Preparing for a PPO Hearing as the Respondent in Michigan

A respondent preparing for a Michigan personal protection order (PPO) hearing has three jobs: meet the deadline for asking for the hearing, obey the order completely in the meantime, and arrive with organized evidence that answers the specific allegations in the petition. For an ex parte order, the deadline is 14 days after service or actual notice.^[1]

This page is a preparation guide for the respondent. The procedure itself is explained in How to fight or terminate a PPO, and the hearing from both sides in PPO hearings: what to expect.

Step 1: Work out which hearing you are preparing for

Situation	How the hearing comes about	Timing
An ex parte PPO was issued without notice to you	You file a motion to modify or terminate and request a hearing.[1]	File within 14 days after service or actual notice; the court must schedule the hearing within 14 days after the motion is filed.[1][3]
The 14 days have passed, or the PPO was issued after a hearing	You may still file a motion, but it requires a showing of good cause.[2]	The moving party serves the motion and notice of hearing at least 7 days before the hearing.[7]
No ex parte order was issued and the court set a hearing on the petition	The petitioner serves you with the petition and notice of hearing.[8]	Service one day before the hearing is sufficient for a domestic relationship or nondomestic stalking petition.[8]
You are accused of violating a PPO	Arrest, or the petitioner's motion to show cause.[9]	This is a contempt hearing with different rules; see PPO violation penalties.[10]

The 14-day clock runs from service or from actual notice.^[1] A law enforcement officer or court clerk may give an unserved respondent notice by advising the respondent of the order's existence, the conduct enjoined, the penalties and where to get a copy.^[11] If the respondent is in one of the occupations listed in the statute, such as a police officer or a person required to carry a weapon for work, and the PPO prohibits purchasing or possessing a firearm, the court must schedule the hearing within 5 days after the motion is filed.^[3]

Step 2: File and serve the motion correctly

1. Use the court form. The State Court Administrative Office form is CC 379, Motion to Modify, Extend, or Terminate PPO.^[12] The PPO must tell you that motion forms and filing instructions are available from the clerk of the court.^[13]
2. File in the court that issued the order. PPO cases are heard only in the family division of the circuit court.^[14] There is no motion fee.^[15]
3. Serve it the way the rule says. The moving party must serve the motion and notice of hearing at least 7 days before the hearing, by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, with delivery restricted to the addressee, at the mailing address or addresses provided to the court.^[7][16] Do not deliver it yourself or have a friend hand it over; personal contact can violate the order you are trying to change.
4. Keep proof. Keep the date-stamped copy of your motion and the mailing receipts and bring them to the hearing.

Step 3: Obey the order while you prepare

A PPO is effective and immediately enforceable anywhere in Michigan once a judge signs it, and failure to serve the respondent does not affect its validity.^[6] MCR 3.707, the rule on these motions, contains no provision suspending the order while a motion is pending.^[17] An adult who violates a PPO is subject to immediate arrest and, if found guilty of criminal contempt, to up to 93 days in jail and a fine of up to $500.^[18]

The order restrains only the respondent. In a contempt proceeding the court looks only at the respondent's behavior.^[19] The order states its own expiration date, and the court rule provides for modifying or terminating it by a motion to the court.^[13][20] Until the court rules, treat the order as in force whatever the petitioner says. If the order restricts firearms, entry to a home, or contact with children, comply first and ask the court to change it second. What the order can cover is listed in What a PPO can prohibit.

Step 4: Understand what the judge is deciding

For a domestic relationship PPO, the court must issue the order if it determines there is reasonable cause to believe the respondent may commit one or more of the acts listed in the statute.^[21] In deciding that, the court considers testimony, documents and other evidence offered in support of the request, and whether the respondent has previously committed or threatened to commit one of those acts.^[22] A court may not refuse a domestic relationship PPO solely because there is no police report, medical report or physical sign of abuse.^[23]

Two points shape preparation:

• The burden is the petitioner's. The petitioner bears the burden of showing reasonable cause, and on a motion to terminate an ex parte PPO the burden of justifying continuation of the order remains with the petitioner.^[24][4]
• The standard looks forward. A respondent does not have to have actually committed a listed act before an ex parte PPO may issue; the statute requires reasonable cause to believe the respondent may commit one.^[25] Arguing only that "nothing was ever proved" does not meet that question.

Speech is treated differently from conduct. Offensive speech that is not a true threat cannot support a PPO, and an order restricting online posts must be limited to speech outside constitutional protection.^[26]

Step 5: Build your evidence around the petition

A petition must state with particularity the facts on which it is based.^[27] Go through it paragraph by paragraph and, for each allegation, write down what you say happened and what evidence shows it.

• Messages. Complete threads, with dates and both sides of the conversation, printed in order. To be admitted, a message or recording needs evidence sufficient to support a finding that it is what you claim it is.^[28]
• Records that place you elsewhere. Work schedules, time cards, receipts, travel records, phone location history.
• Photographs and video, with the date and the name of the person who took them.
• Court papers from any related case: custody or parenting-time orders, a bond order, earlier PPO petitions between the same people. A second petition that repeats only allegations from a petition already denied can be barred.^[29]
• Proof of your interest in the home, if the order bars you from premises. A court may not bar a respondent from premises where the respondent is not the petitioner's spouse, the respondent has a property interest in the premises, and the petitioner has none.^[30]

Bring three copies of every exhibit: one for the judge, one for the petitioner, one for you. Do not edit, crop or re-create anything. Offering evidence at an official proceeding that a person recklessly disregards as false is a felony, and so is knowingly altering or destroying evidence.^[31][32] The same honesty rule applies to the other side: a person who knowingly and intentionally makes a false statement to the court in support of a PPO petition is subject to the court's contempt powers.^[33] See False or retaliatory PPO petitions.

Step 6: Line up witnesses

A witness is useful only if he or she personally saw or heard something that bears on an allegation in the petition.

• Ask each witness directly whether they will attend; a person who fails to comply with a properly served subpoena may be held in contempt, so a subpoena is the tool for a reluctant witness.^[34]
• Do not ask a witness to contact the petitioner, and do not ask anyone to persuade the petitioner to withdraw. Using threat or intimidation to discourage a person from attending or testifying at an official proceeding is a felony.^[35][36]
• Prepare a short list of questions for each witness and for the petitioner. Due process entitles a respondent to present evidence and to cross-examine the petitioner at a hearing on a motion to terminate.^[5]
• If the PPO is a nondomestic sexual assault PPO, the rape-shield statute applies and has its own filing deadline.^[37]

Step 7: Know what else rides on the hearing

Firearms. A PPO may prohibit purchasing or possessing a firearm, but only if the judge writes that term into the order.^[38] Federal law separately makes it a crime to possess a firearm or ammunition while subject to an order that was issued after a hearing of which the person received actual notice and had an opportunity to participate, that restrains harassing, stalking or threatening an intimate partner or child, and that includes a credible-threat finding or an explicit prohibition on the use of force.^[39] Because the first of those requirements refers to a hearing with notice, ask a lawyer how the federal provision applies to your order before and after the hearing; no case on that point was reviewed for this guide. A person who is the subject of a PPO will also be denied a concealed pistol license.^[40] See PPOs and firearms.

Children. A PPO takes precedence over an existing custody or parenting-time order until the PPO expires or the court with jurisdiction over the custody or parenting-time order modifies that order, and the hearing on a motion to modify it must be held within 21 days after the motion is filed.^[41][42] Bring the existing orders and be ready to tell the judge what exchange arrangements you are asking the court to order.

A pending criminal case. If charges arise from the same events, a bond no-contact condition may apply in addition to the PPO, and where the orders conflict the most restrictive provision controls.^[43] Testimony at the PPO hearing is given under oath, and willfully swearing falsely is perjury.^[44] Before deciding whether to testify, ask a lawyer how testimony in the PPO case could affect the criminal case.

Records. A PPO is entered in the Law Enforcement Information Network, and the clerk must notify the designated agency when a PPO is rescinded or modified.^[45] The Michigan Supreme Court has recognized that whether an improperly issued PPO should be shown as rescinded remains a live question even after the order expires.^[46]

Step 8: Courtroom conduct

1. Arrive early, check in with the clerk, and sit apart from the petitioner. A PPO is enforceable anywhere in Michigan, so treat it as applying in the courthouse hallway and parking lot.^[6]
2. Speak to the judge, not to the petitioner. When it is your turn to cross-examine, ask questions; do not argue or comment. In cases where a judge refused to receive the respondent's evidence or cut off cross-examination, orders denying termination have been reversed or vacated, so a calm, organized presentation is the way to use that right.^[5]
3. Answer the allegation that was made. Tell the judge which statements in the petition you dispute and hand up the exhibit that goes with each.
4. Do not interrupt. Write notes and raise points when the judge turns to you.
5. If the judge is inclined to continue the order, ask about specific modifications: the expiration date, the addresses covered, the firearm term, and arrangements for children or property.
6. Do not ask for an order against the petitioner at this hearing. A Michigan court may not issue a mutual PPO, and separate orders against each party are prohibited unless each has properly filed a petition.^[47]
7. Leave separately, after the petitioner, and get a copy of whatever order the judge signs.

After the hearing

If the PPO is continued or modified, read the new order before you leave and follow it. Either party has an appeal of right to the Court of Appeals from the ruling on the respondent's first motion to rescind or modify an ex parte PPO, and from an order granting or denying a PPO after a hearing.^[48] If it is terminated, keep a certified copy with you until you have confirmed the change has been entered by the law enforcement agency the court designated.^[45]

Four misconceptions

"The deadline is three weeks." The respondent's deadline is 14 days after service or actual notice.^[1]

"It is not valid because it was never served." A PPO is enforceable when signed; lack of service does not affect its validity.^[6] An unserved respondent without notice must be given an opportunity to comply before a custodial arrest.^[49]

"The respondent has to prove innocence." On a timely motion the burden of justifying continuation is the petitioner's.^[4]

"The petitioner texted first, so the order is off." A PPO restrains only the respondent, and in a contempt proceeding the court looks only at the respondent's behavior.^[19] The order runs to its stated expiration date unless the court modifies or terminates it on a motion.^[13][20]

If you were served only recently, start with Served with a PPO: what to do and Ex parte PPOs.