Representative Aragona introduced House Bill 4021 to codify a COVID-era practice allowing district court magistrates to conduct the initial "advice of rights" hearing in landlord-tenant matters. "This is what your rights are as a landlord. This is what your rights are as a tenant," Aragona said, describing the limited, informational nature of the first hearing and the bill's aim to relieve judges' dockets.

Support for the bill was submitted in writing by groups including the Michigan Realtors and the State Bar of Michigan, and the Michigan District Court Judges (written support). Opponents who filed written testimony included Michigan Poverty Law Program and the Michigan Coalition Against Homelessness; Bruce Timmons testified in opposition. Timmons, who flagged separation-of-powers and final-order concerns, told the committee: "I think there's a constitutional issue here that the article 6 of the constitution was intended to be, to have judicial decisions made by elected judges, not appointed individuals such as referees or district court magistrates." He also said magistrates historically lack authority to issue final, appealable orders and highlighted differences between referees, magistrates and judges.

Representative Breen, while generally supportive of reducing docket congestion, urged narrowing language to ensure magistrates are limited to pretrial "advice of rights" functions and not permitted to conduct entire trials. Breen also proposed considering a posting requirement and expanded legal-aid resources for tenants; she said, "Just adding a posting requirement that might... give additional information on legal aid resources." Aragona replied he was willing to work on language with stakeholders and said judges in his district favor the change as a docket-management tool.

The committee received multiple written cards: Sean Cecil (Michigan Realtors), Judge Karen Volvo (Michigan district court judges), Nathan Triplett (State Bar of Michigan) in support; Michigan Poverty Law Program and Michigan Coalition Against Homeless also filed opposition; Bruce Timmons spoke in opposition. No formal committee vote on HB 4021 was recorded during the hearing.