Michigan Small Claims Removal to General Civil: How Form DC 86 Works

What Removal Means and Why It Exists

Michigan small claims court is designed to be fast and informal. That comes with tradeoffs: no attorneys in the courtroom, no jury, no formal discovery, and — if a district judge hears your case — no right to appeal. If any of those restrictions concern you, removal is the way out.

Under MCR 4.306, either party may demand removal to the General Civil Division at or before the time set for the hearing, or at the appearance before trial begins. The court must enter an order removing the case.

How to File Form DC 86

The form is SCAO Form DC 86, titled "Demand and Order for Removal, Small Claims." There's no filing fee for the demand itself.

File Form DC 86 with the court clerk within that time. The court enters an order transferring the matter to the General Civil docket; confirm the new schedule with the clerk.

You can download Form DC 86 from the SCAO website at courts.michigan.gov or get a copy from your local district court clerk's office.

What You Gain After Removal

Removal to General Civil restores four rights that small claims procedure strips away:

Attorney representation. In small claims, attorneys are prohibited from representing parties in the courtroom under MCL 600.8408. After removal, you can hire a lawyer to handle everything.

Jury trial. Small claims cases are bench trials only — one judge or magistrate decides. In General Civil, either party can demand a jury.

Formal discovery. No interrogatories, depositions, or document production requests are allowed in small claims court. General Civil opens up the full discovery toolkit.

Appeal rights. If a District Court Judge decides your small claims case, the decision is final and non-appealable. After removal to General Civil, you can appeal an adverse judgment to the Circuit Court within 21 days under MCR 7.104.

The 14-Day Answer Deadline That Catches People

This is the critical part most people miss. Once the removal order is entered, the defendant has 14 days to file a formal written answer under MCR 4.306(B)(1), serving it as provided by MCR 2.107. This is not the same as small claims, where no written answer is required.

If you filed the removal and you're the defendant, you triggered this deadline yourself. If the plaintiff filed the removal, the deadline applies to you regardless. Either way, missing it means a default judgment in General Civil court — which is harder to set aside than a small claims default because formal pleading rules now apply.

The written answer must respond to the plaintiff's allegations point by point. It's a formal legal document with specific formatting requirements. Most defendants who remove a case hire an attorney to prepare the answer, which is one reason you have attorney representation rights after removal.

When Removal Makes Sense

Removal is worth considering when the dispute involves complex contract terms that benefit from attorney analysis, when you want the option to appeal an unfavorable outcome, when the dollar amount is high enough to justify legal fees, or when you're a business that needs formal representation.

It's less useful when the case is straightforward and the amount at stake is small. Legal fees for a General Civil case often exceed the value of the claim itself. A $1,500 contractor dispute that you can present clearly at a 20-minute small claims hearing probably doesn't justify the cost of removal.

When Both Sides Can Use It

Removal isn't just a defendant's tool. Plaintiffs sometimes file DC 86 strategically — to bring an attorney against a pro se defendant or to access formal discovery when evidence is in the defendant's exclusive control. If the plaintiff removes the case, you're in General Civil whether you wanted that or not.

The Michigan Small Claims Response Guide walks through the removal decision framework step by step, including a side-by-side comparison of what you keep and lose in each forum and a timeline for the 14-day answer deadline.

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