Defense Advocate Urges Longer Review Window for Referee Recommendations in Juvenile Court

Josh Pease of the State Appellate Defender Office told the Michigan Supreme Court that the court should amend MCR 3.991 to give parties more opportunity for meaningful judicial review of referee recommendations in juvenile cases.

"If a judge signs a recommendation into an order an hour after the referee issues them, there is effectively 0 opportunity to request review," Pease said, describing the current rule's effect when judges quickly convert referee recommendations into orders. The item under consideration was ADM file 2022-34, a proposed amendment of MCR 3.991 addressing judicial review of referee recommendations in juvenile matters.

Pease said he initially proposed broader amendments but now supports the version suggested by the State Bar Board of Commissioners and the Children's Law Section. He said the board's proposal strikes a balance by allowing judges to act quickly "particularly for an order removing a child from an abusive household" while expanding the timeframe for requesting review from seven to 14 days to give attorneys more flexibility.

Pease also recommended that MCR 3.992 be amended alongside 3.991 to address the limited scope of rehearing motions, noting that rehearing often returns matters to the same referee rather than to the judge for review. "Amending 3.991 for that greater flexibility, while simultaneously amending 3.992 to make it easier to obtain a motion for rehearing, is, at least in my mind, the best solution," he told the court.

Pease referenced statutory concerns that judges must retain ultimate decision-making in juvenile proceedings and said the proposed changes would "help ensure that it is the judge, not the referee, who is truly making the decisions in a case." The hearing record contains Pease’s spoken comment and the court’s agenda listing for ADM 2022-34; the court made no on-the-record decision at the session.