To get a legal separation in Michigan, you file an Action for Separate Maintenance in the circuit court under MCL 552.7. Michigan does not use the term “legal separation,” but a separate maintenance case lets the court divide property, set spousal and child support, and establish custody while leaving the marriage legally intact.1Michigan Legislature. MCL 552.7 The process mirrors a divorce in nearly every procedural respect, with one major catch: your spouse can respond by filing a counterclaim for divorce and force the case into a full dissolution.
What You’re Actually Filing For
A Judgment of Separate Maintenance gives the circuit court the same authority it would have in a divorce over custody, parenting time, child support, spousal support, and the division of marital property and debts.2Michigan Legislature. MCL 552.401 For daily life, the outcome looks almost identical to a divorce.
The difference is that you stay married. Neither spouse can remarry unless the judgment is later replaced by a divorce. People usually choose this route to keep an employer health plan in place, preserve a federal benefit that depends on the marriage continuing, or honor religious objections to divorce.
Know Before You File: Your Spouse Can Convert It to a Divorce
This is the single most important thing to understand before paying any filing fee. Under MCL 552.7, if you file for separate maintenance and your spouse files a counterclaim seeking divorce, the court must treat the case as a divorce. When the judge finds the marriage has broken down beyond repair, the result is a judgment dissolving the marriage, not a judgment of separate maintenance.1Michigan Legislature. MCL 552.7
Separate maintenance only works when both spouses want it. You cannot use it to block a divorce. If there is any chance your spouse wants the marriage ended, assume the case will become a divorce.
Who Can File: Residency and Grounds
At least one spouse must have lived in Michigan for 180 consecutive days immediately before filing, and one spouse must have lived in the filing county for at least 10 days. A narrow exception to the 10-day county rule applies when the other spouse is a citizen of another country, there are minor children, and there is reason to believe the children could be taken out of the United States; in that situation you can file in any county.3Michigan Legislature. MCL 552.9
Michigan is a no-fault state. You do not need to prove adultery, abuse, or desertion. The only ground to state is that the marriage has broken down to the point where its objects have been destroyed and there is no reasonable likelihood it can be preserved.4Michigan Legislature. Chapter 552 Divorce – Section 552.6
Preparing the Complaint
The case starts with a Complaint for Separate Maintenance. The Michigan State Court Administrative Office publishes standardized forms that circuit courts accept statewide, and using them is the simplest way to make sure nothing required is missing.5Michigan Courts. SCAO-Approved Forms
The complaint asks for both spouses’ full legal names, the date and place of the marriage, the no-fault ground, a listing of marital assets and significant debts, your current income, and the specific orders you want from the court on property, support, and real estate.
If you have minor children, the complaint also requires each child’s full name, current age, and every address the child has lived at during the past five years along with who the child lived with at each one. That history is what gives the Michigan court jurisdiction to decide custody under the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act.6Michigan Legislature. Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act – Section 209 You also lay out your proposed custody arrangement, parenting time schedule, and child support request.
Filing Fees
You file the completed complaint with the clerk of the circuit court in a county where the residency requirement is met. The base civil filing fee is $150. If the case involves minor children and the court will address custody or parenting time, an additional $80 fee is due at filing, for a total of $230.7Michigan Courts. Circuit Court Fee and Assessments Table
If you can’t afford the fees, request a waiver by filing SCAO Form MC-20 (Affidavit and Order, Suspension of Fees/Costs) with Form MC-287 (Financial Statement). You qualify automatically if you receive cash public assistance such as TANF, FIP, or SSI. Otherwise, the court looks at whether your household income is below 125% of the federal poverty guidelines or whether paying would prevent you from affording basic necessities.8Michigan Courts. Waiver/Suspension of Fees/Costs for Indigent Person
Serving Your Spouse
Once the clerk assigns a case number and issues a summons, the summons and complaint have to be formally delivered to your spouse. Use a professional process server or the county sheriff. You cannot serve the papers yourself.
After being served in person inside Michigan, your spouse has 21 days to file a response. If service happens outside Michigan or by registered mail, the response window is 28 days.9Michigan Courts. Michigan Court Rules Chapter 2 – Rule 2.108 The response is where your spouse agrees with your requests, proposes different terms, or files that counterclaim for divorce.
Waiting Periods and Temporary Orders
Michigan requires a mandatory waiting period before the court can take testimony or finalize anything. For couples without minor children, the minimum is 60 days from the filing date. If there are children under 18, the wait is six months.10Michigan Legislature. MCL 552.9f Those are floors. Contested cases routinely run longer.
Six months is a long time to wait without any structure in place, so ask the court for temporary orders early. During the waiting period, the court can enter orders covering custody, parenting time, and child support, and can order one spouse to pay the other enough to carry on or defend the case, which functions as interim spousal support.11Michigan Courts. Divorce Proceeding Checklist
What the Court Can Order in the Judgment
Michigan follows equitable distribution rather than a flat 50/50 split. The court can award one spouse a share of the other’s real estate, bank accounts, vehicles, investments, and retirement accounts, with the judge weighing each spouse’s contribution to acquiring, improving, and accumulating the property, among other factors.2Michigan Legislature. MCL 552.401 The judgment itself has the force of a deed for real estate and a bill of sale for personal property, so ownership changes once it’s signed.
Spousal support can be awarded to either spouse when the property distribution alone is not enough for suitable support, and the judge considers each party’s ability to pay, their situation, and the circumstances of the case.12Michigan Legislature. MCL 552.23 Child support is set using the Michigan Child Support Formula, which accounts for both parents’ incomes, overnights with each parent, health insurance, and childcare, and the court must follow it unless specific facts justify a deviation.13Michigan Courts. 2025 Michigan Child Support Formula Manual Dividing a 401(k) or pension requires a separate Qualified Domestic Relations Order directing the plan administrator to pay the non-participant spouse, and QDROs are available in separate maintenance cases, not only divorces.14Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – QDRO Qualified Domestic Relations Order
Finalizing the Judgment
The case ends when the judge signs the Judgment of Separate Maintenance. If both spouses agree on everything, the court usually schedules a brief pro confesso hearing where the judge confirms the agreement is voluntary, reviews the terms, and asks about any children before approving it.
If the case is contested, each side presents evidence and the judge decides property, support, custody, and parenting time. Contested cases take longer and cost significantly more because of attorney fees and sometimes expert witnesses.
The judgment is not effective until the signed document is filed with the court clerk. That filed judgment is the permanent, enforceable record of each spouse’s obligations.
Changing Things Later
Spousal support, child support, custody, and parenting time can be modified after the judgment, but you generally need to show a substantial change in circumstances that was not foreseeable when the original judgment was entered. Common grounds include a significant income change, a serious illness or disability, a child’s evolving needs, or a major change in a parent’s living situation. Child support and spousal support are separate obligations with separate standards, so modifying one does not automatically change the other. You file the motion in the same circuit court that issued the original judgment.
If you later decide to end the marriage, you file a separate divorce action. The terms of the existing separate maintenance judgment often carry significant weight in that proceeding, but the divorce decree will control where any terms conflict.