Recorder's Court

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The Recorder's Court, in Detroit, Michigan was a state court of general jurisdiction which had, for most of its history, exclusive jurisdiction over all felony cases committed in the city of Detroit. It is believed to be the only court in the United States to have been called a Recorder's Court in the 20th century.

It traces its roots to the Mayor's Court in Detroit, formed in 1824.

This municipal court probably owed its name to the fact that from 1827 until 1857, the official name of the City of Detroit was "The Mayor, Recorder and Alderman of Detroit." [1]

It was formed in the 19th century, and was merged into the Wayne County Circuit Court, the general jurisdiction court in Wayne County, following the pattern of the rest of the state of Michigan in October of 1997.[2][3]

The merger of the courts was not without controversy. It was made pursuant to a 1997 state law which also consolidated the state's probate courts into a family court, a far less controversial change. A lawsuit brought by Richard Kuhn opposed the merger, but did not prevail.

Prior to the merger, "judges of Recorder's Court were elected from Detroit, so unsurprisingly, most of them were African-American. Then Detroit Recorder's Court was abolished — or rather, it was merged with Wayne County Circuit Court. The Recorder's Court judges became Circuit Court judges, and have to run for re-election in Wayne County as a whole, which is predominantly white." [4]

Categories:Court systems