifty-sixth judicial circuit is created pursuant to this amendatory act, the incumbent judge of the fifth judicial circuit who resides in Eaton county shall become the judge of the fifty-sixth judicial circuit on January 1, 1991, and shall serve until the term for which he or she was elected in the fifth judicial circuit expires.”