SB 147 Michigan Senate · 2025-2026 Regular Session

Civil procedure: costs and fees; fee for publication of legal notice; remove sunset for inflation adjustment. Amends sec. 2534 of 1961 PA 236 (MCL 600.2534).

Senate Bill 147 proposes to amend civil procedure rules concerning the fees charged by newspapers for publishing legal notices. The bill's primary purpose is to remove the existing expiration date of March 1, 2025, for the annual inflation adjustments to these publication rates. This change would allow the Michigan Department of Treasury to continue adjusting the rates for legal notices based on the Consumer Price Index indefinitely. The bill directly affects newspapers that publish legal notices and individuals or entities required by law to publish such notices.

Bill status passed 3 of 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Mar 2025

Committee Review

Apr 2025

Senate Passage

Apr 2025

House Passage

Governor

Introduced Mar 13, 2025 Last action Apr 29, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Senate Introduced Bill → As Passed by the Senate · 3 edits · Apr 29, 2025

MINOR

This bill amends Michigan's Revised Judicature Act to update legal notice publication rates and clarify the minimum cost requirements for notices published in newspapers. The changes standardize the fee structure for legal notices, setting specific rates for first and subsequent publications while maintaining minimum costs for single and multiple publication scenarios.

Scope change

The bill's scope remains focused on legal notice publication rates in Michigan newspapers, with no change to applicability or jurisdiction.

FISCAL

Updated publication rate structure to $20.50 per folio for first publication and $8.45 per folio for subsequent publications, with minimum costs of $59.00 for notices published 2+ times and $44.00 for notices published 1 time.

REQUIREMENT

Clarified that newspapers must not charge higher rates for political notices or advertising compared to commercial advertising of similar size.

TECHNICAL

Removed internal tracking codes and formatting artifacts from the original Senate introduced version, resulting in cleaner legislative text.

Floor votes · Senate Apr 29, 2025

How they voted

21–17

Passed

Total votes 38

Apr 29, 2025

D Democratic19

19 Yea

100% Yea

R Republican19

2 Yea 17 Nay

89% Nay

Vote distribution

All Yea All Nay Mixed No data

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Apr 29, 2025

Committee

referred to Committee on Judiciary

lower

Apr 29, 2025

Introduced

received on 04/29/2025

lower

Apr 29, 2025

Upper · Passed

PASSED ROLL CALL # 73 YEAS 21 NAYS 15 EXCUSED 1 NOT VOTING 0

upper

Apr 23, 2025

Upper · Passed

REPORTED BY COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE FAVORABLY WITHOUT AMENDMENT(S)

upper

Apr 22, 2025

Committee

REFERRED TO COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE

upper

Apr 22, 2025

Upper · Passed

REPORTED FAVORABLY WITHOUT AMENDMENT 4/17/2025

upper

Mar 13, 2025

Committee

REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON CIVIL RIGHTS, JUDICIARY, AND PUBLIC SAFETY

upper

Mar 13, 2025

Introduced

INTRODUCED BY SENATOR SYLVIA SANTANA

upper

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors