Michigan Judges Limited in Not Enforcing Out-of-State Judgments

The Michigan Court of Appeals limited the power trial judges have to use certain laws to render unenforceable out-of-state judgments.

A rule that state judges may elect to not enforce a judgment for reasons other than those spelled out in the law can’t be used when the basis for such a ruling “would be grounded in evaluating the merits of the foreign judgment or its potential conflict with Michigan public policy,” the court said Monday.

“To hold otherwise,” Judge Daniel S. Korobkin wrote, would allow the laws at issue “to create a back-door public-policy exception to the Full Faith and ...