How to use the SCAO Forms


What’s Included

The Partnership includes over 700 SCAO-approved forms, including District Court forms, Circuit Court forms, Michigan Court forms, Friend of the Court forms, Probate Court forms, and Family Division forms. We want to thank the State Court Administrative Office for providing the forms to us.

ICLE will update the forms as modifications are made to the forms by the SCAO.

Disclaimer. We strive to maintain an updated collection of SCAO forms, but please contact us if you believe any forms are not the current version or need correction.


Technical Requirements

To view and print the forms, you must first install a copy of the Adobe Reader. Click here to download Adobe Reader , a free software program for Windows 2000 SP4 and higher. Once the software is installed, return to the SCAO forms area and click on the form you wish to view.


Search and Browse

To search on the forms, enter a keyword in the search box. For best results, use a term from the SCAO form title or enter the SCAO form number, such as MC01 (no spaces will give better results). Results will appear in order of relevance. To preview the form, just click on the title. Adobe Reader will open the form onscreen.

To browse lists of forms, click on the drop-down box and select a category. This will take you to a list of titles, in SCAO-numbered order. To preview a form, just click on the title. Adobe Reader will open the form onscreen.

Tip: Once you find a form, you can search for specific terms within the document using Adobe Reader's Find feature. This feature searches for words that appear on the page you are currently viewing. To find specific terms, pull down the Edit menu, click on Find, and type in the word you are looking for. The keyboard shortcut for the Find feature is CTRL-F.


Fill Out SCAO Forms on Your Computer and Save the Completed Forms

You can fill out the SCAO form online, save the completed form on your computer, and print it. In order to save the completed form on your computer, you must use Adobe Reader 7 or higher (a free download) or Adobe Acrobat Professional (a product available for purchase). For more information, see the Adobe Web site.

Note: This is a new feature. Previously you were unable to save completed SCAO forms unless you purchased and installed Adobe Acrobat Professional. You may now save completed SCAO forms if you fill them out with the free Adobe Reader 7 or higher.

To fill out a form, place your cursor on a blank line, in a checkbox, or in an empty field (e.g., where party names/addresses are entered) and begin typing. Once you've filled out a form's blanks inside Adobe Reader, you can then save and/or print the form. To print the forms, you must use the Adobe Acrobat print button, not the Netscape or Internet Explorer print button.

You can either open an SCAO form online, fill it out, and save and/or print it while you're connected to the Internet, or download it to your computer and fill it out later when you are not connected to the Internet. To download an SCAO form to your computer, we suggest:

  1. Create a directory or folder called "icle" on your hard disk to store the form.
  2. Go back to the SCAO Forms, find the title of the form you wish to download, and, using your right mouse button, click on the title. A drop-down menu will appear listing additional choices - in Netscape, choose "Save Link as"; in Internet Explorer, choose "Save Target As."
  3. Adobe Reader will open the form on screen. (If you do not have Adobe Reader installed on your computer, you will need to download and install it. Please see the instructions.)
  4. At the "Save As" prompt, write down the file name of the form. You will need it later when you retrieve it. Set the path to the "icle" directory or folder you created and click on OK. (See Download Tips for more detailed instructions.)
  5. It may take from a few seconds to a few minutes to download each form to your computer, depending on the size of the form and the speed of your modem and Internet connection.
  6. Once the form is downloaded, exit your browser, retrieve the form from the "icle" directory or folder, and save it into any other directory or folder.

Tip: It is best to use the "icle" directory or folder only for downloading. Move any downloaded files immediately into another directory or folder for editing, saving, etc.


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