Sec. 821.
(1) The following probate judges shall not engage in the practice of law other than as a judge and shall receive, subject to subsection (6), an annual salary provided in this section:
(a) A probate judge of a county that is not described in section 807.
(b) The probate judge in each probate court district described in section 807 in which a majority of the electors voting on the question in each county of the probate court district has approved or approves creation of the district.
(c) A probate judge in a county having a population of 15,000 or more according to the 1990 federal decennial census, if the county is not part of a probate court district created pursuant to law.
(d) A probate judge who has the jurisdiction, powers, duties, and title of a district judge within his or her respective county pursuant to section 810a.
(2) Each probate judge shall receive an annual salary determined as follows:
(a) A minimum annual salary of the difference between 85% of the salary of a justice of the supreme court and $45,724.00.
(b) An additional salary of $45,724.00 paid by the county or by the counties comprising a probate court district. If a probate judge receives a total additional salary of $45,724.00 from the county, or from the counties comprising a probate court district, and does not receive less than or more than $45,724.00, including any cost-of-living allowance, the state shall reimburse the county or counties the amount that the county or counties have paid to the judge.
(3) Six thousand dollars of the minimum annual salary provided in subsection (2) shall be paid by the county, or by the counties comprising a probate court district, and the balance of that minimum annual salary shall be paid by the state as a grant to the county or the counties comprising the probate court district. The county, or the counties comprising the probate court district, shall in turn pay that amount to the probate judge. The state shall annually reimburse the county or counties $6,000.00 for each probate judge to offset the cost of the county or counties required by this section.
(4) The salary provided in this section is full compensation for all services performed by a probate judge, except as otherwise provided by law. In a probate court district, each county of the district shall contribute to the salary in the same proportion as the population of the county bears to the population of the district.
(5) An additional salary determined by the county board of commissioners may be increased during a term of office but shall not be decreased except to the extent of a general salary reduction in all other branches of government in the county. In a county where an additional salary is granted, it shall be paid at the same rate to all probate judges regularly holding court in the county.
(6) An increase in the amount of salary payable to a judge under subsection (1) caused by an increase in the salary payable to a justice of the supreme court resulting from the operation of 1968 PA 357, MCL 15.211 to 15.218, is not effective until February 1 of the year in which the increase in the salary of a justice of the supreme court becomes effective. If an increase in salary becomes effective on February 1 of a year in which an increase in the salary of a justice of the supreme court becomes effective, the increase is retroactive to January 1 of that year.
History: Add. 1978, Act 543, Eff. July 1, 1979 ;-- Am. 1980, Act 438, Eff. Sept. 1, 1981 ;-- Am. 1990, Act 343, Eff. Jan. 1, 1995 ;-- Am. 1994, Act 138, Imd. Eff. May 26, 1994 ;-- Am. 1994, Act 389, Imd. Eff. Dec. 29, 1994 ;-- Am. 1995, Act 259, Imd. Eff. Jan. 5, 1996 ;-- Am. 1996, Act 374, Eff. Jan. 1, 1997 ;-- Am. 1996, Act 388, Eff. Jan. 1, 1998 ;-- Am. 1998, Act 298, Imd. Eff. July 28, 1998 ;-- Am. 2002, Act 92, Eff. Mar. 31, 2003 ;-- Am. 2003, Act 40, Imd. Eff. July 9, 2003 ;-- Am. 2004, Act 492, Eff. Mar. 30, 2005
Last modified: October 10, 2016