If you are facing stalking, harassment, or abuse, a personal protection order may provide meaningful legal protection, creating a shield you can use to stop mistreatment and find peace. Learn how a PPO can restrict unwanted contact and help protect you from fear of abuse, injury, or harm.

What is a Personal Protection Order (PPO)?

A Personal Protection Order (PPO) is a civil court order that prohibits the respondent from taking specified actions against the petitioner, such as stalking, threatening, injuring, or harassing them. It is sometimes called a “restraining order” because it restricts conduct that might otherwise be lawful.

There are three types of Personal Protection Orders in Michigan:

• Domestic PPO is entered between current or former spouses, coparents, roommates, or dating partners;
• Non-Domestic or Stalking PPO is entered against someone who has engaged in harassment or stalking, regardless of their relationship;
• Sexual Assault PPO is entered against a person who has sexually assaulted the petitioner, regardless of their relationship.

PPOs are granted based on a demonstrated risk of injury, treats, stalking, harassment, or other prohibited conduct. They can be a useful tool for the survivors of domestic violence relationships, individuals facing cyber-stalking or doxxing online, and to resolve ongoing interpersonal disputes between neighbors or coworkers.

However, a personal protection order is not a replacement for emergency services. If you are facing an immediate danger, call 911 or contact law enforcement first. You should also develop an emergency safety plan for how you will protect yourself and your children when the respondent gets notified of the order against him or her.

How to Get a PPO in Michigan

To get a PPO against someone, you need to file a petition for personal protection order with your local Michigan family court. The petition must explain why there is reasonable cause for the Court to believe that the respondent will stalk, harass, threaten, or injure you in the future, most often by demonstrating a pattern of two or more similar behaviors in the recent past.

There is no filing fee for the petition, and in some courts, you don't need an attorney unless the respondent challenges the petition. In many cases, a personal protection order can be entered “ex parte” – without notice to the respondent or a hearing. That means you can get a PPO quickly if the judge is persuaded there is a risk of immediate harm. In other cases, the Court will schedule your PPO petition for a hearing where you'll have an opportunity to present your case for the need for additional protections.

Working with an experienced Michigan family attorney is the best way to make sure your petition is granted. Your lawyer can help you prepare your petition and gather the documentation to support your claims and can appear in court on your behalf to argue the case if the Respondent files an objection. You will still generally need to appear to testify.

What Can a PPO Do to Protect You from Stalking or Harassment?

A Personal Protection Order can cover a lot of different behaviors depending on what the Michigan Family Court judge believes is necessary to protect you. Depending on whether you are filing a domestic or stalking PPO, and the specific circumstances of your case, a PPO could prohibit the respondent from:

• Coming to your home, workplace, or school
• Assaulting, attacking, or wounding you
• Threatening death or physical harm to you
• Contacting you by phone, text, email, or electronic means, including via social media
• Using third parties to contact you (except to serve you with legal paperwork)
• Following you or showing up where you are
• Taking your children in common (except according to the terms of a custody and parenting time order)
• Purchasing or possessing a firearm
• Interfering with your employment or education
• Interfering with efforts to remove your property from a shared home
• Attending the same school as you (in Sexual Assault PPOs only)
• Accessing records containing your home or work address or phone number
• Injuring, killing, threatening, neglecting, or taking possession of your pet or other animal with the intent to cause mental distress or control

The judge can also enter customized prohibitions specific to your case. For example, if you regularly frequent a specific gym, religious building, or community event space, your PPO could be customized to prevent the person stalking you from going to those places.

Tips for How to Effectively Use a PPO to Protect Yourself

A personal protection order can help prevent stalking or harassment by creating enforceable boundaries against further abuse or misconduct. It allows you and the police to shift from a defensive position – responding to whatever bad acts your stalker or abuser performs – to a proactive position. The goal in effectively using a PPO is to create a shield to prevent the respondent from having the ability to stalk or harass you in the first place. To make those protections effective, take practical steps to notify relevant people, document violations, and seek enforcement when necessary.

Make Sure the Respondent is Properly Served

A PPO is effective as soon as it is signed by the judge, but it can't be enforced against the respondent until he or she receives a copy of the petition and the order through personal service of process. In most Michigan counties, the sheriff's office or police department can assist with service. You can also hire a private process server, or ask a third party (like a mutual friend or relative) to give the petition and order to the respondent. The important part is that they must personally receive the documents. Only then can you enforce the PPO against them.

Notify Your Local Police After a PPO is Entered

The Michigan personal protection statute requires the Court to enter every PPO into the state's law enforcement database (LIEN). However, to make the most of your PPO protections, you should also take a copy of the PPO to your local police office. That way the officers will know there is an issue and be better prepared to respond to it. For example, they may be able to increase patrols around your home or workplace for a short period. They can also generally help you get the respondent served (discussed above), and may be quicker to respond to your calls should enforcement be needed.

Give Copies of Your PPO to Your Employer and School

It is natural to want to keep personal trouble private, but if you have obtained a PPO, you should give a copy to your employer, your school (if you are a student), and your children's school (if you are a parent). Businesses and education facilities that are open to the public generally will not remove a patron or visitor without good reason. The PPO gives them that reason. They can have the respondent “trespassed” and removed from the premises if he or she shows up, even before he or she does anything to disturb the peace.

Carefully Follow the PPO Yourself

One of the biggest problems with making effective use of a PPO is that all too often petitioners themselves begin to violate the PPO. For example, if you have a child in common, it may seem easier to drive the child to a parenting time exchange rather than arrange for a third party to provide transportation. Or you might contact your current or former spouse to try to “work things out.” However, this can undercut your claim that you are reasonably fearful of the respondent and his or her behavior. Hold yourself to the same standards you want to apply to your respondent. It will make ending the abusive or stalking behavior easier, and strengthen your case for enforcing the PPO later on.

Enforce PPO Violations

It is a crime to violate a validly entered personal protection order. For PPO violations to be prosecuted effectively, you need to be ready to enforce them. If the respondent crosses the line and does something prohibited by your PPO, work with your Michigan family law or local law enforcement to enforce the PPO through both civil contempt and criminal PPO violation charges. The more you use your PPO, the stronger its protections will be against future abusive, stalking, or harassing behavior.

Get Help with a Personal Protection Order from a Michigan Family Lawyer

Bebout, Potere, Cox & Bennion, P.C. assists individuals and families in Rochester Hills, Rochester, Troy, Lake Orion, Oxford, Oakland County, Macomb County, and throughout Southeast Michigan with obtaining and enforcing PPOs. Call 248-651-4114 or contact us online to speak with a Michigan family law attorney about protecting yourself, your children, and your animals.