Personal Protection Orders
MCL 600.2950 — who can ask, what it can forbid, and when it takes effect
A personal protection order is an order of the family division of circuit court. Under one section a person may ask for one against a spouse or former spouse, someone they have a child with, someone they have or had a dating relationship with, or someone who lives or lived in the same household. A separate section allows one against anyone, where the petition alleges facts that amount to stalking, whether or not that person has been charged.
Under the first section, the order can forbid the person from doing any of these, among others:
- Entering onto premises.
- Assaulting, attacking, beating, molesting or wounding a named person, or threatening to kill or physically injure one.
- Removing minor children from the person with legal custody, except as a custody or parenting time order allows.
- Purchasing or possessing a firearm.
- Interfering with the petitioner at work or school, or with removing the petitioner's children or belongings from premises the respondent solely owns or leases.
- Stalking, and harming, taking or keeping an animal the petitioner owns in order to cause distress or exert control.
- Any other specific act that interferes with personal liberty or causes a reasonable apprehension of violence.
The court issues the order if there is reasonable cause to believe the person may commit one of those acts, weighing the evidence offered and whether the person has done or threatened them before. It may not refuse only because there is no police report, no medical report, no agency finding, or no physical sign of abuse, and if it refuses, it states its specific reasons in writing.
In force the moment a judge signs it. An order is effective and enforceable anywhere in Michigan once a judge signs it, and it goes into the law enforcement information network without waiting for proof of service. An order issued without notice to the other side, where delay would cause immediate and irreparable harm, is valid for not less than 182 days, and the person restrained has 14 days after being served or getting notice to move to modify or rescind it.
A respondent 17 or older who violates an order faces immediate arrest and the court's contempt powers, and on a finding of criminal contempt, up to 93 days and a fine of up to $500. A petitioner may leave a home address off the court papers by giving a mailing address.
A court may not issue a mutual order. The clerk gives the petitioner 2 or more copies of the order. The forms and hearing procedure are set by court rules and are not covered here.
Sources for this section (2)
- MCL 600.2950 — Personal protection orders against a family or household member
- MCL 600.2950a — Personal protection orders against stalking
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of September 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed Michigan attorney.