Sec. 2591. (1) Upon motion of any party, if a court finds that a civil action or defense to a civil action was frivolous, the court that conducts the civil action shall award to the prevailing party the costs and fees incurred by that party in connection with the civil action by assessing the costs and fees against the nonprevailing party and their attorney. (2) The amount of costs and fees awarded under this section shall include all reasonable costs actually incurred by the prevailing party and any costs allowed by law or by court rule, including court costs and reasonable attorney fees. (3) As used in this section: (a) "Frivolous" means that at least 1 of the following conditions is met: (i) The party's primary purpose in initiating the action or asserting the defense was to harass, embarrass, or injure the prevailing party. (ii) The party had no reasonable basis to believe that the facts underlying that party's legal position were in fact true. (iii) The party's legal position was devoid of arguable legal merit. (b) "Prevailing party" means a party who wins on the entire record.
Mich. Comp. Laws § 600.2591
Frivolous civil action or defense to civil action; awarding costs and fees to prevailing party; definitions
Applied in 94 court decisions — leading case McKeown-Brand v. Trump Castle Hotel & Casino (1993)
Most recently applied in 321 Mich. App. 702 - the Meisner Law Group v. Weston Downs Condominium Association (October 2017)
Add. 1986, Act 178, Eff
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Michigan Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Michigan statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.