- For questions: (734)671-0201 (8:15 am – 4:15 pm) or Email Us
- 33rd COVID-19 Contingency Plan
Unless notified otherwise, all Court proceedings will be held remotely via Zoom. Please contact the Court if you did not receive Zoom instructions. Payments can be made online, by telephone, by mail, or through the Court’s drop box (located at the front door of the building). The public can access the court proceedings by watching the livestream on YouTube. Hover over the “Media” tab above to access the Court’s YouTube channels.
Visitors to the courthouse are restricted to those individuals scheduled for in-person court proceedings. Please call 734-671-0202 from the parking lot to check in. Before entry, all visitors must be screened and temperatures checked. Masks must be worn at all times in the courthouse.
Effective July 16, 2020, the Court began accepting and processing Landlord/Tenant matters. Please click here for Instructions for Landlord/Tenant Filers. Filers must include a Verification Regarding CDC Declaration, DC 511, found at: https://courts.michigan.gov/Administration/SCAO/Forms/courtforms/dc511.pdf
For information about the Eviction Diversion Program, go to www.Michigan.gov/EDP.
For a copy of the CDC Declaration Form, go to https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/declaration-form.pdf.
The 33rd District Court has exclusive jurisdiction over the following matters occurring within Brownstown, Flat Rock, Gibraltar, Grosse Ile, Rockwood, Trenton, and Woodhaven:
General Civil: Lawsuits seeking damages up to $25,000.
Landlord-Tenant: Disputes between a landlord and tenant(s).
Small Claims: Money disputes up to $6,500.
Criminal and Traffic: Criminal felony offenses from arraignment through preliminary examination and misdemeanor offenses. Traffic misdemeanor citations/tickets including statute and ordinance violations and civil infractions.
Security screening is in progress at the 33rd District Court every day. Individuals and their belongings (purses, bags, briefcases, etc…) entering the 33rd District Court are subject to search. For a list of items that are not allowed in the courthouse, please visit the Information page.
Judge James K. Kersten has been a judge with the 33rd District court since his election in 1996. He was re-elected in 2002 and again in 2008. He served as Chief Judge for the 33rd District Court from 2000 until 2004, and was again named Chief Judge in January of 2010.
Judge Jennifer Coleman Hesson was elected to serve on the 33rd District Court bench in November, 2010, taking office on January 1, 2011. One year later, she was appointed Chief Judge Pro Tem and received the appointment, from the Supreme Court, to serve as Chief Judge of the 33rd District Court, beginning January 1, 2014 through December 31, 2017. She presently serves as Chief Judge Pro Tem. Before taking the bench, she was a courtroom attorney for nearly 15 years. She developed her professional perspective by strategizing and presenting thousands of criminal and civil cases in more than 50 of Michigan’s district, municipal, circuit, probate and appellate courts; and in the federal U.S… District Courts.