Sec. 5. (1) Both the mother and the alleged father of the child shall be competent to testify, and if either gives evidence he or she shall be subject to cross-examination. The court may exclude the general public from the room where proceedings are held, pursuant to this act, admitting only persons directly interested in the case, including the officers of the court, officers or public welfare agents presenting the case, and witnesses. (2) If the child is not born at the time set for trial, the case, unless the defendant mother or defendant father consents to trial, shall be continued until the child is born.
Mich. Comp. Laws § 722.715
Mother and alleged father competent to testify; cross-examination; exclusion of public; continuance until birth of child
Applied in 13 court decisions — leading case 157 Mich. App. 368 - Bowerman v. MacDonald (1987)
Most recently applied in Numerick v. Krull (March 2005)
1956, Act 205, 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.