Domestic Violence and Parenting Time in Michigan: Supervision, Conditions and Exchanges

A Michigan court can restrict, supervise or attach conditions to parenting time when there has been domestic violence, but it starts from the child's right to time with each parent. That right gives way only when it is shown on the record, by clear and convincing evidence, that parenting time would endanger the child's physical, mental, or emotional health.^[1]

If you or your children are in danger, the National Domestic Violence Hotline can be reached by calling 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or by texting START to 88788; it describes its service as free, confidential and available 24/7.^[6] Local services are listed in where to get help in West Michigan.

This guide belongs to a criminal-law reference library. It explains the parenting time statute so that people involved in a criminal domestic violence case can see how it connects to family court. Parenting time is decided in the family division, and questions about a specific order or schedule belong with a family-law attorney.

The starting point: the child's right to both parents

MCL 722.27a opens with three rules.

• Parenting time is granted according to the best interests of the child, and it is presumed to be in a child's best interests to have a strong relationship with both parents.^[1]
• Parenting time is to be granted in a frequency, duration, and type reasonably calculated to promote a strong relationship between the child and the parent.^[7]
• A child has a right to parenting time with a parent "unless it is shown on the record by clear and convincing evidence that it would endanger the child's physical, mental, or emotional health."^[1]

The practical effect is that a domestic violence conviction does not, by itself, end parenting time. The question the statute asks is whether parenting time would endanger the child, and the proof has to be clear and convincing.^[1] This is a different question from who should have custody, which is decided under the best-interest factors described in domestic violence and child custody.

Which parenting-time factors deal with abuse?

When the court decides how often, how long and in what form parenting time will happen, it may consider a list of factors. Three address violence directly:^[2]

Provision	What the court may consider
MCL 722.27a(7)(c)	The reasonable likelihood of abuse or neglect of the child during parenting time[2]
MCL 722.27a(7)(d)	The reasonable likelihood of abuse of a parent resulting from the exercise of parenting time[2]
MCL 722.27a(7)(h)	The threatened or actual detention of the child with intent to retain or conceal the child; a custodial parent's temporary residence with the child in a domestic violence shelter is not to be construed as evidence of that intent[2]

Factor (d) is worth noticing. It is about the safety of a parent, not the child. Exchanges are the moments when separated parents come into contact, and this factor lets a judge take that risk into account when designing the schedule.^[2]

Older websites cite these provisions under earlier subsection numbers of MCL 722.27a. The factors are now in subsection (7) and the conditions are in subsection (9).^[2][3]

What conditions can a parenting time order include?

A parenting time order "may contain any reasonable terms or conditions that facilitate the orderly and meaningful exercise of parenting time."^[8] The statute then gives examples, several of which bear directly on safety.

Condition	How it can be used
Division of the responsibility to transport the child[8]	One parent, or a relative, handles all transport so the parents do not meet.
Restrictions on the presence of third persons during parenting time[3]	Limits on who may be present.
Requirements that the child be ready, and that the parent arrive and return the child, at specific times[8]	Fixed times reduce the need for the parents to communicate.
Requirements that parenting time occur in the presence of a third person or agency[3]	Supervised parenting time.
Requirements that a party post a bond to assure compliance with the order[3]	A financial assurance that the order will be followed.
Any other reasonable condition determined to be appropriate in the particular case[8]	The catch-all that covers terms the statute does not name.

The statute does not use phrases such as "neutral exchange location" or "exchange through a third party." Terms like those rest on the general authority to order any other reasonable condition.^[8] What a particular court will order, and which supervised-visitation services exist locally, varies by county and by judge.

When is supervised parenting time ordered?

The statute authorizes supervision but sets no checklist for when it applies; it is one of the reasonable terms a judge may include.^[3] The benchbook gives one reported example: the Court of Appeals upheld supervised visitation where a father admitted striking a five-year-old with a belt and had been jailed for abusing the mother.^[3]

As a practical matter, keeping copies of orders from every court involved, and bringing them to each hearing helps each judge see what the others have already ordered.

When the parents agree, and when one parent wants specifics

If the parents agree on parenting time terms, the court orders those terms unless it determines on the record by clear and convincing evidence that they are not in the best interests of the child.^[7] Parenting time is also to be granted in specific terms if either party requests it at any time.^[7] Where there has been violence, a specific written schedule leaves less to negotiate between the parents from week to week.

Emergency and interim orders

Before a temporary order is entered, a parent may seek an ex parte interim order concerning parenting time, meaning an order issued on one side's request before the other side is heard.^[9] A parent who objects to such an order has 14 days after receiving notice of it to file a written objection, or a motion to modify or rescind it, with the clerk of the court.^[9]

How PPOs affect parenting time

A personal protection order (PPO) is issued in its own, separate case, and it can collide with a parenting time order.^[10]

1. The PPO controls for now. A PPO takes precedence over any existing custody or parenting time order until the PPO has expired or the court with jurisdiction over the custody or parenting time order modifies that order to accommodate the PPO.^[4]
2. The PPO judge has to look at the parenting order first. Where a custody or parenting time order exists, the court issuing the PPO must contact the court with jurisdiction over that matter. If the respondent's rights will be adversely affected, it must decide whether conditions can accommodate those rights or whether that would compromise the safety of the petitioner and minor children.^[11]
3. Changes are made in the custody case. A party who wants the existing custody or parenting time order modified must file a motion with the court that has jurisdiction over that order and request a hearing, which must be held within 21 days after the motion is filed.^[12]

A PPO can also reach the children directly. It may prohibit removing minor children from the person who has legal custody, except as authorized by a custody or parenting time order.^[13] And the Court of Appeals has held that the PPO statute's catch-all provision gives a court authority to prohibit a respondent's contact with his own children where contact or exchanges would give the petitioner a reasonable apprehension of violence.^[14] That court did not have to apply the Child Custody Act's best-interest factors, because it was issuing an emergency protective order, not deciding custody.^[13]

These rules are covered in detail in PPOs, children and parenting time and what a PPO can prohibit.

How a criminal no-contact order affects parenting time

A bond or probation condition in the criminal case is a third kind of order. Whether a no-contact condition affects time with shared children depends on the wording of that order; the sources reviewed for this library set no general rule.^[13] A parent who is subject to one should read the order itself and, if it is unclear whether contact with the children or communication about exchanges is allowed, ask the court that issued it before acting. See no-contact orders and seeing your children and how to comply with a no-contact order.

A parenting time order does not override a PPO. The PPO takes precedence until it expires or the custody court modifies its own order to accommodate it.^[4] For a criminal no-contact order, the safe course is to treat the restriction as in force until the court that issued it says otherwise.

The only automatic bars: criminal sexual conduct

MCL 722.27a does contain two flat prohibitions, and neither is about domestic assault. A court "shall not grant parenting time" to a biological parent where the child was conceived through acts for which that parent was convicted of criminal sexual conduct or was found by clear and convincing evidence to have committed nonconsensual sexual penetration, subject to exceptions in the statute.^[5] And a parent convicted of criminal sexual conduct against his or her own child cannot be granted parenting time with that child or a sibling without the consent of the other parent and, if old enough, the child.^[5]

What people get wrong

• "A conviction means no more parenting time." The standard is endangerment of the child, shown by clear and convincing evidence.^[1]
• "The parenting time order lets a parent ignore the PPO." The PPO takes precedence until it expires or the custody court modifies its order.^[4]
• "Going to a shelter with the children is hiding them." The statute says a temporary stay in a domestic violence shelter is not evidence of intent to retain or conceal the child.^[2]
• "The judge can only choose between normal parenting time and none." The statute lists a range of conditions, including supervision, transport arrangements and limits on third persons.^[3][8]

Where Children's Protective Services is involved as well, see Children's Protective Services and domestic violence. Property, support and mediation issues are covered in domestic violence and divorce.