Displaying the scheduled court cases you wish to see can be accomplished in three easy steps:
1. Think about what cases you want to see.
2. Using the display controls at the top of the calendar, set the calendar to display the cases you want to see.
3. Click the "Display" link.

The more you use accurate display settings, the easier it will be to view the calendar because only the cases you wish to see are displayed. On the other hand, making your display request too specific, with incorrect information, or with misspellings will result in you not seeing what you want to see. This could have serious consequences if you are relying on the calendar for a court appearance. Therefore, make sure a case number is correct, the names are spelled right, and the court, judge, and attorney information is correct and exactly what you want. If you are not absolutely sure about these items, enter the first few letters of the last or business name, leave the court and judge/jurist boxes set to "all", and leave the date boxes, case number, and attorney number blank. You may get much more than you want, but at least what you really want to see will be displayed. If you get too many cases displayed, you can always narrow your display by resetting the controls and clicking "display" again.

YOU KNOW THE NAME OF THE CASE YOU WANT TO SEE:
If you are sure how the last/business name is spelled, enter the whole name.

Enter only a few letters of the last/business name if you are not sure how it is spelled.

If you are only sure how part of the name is spelled, enter it and check the "Search text contained anywhere in name" box. This is especially good for business names and complicated last names; e.g., for "Sloewinski" enter "nski in the last name field and check the "contained in" box. After clicking "display," every scheduled case having a name containing "nski," including "Sloewinski," will appear.

If you are searching for a person, adding the first letter of the first name is a good strategy to narrow your search.

YOU KNOW THE CASE NUMBER OF THE CASE YOU WANT TO SEE:
Do not use a case number unless you are getting the number from a court document. Use the numbers in the middle of the case number only. Do not use the year, prefixes, or suffixes, or your desired case may not display.

Do not use the letter "O" for the number "0" (zero)!

Do not narrow your search for a specific case by judge or court unless you absolutely know in which court it will be heard in and which judge/official is hearing it. You may specify the wrong judge because a judge has heard one part of a case and the case is really assigned to another judge.

Court or judge/jurist searches are extremely useful when you want to know what a particular court or judge/jurist is doing on a specific date.

"Visiting judge" occurs when all Bay County judges have disqualified themselves from hearing a case and an out of County judge has been assigned to hear the case.

Other County jurists (judicial officials) are listed such as Friend of the Court Referees, the Probate Court Referee, the Probate Court Registrar, and the District Court Magistrate. Do not specify these jurists unless you are certain they are hearing the case(s) that you wish to display.

If you know a particular date of the case(s) you wish to see, enter it into the begin date field. If you are not sure of the date, do not use a specific date, or use a big begin and end date time interval.

Need to look at a calendar to enter a date? Click on the date field and a calendar appears. Next, click on the date on the calendar you wish to use and it will pop into the date field.

Attorney searches can be performed if you know the attorney's State Bar number which starts with a "P" and usually contains five numbers. Do not enter the "P", only the five or so numbers. To look up an attorney's State Bar number go to www.michbar.org. Under "Member Resources," select "Member Directory." Enter the attorney's name and hit "enter." When the name appears, left click on it and the P number will appear.

The court calendar is updated twice per day, at approximately 1:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. Therefore, a case that has been adjourned may not show that status on the calendar until the next day. Also, displayed information may be untimely because clerks have not had time to make new entries.