Administrative Order

Drug Court Administrative Order

  • Authority for this Order: MCL 600.101 to MCL 600.9947, MCR 8.111 (B), MCR 8.110
  • Effective Date of Order: August 1, 2004

Prior Related Administrative Orders

AO- 2004-2 Drug Court that is rescinded by this order which expands the original order by adding a provision for balancing the caseload.

Rationale & Purpose For This Order

The purpose of this Order is to establish a "Drug Court docket" to provide more intensive supervision and treatment and Court involvement for drug and alcohol offenders as set forth in the Mission Statement and Goals.

Case Reassignment

Pending case prior to June 1, 2004 - These shall remain with the judge to whom they were assigned and are ineligible for the Drug Court.
  • Cases arraigned on and after June 1, 2004
  • Type of cases and eligibility: Set forth in Standard Operating Procedures
  • Assignment: All "drug court cases "shall be assigned to Judge Charles A. Nelson subject to the provisions of the Standard Operating Procedures.
  • Disposition of cases: The cases shall be disposed per a protocol developed by the Drug Court Team.

Reassignment of Non-Drug Court Cases

In order to balance the caseload, for all cases arraigned after August 1, 2004, if the most serious charge is OUIL 3 Road and/or Possession of Less than 25 grams of cocaine and the case does not qualify for the Drug Court for any reason and the case has been assigned to the drug court judge by assignment, the case shall be reassigned randomly to the non-drug court judges. This does not apply to DOC-prison video cases.

Procedures & Policies

All "Drug Court" procedures and policies will be available for review in the Court Administrator's Office and will be posted on the Circuit and Probate Court page.