How to Complete Michigan Form MC 97: Protected Personal Identifying Information

Michigan Form MC 97 is the nonpublic companion document you file with any public court paper that would otherwise expose sensitive identifiers like Social Security numbers, dates of birth, or financial account numbers. Michigan Court Rule 1.109(D)(9) keeps that information out of the public case file entirely. You put it on MC 97 instead, where only the judge and authorized court staff can see it, and you use reference numbers in the public document to point to the data on the form. The blank PDF is free from the Michigan Courts website at courts.michigan.gov.

Information That Must Go on MC 97 Instead of a Public Filing

MCR 1.109(D)(9)(a) lists the categories that cannot appear anywhere in a public document:

Full date of birth for any individual named
Social Security number or national identification number
Driver’s license number or state-issued personal ID card number
Passport number
Financial account numbers, including bank, credit card, and investment accounts

These are complete omissions, not partial redactions. Michigan does not allow the last-four-digits style you might have seen in federal filings. If any of these items would ordinarily appear in your complaint, motion, petition, or other public paper, it belongs on MC 97 instead.¹

Check Whether You Need MC 97 or MC 97a

Before you start filling anything in, confirm you have the right form. MC 97 covers a defendant, respondent, or decedent. If the protected information belongs to a plaintiff, petitioner, a child, or any other individual, you use MC 97a instead.² Cases with protected information on both sides may need both forms filed together.

Filling Out the Form

Header

Enter the court name, county, judicial circuit or district, court address, and telephone number at the top. Add the case number and assigned judge’s name. If this is your initial filing and no case number exists yet, the clerk will assign one. In the space provided, write the name of the specific public document MC 97 accompanies, such as “Complaint” or “Motion for Child Support.”¹

Assign a Reference Number to Each Item

Each piece of protected information on MC 97 gets its own reference number in the “Ref. No.” column. That same number then appears in the public filing wherever the actual data would have gone. If your complaint needs to reference a bank account, you write “Ref. No. 1” in the complaint at that spot, and MC 97 lists the full account number next to “Ref. No. 1.”³ The public sees only the reference number; the judge and authorized staff look at MC 97 to see the real information.

Enter Each Identifier in Full

Write out the complete Social Security number, the entire account string, the full date of birth. MC 97 is the court’s only record of the unredacted data, so accuracy matters. A transposed digit here can create confusion later, and no clerk is going to check your work.

Later Filings in the Same Case

You only file MC 97 the first time a given piece of protected information reaches the court. When a later filing in the same case needs the same item, you don’t submit a new form. You cite the original reference number. If a child’s date of birth was “Ref. No. 3” the first time, it stays “Ref. No. 3” in every subsequent filing.³

Filing MC 97 With the Court

File MC 97 at the same time as the public document it goes with. The form’s own instructions require concurrent submission, and there is no grace period for filing it after the fact.¹

Electronic Filing

Michigan’s MiFILE TrueFiling system accepts documents from attorneys, self-represented litigants, and agencies.⁴ Not every Michigan court participates, so confirm your court is on the list at mifile.courts.michigan.gov before relying on it. When you upload MC 97, the system lets you mark it as a nonpublic document so it stays segregated from the publicly accessible file.

Paper Filing

If your court doesn’t accept electronic filings, or you’d rather file on paper, take MC 97 to the clerk’s office in person or send it by mail along with the accompanying public document. The clerk stores MC 97 apart from the public case file, so it doesn’t show up in public record requests or courthouse terminal searches.

What Happens If Protected Information Ends Up in a Public Filing

The court will not fine you, reject the document, or dismiss the case for putting protected information in the wrong place. The rule specifically bars punitive action for that mistake.⁵ The real consequence is different and often worse: under MCR 1.109(D)(9)(d)(i), filing your own protected information in a public document waives the confidentiality protection for that information. Once it’s exposed, you’ve given up the right to have it shielded.³

Do not count on the clerk to catch mistakes. MCR 1.109(D)(10)(a) puts the entire responsibility on the filer. Courts do not screen, review, or redact filings at intake, whether you file electronically or on paper.³ Attorneys and self-represented litigants are held to the same standard.⁶

Fixing an Accidental Disclosure

If you catch the problem yourself, or opposing counsel points it out, file a motion asking the court to seal or remove the offending document. Under MCR 1.109(D)(9)(f), the court can order the unredacted document taken out of the public record and require you to file a properly redacted replacement. The court can also act on its own without waiting for a motion.⁷ Move fast. The longer the document sits in the public file, the more chance someone downloads it.

1
Michigan Courts. Protected Personal Identifying Information (MC 97)
2
Michigan Courts. Addendum to Protected Personal Identifying Information (MC 97a)
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Michigan Courts. FAQ Personal Identifying Information in Court Filings
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Michigan Courts. MiFILE for the Trial Courts
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Michigan Courts. Michigan Court Rules on Personal Identifying Information
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Michigan Courts. MCR 1.109 Court Records Defined; Document Defined; Filing Standards; Signatures; Electronic Filing and Service; Access
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Michigan Courts. Michigan Court Rules