Berrien County Circuit Court System

The Berrien County Circuit Court

The Berrien County Circuit Court is the county's primary trial court. Michigan groups its trial courts by circuit, and Berrien County stands as the 2nd Circuit Court. This bench hears the heaviest cases in the county. It carries felony criminal files, civil suits over $25,000, and the full family docket. Most of its hearings take place inside the main courthouse in downtown St. Joseph.

County officials run the circuit court together with the 5th District Court as one coordinated operation. The two benches make up the Berrien County Trial Court. That single system covers civil, criminal, family, and probate work under shared administration. A felony often opens in the district court, then moves up to the circuit court for trial and sentencing. Knowing which branch holds a file is the first step in any Berrien County court records search, because the county does not run one universal case portal.

Courts in the Berrien County Trial Court

The county spreads its trial-court work across two courthouses and several service counters. Circuit matters, district matters, probate, and the county clerk's records desk each have their own location and phone line. The main courthouse sits on Port Street in St. Joseph, while a companion courthouse serves the Niles area. The table below lists the core courts and offices, where they sit, and how to reach them.

The Niles courthouse handles district-level work for its part of the county and accepts new circuit cases and pleadings. Everything else circuit-related, including the clerk's records-check counter, routes through the Port Street building in St. Joseph.

The county's district-court general civil overview lists these addresses and the dollar thresholds that separate district cases from circuit cases.

That page confirms district civil filings stay at or below $25,000, while larger money claims and the felony docket belong to the circuit court upstairs.

Circuit Court vs District Court

Michigan splits trial work between two benches, and the divide is mostly about money and severity. The circuit court takes the larger and more serious matters. The district court handles the smaller civil claims and the early stages of criminal cases. A single event can touch both benches, so it helps to know which court owns which piece before you go looking for a file.

A landlord-tenant dispute or a small-claims filing stays in the district court. A divorce, a felony trial, or a lawsuit worth more than $25,000 belongs to the circuit court. Ordinance and misdemeanor charges begin in district court, and a felony case is bound over to circuit court once it clears its early stages.

How a Case Moves Through the System

Berrien County cases follow a clear ladder. Trial work starts in the district or circuit court, depending on the type and size of the matter. A party who loses can ask a higher court to review the result. The Michigan Court of Appeals is the state's intermediate appellate court, and the Michigan Supreme Court sits at the top.

Appeal path: 5th District Court / 2nd Circuit Court › Michigan Court of Appeals › Michigan Supreme Court

Criminal flow: Arrest › District Court arraignment › Preliminary examination › Bound over to Circuit Court › Circuit arraignment › Pretrial › Trial › Sentencing › Appeal

Civil flow: Complaint filed › Answer › Discovery › Motions › Mediation › Trial › Judgment › Appeal

Appeals from a district-court decision may first go to the circuit court before they reach the Court of Appeals. Cases decided in the circuit court skip that step and head straight to the appellate bench when a party files in time.

Civil, Family, and Criminal Divisions

The Berrien County Trial Court organizes its work into divisions rather than separate buildings. Each division owns a group of case types and keeps its own counters and staff. This structure lets one courthouse handle a felony trial, a divorce, and a business dispute on the same day.

The main branches a resident will deal with break down like this:

• Civil division: lawsuits for money damages, contract and property disputes, and civil judgments, split between district and circuit court by the $25,000 line.
• Criminal division: adult felony, misdemeanor, and ordinance prosecutions, with felony files filed at the county clerk's office.
• Family division: divorce, custody, paternity, juvenile support, personal protection orders, and adoption.
• Probate: estates, wills, guardianships, conservatorships, and mental-health commitments.

The family division and probate work sit together on the fourth floor of the courthouse, and the two are joined under a shared family court plan for the 2nd Circuit Court and the Berrien County Probate Court. Even so, a probate estate file and a family custody file are different records held by different counters.

The 2nd Judicial Circuit and Its Judges

Berrien County is the sole county in Michigan's 2nd Circuit, so the circuit boundary matches the county line. The trial court is led by a chief judge who oversees the combined circuit, district, and probate operation. Several judges sit across the divisions, and the family division has its own presiding judge.

The Hon. Mabel Johnson Mayfield serves as Chief Judge of the Berrien County Trial Court. The Hon. Brian S. Berger is the Presiding Judge of the Family Division, and the Hon. Paul S. Jancha also sits in the family division. The Hon. Donna B. Howard presides over the county's Mental Health and Wellness Court. The full roster of assignments is published on the county's trial court judges page, and current bench assignments appear in the trial court's administrative orders.

Specialty Courts in Berrien County

Beyond its regular docket, the circuit court runs several treatment-based programs. These specialty courts work through a team model instead of a standard trial track. They aim at recovery and lower re-offense risk rather than punishment alone. Three programs anchor the county's specialty courts.

The Alcohol and Drug Recovery Court serves adults with a substance use disorder who face felony-level charges. The Mental Health and Wellness Court works with residents who carry a mental-health diagnosis and meet clinical eligibility, moving them through four phases over roughly 12 to 24 months. The county's Sobriety Court targets adults charged with repeat impaired-driving offenses. Anyone can make a referral to the recovery court through the program contact line.

Searching Berrien County Court Records

Berrien County does not run a single public portal for trial-court case files. The old civil case search was retired, so record access is counter-driven. The county clerk's records-check counter at the courthouse is the central route for circuit, criminal, family, and district records. Court files are public and may be inspected there unless a file is sealed or restricted.

A basic records request follows a short set of steps:

1. Decide which branch holds the file, whether that is circuit civil, criminal, family, or probate.
2. Bring the full name, including middle name and any aliases, plus a date of birth if you have one.
3. Add a year range for older matters so staff can narrow the search.
4. Visit the clerk's records counter in Room 123 or call the matching circuit civil or criminal extension.
5. For sealed, older, or non-digitized files, submit a formal records request rather than expecting a live web result.

Docket details and hearing schedules for a given file live with the same offices. A broader look at access channels and record types sits on the Berrien County court records page, and the office that files and stores circuit-court records is profiled on the Clerk of Court page.

The county also puts a range of justice-system services online, from records requests to the jail commissary ordering system used by inmate families.

Pages like that one show how much county court and custody business now runs through official online forms rather than in-person counters alone.

Visiting the Berrien County Courthouse

The main courthouse organizes its offices by floor, which makes routing easier once you know your case type. The county clerk and the district court sit on the first floor with courtrooms 191 through 194. Civil and circuit court work runs on the third floor with courtrooms 307, 315, 316, and 327. Family court and probate share the fourth floor with courtrooms 403 and 405.

The trial court holds proceedings both in person and over Zoom, so some hearings never require a trip to St. Joseph. The county's visitation time rules page shows how it manages the same mix of in-person and remote video access for family and juvenile-center visits.

The same in-person and video approach carries over to court hearings, letting parties appear remotely when a judge allows it.

Note: Weapons are barred from courthouse facilities, and cell phones must be silenced inside courtrooms during any Berrien County hearing.