Oakland County Clerk and Register of Deeds

About the Oakland County Clerk's Office

The Oakland County Clerk and Register of Deeds is a countywide elected office. The current officeholder is Lisa Brown, listed by the county as one of its countywide elected officials alongside the Sheriff, the County Executive, the Prosecutor, the Water Resources Commissioner, and the Treasurer. The Clerk is the legal records office for 6th Circuit Court records and also handles vital records, land records, elections, marriage licensing, assumed names, notary public records, military discharge records, and Register of Deeds functions.

District courts in Oakland County operate with their own local clerks and case-processing systems. Anyone with a traffic ticket, a misdemeanor, a small claims case, a landlord-tenant case, or a district civil case usually works with the district court where the case was filed rather than with the County Clerk's Legal Records Division. See the District Court Clerks page for the secondary clerk workflow.

The Legal Records Division

The Clerk's Legal Records Division handles 6th Circuit Court case filings, certified court copies, and orders placed through the Court Explorer portal. It is the office to call for older court records that are not online, certified registers of actions, and copies of judgments, orders, and pleadings from public cases.

The full text of MCL 780.621 on the Legislature's site sets out application-based set-aside relief. Applications are filed in the convicting court, and the Clerk's Legal Records Division processes Circuit Court set-aside filings in Oakland County. Each separate court of conviction requires its own application.

Court Explorer and Document Orders

The Clerk's Court Explorer page describes the portal as the official online tool to search, view, and order copies of 6th Judicial Circuit Court public case files. The live portal is at courtexplorer.oakgov.com. Records date back to the early 1990s online. Older records are accessed through the Legal Records Division in person or by mail. Personal Protection Orders, juvenile records, and Probate Mental Health records are excluded from the portal.

Court Explorer accepts orders for Circuit and Probate documents. Circuit documents are ordered from the Register of Actions screen. Probate documents are ordered from the Available Documents screen. Each order can specify Email or Regular U.S. Standard Mail. Certified copies must be mailed and cannot be emailed. Orders are manually processed during regular business hours, Monday through Friday, and are typically fulfilled within two business days. For Circuit document questions, contact CourtExplorer@oakgov.com. For Probate document questions, contact probatecourtexplorer@oakgov.com.

Filing Fees and Copy Fees

The Clerk's Legal Records Fees and Forms page publishes filing fees for Circuit Court civil cases, divorces, motions, jury fees, name changes, garnishments, and other matters. Credit-card or bank statements for online court orders show the charge as "g2gcharge.com." All sales are final and not refundable.

Common Circuit Court Forms

The Clerk publishes a list of common State Court Administrative Office (SCAO) forms used in Circuit Court filings. The list spans civil, family, garnishment, and protected-information addenda.

How to Request a Certified Copy

Certified copies of Oakland County Circuit Court documents are issued by the Clerk's Legal Records Division. Most certified copies of court documents and registers of actions can be ordered online through Court Explorer when the case is in the system, or directly through Legal Records when the case is archived or restricted from online order.

1. Identify the case number, court (Circuit or Probate), and the specific document or register.
2. Open Court Explorer and search by name or case number.
3. Open the case and find the document on the Register of Actions or Probate Available Documents screen.
4. Click Order Document and choose Certified Copy.
5. Pay the certification fee ($10.00 per case number plus $1.00 per page) and applicable service fee.
6. The Clerk processes the order manually during business hours and mails the certified copy; certified copies cannot be delivered by email.
7. For an older or archived case, contact Legal Records at 248-858-0582 or clerklegal@oakgov.com to start a paper request.

For Oakland County set-aside filings, MCL 780.621c lists convictions that cannot be set aside and the traffic-record limits described in the statute. The Clerk processes set-aside filings for the 6th Circuit Court.

Vital Records and Marriage Licenses

The Vital Records Division of the Clerk's office records certificates of births, deaths, and marriages that occurred in Oakland County and provides qualified applicants with certified copies. It also files and issues marriage licenses, notary public applications, concealed pistol licenses, assumed names, and co-partnerships. The Pontiac office is open Monday-Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with no appointment necessary. The Troy office is open Monday-Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. by appointment only; appointments are scheduled by calling 248-858-0571.

Marriage license fees are $20 per couple for Michigan residents and $30 per couple for out-of-state residents. The three-day waiting period can be waived for an additional $5. The Vital Records section in the marriage and divorce records page lays out the application fields and pickup rules in full.

Register of Deeds and Super Index

The Clerk also serves as Register of Deeds. The office creates a public record for all land situated in Oakland County, including deeds, mortgages, foreclosure records, and personal property filings. The Super Index search tool lets users find copies of recorded documents dating back to January 1, 1964, with the exception of subdivision plat maps. Documents are scanned and microfilmed and returned to submitters by U.S. mail unless otherwise noted.

The land-record recording fee is $30 and includes a $4 state survey and remonumentation fee. The state transfer tax is $3.75 per $500 of consideration. The Register of Deeds office does not handle birth certificates, other vital records, or UCC filings for transferring utilities. As of November 3, 2025, the Register of Deeds no longer records UCC documents separately from land records, and land-record recording fees apply to UCC filings.

Set-Aside Filings Through the Clerk

Michigan set-aside relief, often called expungement, runs through the convicting court. For Oakland County 6th Circuit Court convictions, the Clerk's Legal Records Division receives the application. The MSP conviction set-aside page explains the application materials and the $50 processing fee, plus a $30 fingerprint-based personal record check fee. Applications in different courts require separate filings.

Michigan's automatic Clean Slate process began in April 2023 under MCL 780.621g. Eligible misdemeanors and felonies become nonpublic on a set schedule without an application, although certain offenses are not eligible. The Clerk's Legal Records Division can confirm whether a specific 6th Circuit Court conviction has been set aside.

The MSP Criminal History Records page hosts the official statewide criminal history check and the conviction set-aside information that Oakland County applicants need before filing through the Clerk.

Confidential and Protected Records

The Clerk handles intake of both public and protected filings. Some categories are confidential under Michigan law. Adoption records are closed under MCL 710.67. Mental health information is restricted under MCL 330.1748. The MC 97a Addendum to Protected Personal Identifying Information keeps sensitive data off public filings.

The adoption confidentiality statute on legislature.mi.gov drives why adoption files filed with the Clerk are not in Court Explorer and are not released through routine certified-copy orders.

Mental health confidentiality under MCL 330.1748 applies to Probate Mental Health files filed through the Probate Court, which is a separate office from Legal Records but operates on the same Pontiac campus.

District Court Clerks Are Separate

Oakland County district courts operate with their own clerks. The 48th District Court in Bloomfield Hills, the 50th District Court in Pontiac, the four 52nd District Court divisions in Novi, Clarkston, Rochester Hills, and Troy, and city-run courts in Ferndale, Hazel Park, Madison Heights, Royal Oak, Oak Park, Southfield, Farmington Hills, and Waterford each run their own filings, traffic payments, and small claims dockets. The District Court Clerks page is the secondary clerk page for those offices. See the 6th Circuit Court page for the trial court that the Clerk's Legal Records Division serves.

Related Oakland County Resources

For Circuit and Probate court case search, see court records. For probate filings and MiFILE rules, see probate records. For marriage and divorce records, see marriage and divorce records. For Sheriff's records and FOIA requests, see public records.