Resources for People Accused of Domestic Violence in Michigan: Programs and Legal Help

A person accused of domestic violence in Michigan, or served with a personal protection order (PPO), has specific places to turn. They include a court-appointed lawyer when the charge carries possible jail and the person cannot afford counsel, the State Bar's referral service, free self-help tools for PPO respondents, and intervention programs that follow the state's written standards.^[1][3][6][7]

This page lists each resource with what it costs and what it does not do. Every entry was checked against the organization's own website on 4 October 2026. An accusation is not a finding, and nothing here assumes how a case will end.

The options at a glance

What you need	Where to go	Cost and limits
A lawyer for a criminal charge, and you cannot afford one	Ask the court at arraignment for appointed counsel.	Appointed attorneys are ethically prohibited from taking money from an indigent defendant in an assigned case.[8][1]
A referral to a private lawyer	State Bar of Michigan Lawyer Referral Service, (800) 968-0738	A $25 administrative fee covers a referral and an initial consultation of up to 25 minutes.[3]
A reduced-cost lawyer	State Bar Modest Means Program	For moderate-income people; it is not a free program.[9]
Help with a related civil matter	Legal Aid of Western Michigan	Civil legal problems only; no criminal cases except record expungements.[2]
A PPO has been issued against you	Michigan Legal Help's respondent toolkit	Free; there are no motion fees for modifying or terminating a PPO.[6][5]
An intervention program	The court or probation officer making the referral; the Battering Intervention Services Coalition of Michigan lists programs by state.	Participants are expected to contribute to the cost of the program.[10][11]

A court-appointed lawyer

If you are charged with a crime and face the possibility of time in jail or prison, you are entitled to an attorney, and if you cannot afford one the local funding unit must appoint one.^[1] That includes a first-offense domestic assault, which is punishable by up to 93 days in jail.^[12]

How to ask

When you are arraigned, the court asks whether you have a lawyer or need one appointed. If you need one, someone in the court gives you a form on which you disclose information about your finances; the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission's advice is to fill it out as well as you can and turn it in right away.^[8] Under the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission Act, the defendant is responsible for applying and for establishing indigency, and statements about finances are made under oath.^[13] The determination must be made not later than the defendant's first appearance in court.^[14]

Who qualifies

The commission's indigency standard presumes, subject to rebuttal, that a defendant is indigent if the defendant receives personal public assistance, earns a net income of less than 200% of the federal poverty guidelines, is serving a sentence in a correctional institution, is under 18, or is receiving residential mental health or substance abuse treatment.^[15] The statute itself sets its income presumption at less than 140% of the federal poverty guideline, and as of October 2026 its official text carries a notice that the section is amended effective October 1, 2027.^[16]

A person above those lines is not automatically turned down. A defendant who does not fall below the presumptive thresholds receives a more rigorous screening of whether the seriousness of the charges, monthly expenses and local private counsel rates would make hiring a lawyer a substantial hardship.^[14]

One point matters in domestic cases. The appointing authority will not presume that a defendant can use household income, including the income of a spouse, or joint marital assets to pay defense costs unless it has information that those should be considered.^[17]

What appointed counsel does early in the case

• Counsel is to be assigned as soon as the defendant is found eligible, and representation includes the arraignment on the complaint and warrant.^[18]
• Where an interim bond was set before arraignment, counsel at arraignment is to be prepared to argue bond from the beginning, without being bound by the interim bond.^[19]
• Eligible defendants also have appointed counsel at pretrial proceedings, during plea negotiations and at other critical stages.^[20]
• The commission asks appointed attorneys to visit clients in jail within three business days of being appointed.^[1]

More on this is in The right to a lawyer, Court-appointed lawyer vs. hiring a lawyer, and How to prepare for an arraignment.

Finding a private lawyer

The State Bar of Michigan Lawyer Referral Service can be reached at (800) 968-0738, Monday through Friday.^[3] For a $25 administrative fee, a referral assistant matches the caller with a participating attorney who provides an initial consultation of up to 25 minutes. If you hire the attorney afterward, the fees for additional legal services are negotiated between you and the attorney.^[3]

The State Bar's Modest Means Program connects moderate-income people with attorneys who offer reduced-cost legal assistance. It is not a free program; applicants must be able to pay for the services they receive.^[9] For people who cannot afford to hire an attorney, the State Bar points to Michigan Legal Help's Guide to Legal Help, a tool that helps determine whether a person qualifies for legal aid or other resources.^[21]

What to ask and what to bring to a first meeting are covered in Questions to ask a defense lawyer and What to bring to a first meeting.

Legal aid: what it covers and what it does not

Legal Aid of Western Michigan is a nonprofit law firm that provides free legal services to eligible clients in a 17-county service area.^[22] Its services page is direct about criminal cases: "We help people with civil legal problems. We do not handle criminal cases, except for record expungements."^[2] So it will not defend a domestic assault charge.

It may be able to help with related civil matters. Its list of family law cases includes "Defense of Personal Protection Orders" and "Defense of custody for natural custodial parents within divorce, custody, support, and paternity cases."^[23] The page does not say whether "Defense of Personal Protection Orders" means defending an order a petitioner already has or representing a respondent, and it describes its list as not complete, so this guide does not state that the office represents PPO respondents. Whether it will take a particular matter is a question for its intake staff. The phone intake numbers are: Kent, Ionia, Montcalm and Newaygo, 616-774-0672; Ottawa and Allegan, 616-394-1380; Muskegon, 231-726-4887; Kalamazoo and Van Buren, 269-344-8113; Berrien, 269-983-6363. Phone intake runs Monday through Friday, 8:30 AM to noon and 1 PM to 4:30 PM.^[24]

Clearing a record later is covered in Expunging a domestic violence conviction.

If a PPO has been issued against you

A PPO case is heard in the family division of the circuit court and is separate from any criminal charge.^[25] These resources are free:

• Michigan Legal Help. Its toolkit Filing to End or Change a Personal Protection Order Issued Against You includes a do-it-yourself tool that prepares forms asking the court to change or end a PPO that someone has against you.^[6]
• The court form. Form CC 379 is the Motion to Modify, Extend, or Terminate Personal Protection Order.^[26] There are no motion fees for modifying or terminating a PPO.^[5]
• The deadline. A respondent may file a motion to modify or terminate an ex parte PPO and request a hearing within 14 days after being served with, or receiving actual notice of, the order.^[27]
• Kent County. The Personal Protection Office at 180 Ottawa NW, Suite 3500, Grand Rapids, 616-632-5071, processes objections from the restrained party.^[28]
• Muskegon County. The county directs people who want to modify or terminate a PPO to file the motion through an online interview or on paper at Circuit Court Records.^[29]

If you are accused of violating a PPO, the judge at your first appearance must tell you that you are entitled to a lawyer's assistance at the hearing and that, if the court determines it might sentence you to jail, a lawyer will be appointed at public expense if you want one and cannot afford one.^[30] The next steps are in Served with a PPO: what to do, How to fight or terminate a PPO, and Preparing for a PPO hearing as the respondent.

Batterer intervention programs

Michigan's standards for these programs are the Batterer Intervention Standards for the State of Michigan, written by the Governor's Task Force on Batterer Intervention Standards in June 1998.^[7] In 1999 the State Court Administrative Office issued a memorandum encouraging state courts to follow them.^[31] A court that places a person on probation under the domestic violence deferral statute may order a mandatory counseling program and may order the person to pay its reasonable costs.^[32]

What a program that follows the standards looks like

Feature	What the standards say
Length	The recommended duration is 52 group sessions or longer; 26 sessions over not less than 26 weeks is the acceptable minimum, and each session runs from 90 minutes to two hours.[4]
Format	Group intervention is the primary format, with an optimum group size of 3 to 15; the standards say groups for batterers should not include women as participants.[33]
Substitutes	Couple counseling or family therapy is inappropriate as the primary intervention, and treatment for drug, alcohol, medical or mental health problems is not to be substituted for the program.[34][35]
Intake	A comprehensive intake covers personal and family history, medical history, violence history, criminal history, a lethality evaluation, and drug, alcohol and mental health screening.[36]
Reporting	Participants sign a release allowing the program to share information with the victim, the referring court and the probation department, and staff must report to probation, the court or Child Protective Services any domestic-violence-related criminal behavior or court order violation that a participant discloses.[37]
Completion	Attendance alone is not enough; the criteria also include no reported incidents of physical violence since starting and meeting the program's financial agreements.[38]
Cost	Participants are expected to contribute to the payment of the program, and each program must have a written payment policy with provisions for indigent participants.[11]

How to find one

Start with the court. If a judge or probation officer is sending you to a program, ask which local programs that court accepts before you enroll anywhere, so that the time and money count toward the order.

The Battering Intervention Services Coalition of Michigan (BISC-MI) describes itself as a working forum for agencies and individuals concerned with providing battering intervention services in Michigan.^[39] Its website has an Offender Intervention Programs Listing by State page with a map that links to program lists, and it hosts the Michigan standards.^[10][40]

If your case is still pending, talk with your lawyer before you enroll. What a participant says in a program is not kept from the court: under the standards, staff must report to probation, the court or Child Protective Services any domestic-violence-related criminal behavior or court order violation that a participant relays.^[37] The programs are covered in depth in Batterer intervention programs in Michigan and Probation conditions.

Court self-help centers

Two counties in this region describe self-help centers for people handling civil court matters on their own. Ottawa County's Legal Self-Help Center is a hub for information about civil, non-criminal legal issues and court procedures; its staff cannot give legal advice.^[41] Berrien County's Self-Help Legal Resource Center has staff and volunteers who help with the procedural steps of filing court documents, also without legal advice.^[42] Neither is a source of help with a criminal charge.

Practical information while a case is pending

Much of what an accused person needs in the first days is information about the process. These guides cover it:

• The first 48 hours after an arrest
• How to comply with a no-contact order and Getting your belongings during a no-contact order
• How to get the police report
• Mistakes to avoid after a charge

If you are also being harmed, or are in crisis

People who are accused are sometimes also people who have been hurt. Michigan's VOICES4 Hotline, 855-864-2374 by call or text, is for anyone in Michigan who has experienced domestic violence, sexual assault or human trafficking at any point in life.^[43][44] The National Domestic Violence Hotline, 1-800-799-7233, states that domestic violence can affect anyone, including men.^[45][46] In an emergency, call 911. How self-defense and competing accounts are handled is covered in Dual arrest and "who started it".

What people get wrong

• "Legal aid will represent me on the criminal charge." Legal Aid of Western Michigan does not handle criminal cases, except for record expungements.^[2]
• "My spouse earns too much for me to qualify for appointed counsel." A spouse's income is not presumed to be available to pay defense costs.^[17]
• "The State Bar referral is a free lawyer." The referral carries a $25 administrative fee, and fees for work beyond the initial consultation are negotiated with the attorney.^[3]
• "A weekend or online anger management class is the same thing." The standards set an acceptable minimum of 26 sessions over not less than 26 weeks, and they say that emphasizing a lack of anger management skills as the primary cause of battering may be counterproductive.^[4][35]
• "The program is state-certified." Michigan's standards are guidelines that the State Court Administrative Office encouraged courts to follow.^[31] What matters for a court order is whether the court accepts the program.