Overview of Personal Protection Orders

What Is a Personal Protection Order?

A Personal Protection Order (PPO) is a court order to stop threats or violence against you. A PPO can help protect you from someone who is threatening, hurting, harassing, or stalking you. You can get a PPO if you have a reasonable fear for your personal liberty or safety.

There are three types of PPOs:

• Domestic Relationship PPO
• Nondomestic (Stalking) PPO
• Nondomestic Sexual Assault PPO

This article has information about all three types. If you need a PPO, you should first decide which type best fits your situation. 

Which Type of PPO Is Right for Me?

Domestic Relationship PPO

To get a domestic relationship PPO, you must show the judge that the abuser is likely to assault, threaten, harass, or stalk you. You must also show that you and the abuser have a domestic relationship.

You have a domestic relationship with the abuser if they are:

• Your current or ex-spouse
• Your child’s other parent
• Someone you live with now or used to live with
• Someone you have dated romantically

A domestic relationship PPO can prohibit the abuser from:

• Entering your home or another place
• Assaulting, attacking, beating, molesting, or wounding you or another person
• Threatening to kill or physically injure you or another person
• Removing your children from you if you have legal custody of them
• Buying or having a gun
• Interfering with you removing your children or personal property from a place the abuser owns or leases
• Interfering with you at your job or school, or acting in a way that harms your job or school relationships or environment
• Having access to your home/work address or telephone number in records that concern a child of both of yours
• Stalking you
• Intentionally causing you mental distress or controlling you by harming or threatening to harm an animal you own, taking the animal from you, or keeping it from you
• Any other specific act or behavior that interferes with your personal freedom or makes you reasonably afraid of violence 

You may ask for specific protections in your petition, but the judge will decide what your PPO will prohibit.

Nondomestic (Stalking) PPO

The purpose of a nondomestic PPO is to protect you from stalking or harassing behavior if you and the abuser don't have a domestic relationship. To get a stalking PPO, you must show that there have been at least two incidents of harassment. Harassment is contact you don’t want. It has no valid purpose and causes you emotional harm or fear. It is also something that would cause a reasonable person to suffer emotional harm or fear. This could include following you, making unwanted phone calls or texts, or showing up repeatedly at your home or work.

Cyberstalking is electronic stalking. It could mean the abuser posted messages about you or sent messages to you through the internet, a computer, or another electronic means without your consent. 

A nondomestic PPO can prohibit the abuser from:

• Following you or appearing within your sight
• Approaching or confronting you 
• Appearing at your work or home
• Going onto or staying on property you own, rent, or occupy
• Calling you
• Sending you mail or other messages
• Placing an object on or delivering an object to property you own, rent, or occupy
• Threatening to kill or hurt you
• Buying or having a gun
• Cyberstalking you
• Other specific stalking behavior that you want the judge to prohibit

You may ask for specific protections in your petition, but the judge will decide what your PPO will prohibit.

Nondomestic Sexual Assault PPO

The purpose of a nondomestic sexual assault PPO is to protect you from a person who has sexually assaulted you or threatened to sexually assault you when you do not have a domestic relationship with that person. If you are under 18, sexual assault includes giving you obscene material.

A nondomestic sexual assault PPO can prohibit the abuser from:

• Threatening to sexually assault, kill, or hurt you or another person
• Following you or appearing within your sight
• Appearing at your work or home
• Approaching or confronting you
• Entering your home or another place
• Going onto or staying on property you own, rent, or occupy
• Calling you
• Sending you mail or other messages
• Cyberstalking you 
• Buying or having a gun
• Interfering with you removing your children or personal property from a place the abuser owns or leases
• Interfering with you at your job or school, or acting in a way that harms your job or school relationships or environment
• Placing objects on or delivering them to property that you own, lease, or occupy
• Any other specific act or behavior that interferes with your personal freedom or makes you reasonably afraid of violence 

You may ask for specific protections in your petition, but the judge will decide what your PPO will prohibit.

How Do I Get a PPO?

To ask for a PPO, you must file a petition with the court. You can use the Do-It-Yourself Personal Protection Order (PPO) tool to create a petition for any of the three types of PPOs.

The petition is used to give the judge important information they need to decide whether to give you the order you want. As best you can, explain what the abuser has done to you and how you have been harmed. Try to remember the dates or times of year the events happened. You don't have to have police reports or other documents to get a PPO, but if you do have them you should attach them to your petition. They can help the judge understand what has happened to you.

You might be afraid the abuser will harm you if you don't get a PPO right away. You might be afraid the abuser will harm you if they find out you are asking for a PPO. If so, you can ask for an emergency order called an ex parte order. If you get an ex parte order, you won't have to wait for a hearing to get your order. With an ex parte order, the abuser won't know you're asking for a PPO until after you get your order.

If you do not request an ex parte order in your petition, the court will schedule a hearing to decide whether to give you a PPO. Or, if the judge denies your petition for an ex parte order, there will be a hearing if you request one within 21 days. In either of these situations, you must have a copy of the petition and a notice of hearing delivered to the abuser. The abuser will have the opportunity to attend the hearing and respond to the information in your petition. In this situation, the abuser will know you are asking for a PPO before you are protected by an order.

At a court hearing, you and the abuser will each have the chance to speak and may be able to ask each other questions. You may also be able to call witnesses and show the judge other evidence.

If the court schedules a hearing, you may want to consider finding a lawyer to represent you. Representing yourself at a hearing is not easy. You must follow the same rules lawyers must follow, such as the Michigan Rules of Evidence.

To learn more about what you will need to prove at a court hearing on your petition for a PPO, read Domestic Relationship Personal Protection Orders, Nondomestic (Stalking) Personal Protection Orders, or Nondomestic Sexual Assault Personal Protection Orders. For other information about what to expect at a court hearing, see What to Expect When You Go to Court. 

What Will My PPO Say?

A PPO will state:

• That your order is effective immediately and can be enforced anywhere in Michigan
• That once it is served, the PPO may be enforced anywhere else in the United States
• What actions the abuser is prohibited from doing
• When your order expires
• What happens if the abuser violates your order
• The name of the specific law enforcement agency that will enter your order into the Law Enforcement Information Network (LEIN)

What Happens After the Judge Signs My PPO?

Your PPO and petition must be served on the abuser. Your PPO can be enforced anywhere in Michigan as soon as it is signed by a judge. Once your order is served, it can be enforced anywhere in the United States.

There are several ways to serve the PPO and petition, but you are not allowed to serve them yourself. You should have service done in a way that keeps you safe. Once the PPO has been served, a Proof of Service form must be filed with the court clerk. To learn more, read Serving Your Personal Protection Order.

Staying Safe with Your PPO

Carry Your Papers

Always keep a copy of your PPO and Proof of Service with you. Keep a second copy in a safe place. You can ask the court clerk for extra copies of the order (or you can make extra copies) to give to your children’s schools or daycare providers, your place of work, and others who need to know about it.

Safety Planning

Your chances of being hurt by the abuser may increase when you leave an abusive relationship or seek legal help. Planning for your safety ahead of time can help. Your safety plan might include things such as:

• Where to go or who to call if you feel threatened
• Important telephone numbers
• An escape plan
• Checklists of important things to take with you when you leave the abuser

Visit Community Services to find contact information for your local domestic violence agency. In addition to other services, they can help you consider your safety options and make a safety plan. 

Enforcing Your PPO

You might be tempted for many reasons to agree to behavior by the abuser that violates your PPO. Maybe you feel safe now that you have the order. Maybe the abuser promises that things will be different. The abuser may ask to come to your house to pick up the children, but your PPO bans the abuser from coming to your house. Whatever the reason, you should not agree to behavior that violates your PPO. The abuser can be arrested for behavior that violates your PPO even if you have agreed to it.

If you want to change your PPO before it expires, you must go back to court and file a motion to modify (change) the PPO. To prepare your motion, use the Do-It-Yourself Motion to Modify, Extend, or Terminate a Personal Protection Order (PPO) tool.

If the abuser violates your PPO, you can call the police and report the violation. If the police do not arrest your abuser, you can file a motion asking the court to find the abuser in contempt of court for violating the PPO. To learn more about these options, read Personal Protection Order Violations and Enforcement. Your local domestic violence agency can also give you support and information about enforcing your order.

Finding a Lawyer

You might decide you want a lawyer to help you. Whether you have a low income or not, you can use the Guide to Legal Help to find lawyers in your area. If you have a low income, you may qualify for free legal services. If you are not able to get free legal services but can’t afford high legal fees, consider hiring a lawyer for part of your case instead of the whole thing. This is called limited scope representation. To learn more, read Limited Scope Representation (LSR): A More Affordable Way to Hire a Lawyer. To find a limited scope lawyer, follow this link to the State Bar of Michigan lawyer directory. This link lists lawyers who offer limited scope representation. You can narrow the results to lawyers in your area by typing in your county, city, or zip code at the top of the page. You can also narrow the results by topic by entering the kind of lawyer you need (divorce, estate, etc.) at the top of the page.