What Can a PPO Prohibit in Michigan?

A Michigan personal protection order (PPO) can prohibit only the kinds of conduct the PPO statutes list. For a domestic relationship PPO, MCL 600.2950(1) lists twelve items, from entering onto premises to a catch-all for "any other specific act or conduct that imposes upon or interferes with personal liberty or that causes a reasonable apprehension of violence."^[1] A judge chooses which items go into a particular order, and every PPO must state the conduct it enjoins.^[6]

If you are in immediate danger, call 911. The National Domestic Violence Hotline is free and confidential, and it answers around the clock at 1-800-799-7233 or by texting START to 88788.^[7]

This page sets out each item, the limits on the court's power, and the separate lists for the two nondomestic PPO types. Whether you asked for the order or are named in one, the controlling document is the order itself: read which boxes the judge checked.

The twelve items in MCL 600.2950(1)

The statute says a domestic relationship PPO may restrain the respondent from "1 or more" of the following.^[1]

Subdivision	Conduct that may be restrained
(a)	Entering onto premises.[1]
(b)	Assaulting, attacking, beating, molesting, or wounding a named individual.[1]
(c)	Threatening to kill or physically injure a named individual.[1]
(d)	Removing minor children from the individual having legal custody of them, except as otherwise authorized by a custody or parenting time order issued by a court of competent jurisdiction.[1]
(e)	Purchasing or possessing a firearm.[1]
(f)	Interfering with the petitioner's efforts to remove the petitioner's children or personal property from premises that are solely owned or leased by the respondent.[1]
(g)	Interfering with the petitioner at the petitioner's place of employment or education, or engaging in conduct that impairs the petitioner's employment or educational relationship or environment.[1]
(h)	Attending school in the same building as the petitioner, where the petitioner is a minor who has been the victim of sexual assault by the respondent and is enrolled in a public or nonpublic school that operates any of grades K to 12.[1]
(i)	Having access to information in records concerning a minor child of both parties that will inform the respondent about the address or telephone number of the petitioner and the child, or about the petitioner's employment address.[1]
(j)	Engaging in conduct that is prohibited under MCL 750.411h or MCL 750.411i, the stalking and aggravated stalking statutes.[1]
(k)	With the intent to cause the petitioner mental distress or to exert control over the petitioner, injuring, killing, torturing, or neglecting an animal in which the petitioner has an ownership interest, or threatening to do so; removing it from the petitioner's possession, or retaining or obtaining possession of it.[1]
(l)	Any other specific act or conduct that imposes upon or interferes with personal liberty or that causes a reasonable apprehension of violence.[1]

Older cases and older websites cite the catch-all as subdivision (1)(j) and show a shorter list. The catch-all is now subdivision (1)(l).^[1][8]

Limits and details on the main items

Premises: when a judge cannot order someone to stay out

Under MCL 600.2950(5), a court shall not issue a PPO barring the respondent from entering onto premises if all of the following apply: the respondent is not the spouse of the petitioner; the respondent, or the parent, guardian, or custodian of a minor respondent, has a property interest in the premises; and the petitioner, or the parent, guardian, or custodian of a minor petitioner, has no property interest in the premises.^[2]

Put the other way, the restriction is available when the parties are married, when the petitioner has a property interest in the premises, or when the respondent has none.^[2]

Stalking-type conduct and "no contact"

People often describe a PPO as a "no contact" order. In the list for a domestic relationship PPO, the items that reach unwanted contact are item (j), which covers conduct prohibited by the stalking statutes, and the catch-all in item (l).^[1] The Michigan Judicial Institute's benchbook, citing the nondomestic PPO statute and the court's nondomestic order form, lists stalking-type conduct that can be restrained: following or appearing within the petitioner's sight; appearing at the petitioner's workplace or residence; approaching or confronting the petitioner in a public place or on private property; entering onto or remaining on property the petitioner owns, leases, or occupies; sending mail or electronic communications; contacting the petitioner by telephone; and placing or delivering an object on the petitioner's property.^[9] The underlying definitions are in Michigan's stalking law.

Children and records

Item (d) addresses removing minor children from the person with legal custody, and it has a built-in exception for what a custody or parenting time order authorizes.^[1] Beyond that, the Court of Appeals held in Brandt v Brandt that the catch-all provision gave a trial court authority to issue a PPO prohibiting a respondent's contact with his children.^[8]

Before issuing a PPO that will adversely affect the respondent's custody or parenting time rights, the court must determine whether the order should include conditions that accommodate those rights, or whether such conditions would compromise the safety of the petitioner and minor children.^[10] A PPO takes precedence over an existing custody or parenting time order until the PPO expires or the custody court modifies its order.^[11]

Item (i) concerns records. Under MCL 722.30, a parent is not denied access to a child's records because he or she is not the custodial parent, "unless the parent is prohibited from having access to the records or information by a protective order."^[12] These subjects are developed in PPOs, children, and parenting time.

Firearms

Item (e) lets the court restrain the respondent from purchasing or possessing a firearm, and the nondomestic statute gives the same authority for stalking and sexual assault PPOs. The prohibition applies only if the judge includes it in the order.^[3] If a firearm restriction is included, the clerk must notify the county clerk of the respondent's county of residence about the existence and contents of the PPO.^[13] State licensing consequences and the federal statute are covered in PPOs and firearms.

Animals

Item (k) applies to an animal in which the petitioner has an ownership interest.^[1] The statute defines that broadly: the petitioner has an ownership interest if he or she has a right of property in the animal, keeps or harbors it, has it in his or her care, or permits it to remain on or about premises the petitioner occupies.^[14] Related criminal law is in Animal cruelty in domestic cases.

The catch-all

Item (l) is not unlimited. It covers "specific" acts or conduct, and the act has to be one that imposes upon or interferes with personal liberty or causes a reasonable apprehension of violence.^[1] For purposes of warrantless arrest, the corresponding category is "any other act or conduct specified by the court in the personal protection order," which is one reason the wording of the order matters.^[15]

What nondomestic PPOs can prohibit

A nondomestic stalking PPO restrains conduct prohibited under the stalking, aggravated stalking, and unlawful posting statutes.^[16] It may also enjoin the respondent from purchasing or possessing a firearm.^[9]

A nondomestic sexual assault PPO has its own list of fifteen items in MCL 600.2950a(3). It includes entering onto premises; threatening to sexually assault, kill, or physically injure the petitioner or a named individual; purchasing or possessing a firearm; following or appearing within the petitioner's sight; appearing at the petitioner's workplace or residence; contacting the petitioner by telephone; sending mail or electronic communications; attending school in the same building as a minor petitioner; and a catch-all that adds "reasonable apprehension of violence or sexual assault."^[17] Who qualifies for each type is explained in Types of PPOs in Michigan.

What a PPO cannot do

• Restrain protected speech. The Court of Appeals has held that a comment that was offensive and in poor taste, but constitutionally protected, could not support the issuance of a PPO, and it has found a speech restriction "much too broad" where it was not confined to the boundaries set in MCL 750.411s.^[18]
• Bind the petitioner. In a contempt proceeding the respondent's behavior is the only relevant consideration, and the person who holds a PPO is under no obligation to act in a certain way.^[4]
• Run both ways. A court shall not issue a mutual PPO.^[5]
• Apply between a parent and that parent's unemancipated minor child. A court shall not issue a PPO where the respondent is the petitioner's unemancipated minor child, or the petitioner is the respondent's unemancipated minor child.^[19]

Other relief available in a PPO case

In a domestic relationship or nondomestic stalking PPO case, if the petitioner is not the named account holder, the court may order the wireless provider to transfer billing responsibility for and rights to the petitioner's wireless telephone number to the petitioner.^[20]

What the order itself has to say

Under MCR 3.706(A), a PPO must state the conduct enjoined, that it is effective when signed and immediately enforceable anywhere in Michigan, the consequences of a violation, and a clear expiration date.^[6] For respondents, that makes the signed order the place to find out exactly what is and is not restricted; see Served with a PPO: what to do. For petitioners, an act the order specifically restrains is what police can arrest for without a warrant; see PPO violation penalties.^[21][15]

Either party can ask the court to change the terms. The petitioner may file a motion to modify the PPO at any time after it is issued.^[22] The respondent's motion is governed by a 14-day period and, after that, a good-cause requirement.^[23][24] See How to fight or terminate a PPO.