Restraining Orders in Michigan (2026): Types & How to File

Will a judge actually believe me?

It's natural to worry that a judge will hear your situation and decide it isn't serious enough - that fear doesn't mean you're wrong about what happened. Michigan courts decide PPO petitions based on the petition itself and any evidence you provide, not on how polished your delivery is. You don't need a lawyer or a police report to file. What helps most is a clear, specific account - dates, what was said or done, and anything in writing - so the judge has more to go on than a single conversation.

Types of Personal Protection Orders in Michigan

Michigan's civil protective order is called a Personal Protection Order (PPO), and there are three types depending on your relationship to the respondent:

• Domestic Relationship PPO - for a spouse or former spouse, someone you live with or lived with, a dating partner, a relative, or someone you have a child with.
• Nondomestic (Stalking) PPO - for stalking by someone you don't have a qualifying domestic relationship with.
• Nondomestic Sexual Assault PPO - for sexual assault by someone outside a qualifying domestic relationship.

All PPO petitions are filed with the Family Division of the Circuit Court. Case files are labeled by type - PP for domestic, PH for nondomestic (stalking/sexual assault), and PJ for juvenile matters - which is useful to know when tracking your case.

Emergency / ex parte orders

Most PPOs are first requested ex parte - meaning the judge reviews your petition and can grant it without notifying the respondent or holding a hearing, based on the facts in your petition alone. An ex parte PPO must be valid for not less than 182 days and must state its own expiration date - many are issued for up to a year. If the respondent wants to challenge an ex parte order, they have 14 days after being served to file a motion to terminate it, and the court must generally schedule a hearing on that motion within 14 days of the motion being filed.

How to file in Michigan

• File your petition at the Circuit Court Family Division in your county - there is no filing fee for a PPO.
• Describe the situation in writing on the petition form, including specific incidents and dates - this is what the judge reviews for the ex parte decision.
• Processing for an ex parte PPO generally takes about 24 to 48 hours, excluding weekends and holidays.
• If a hearing is scheduled - either because the judge didn't grant the order ex parte, or because the respondent later moves to terminate it - both sides can present evidence and testimony.

What evidence helps

Because ex parte PPOs are often decided on paper alone, a well-documented petition matters. Useful materials include:

• A dated journal or notes describing each incident, written as close to the time it happened as possible.
• Text messages, emails, or call logs, ideally with visible timestamps.
• Photos of injuries or property damage, dated where possible.
• Names and contact information for any witnesses.

This isn't about overwhelming the court with paperwork - it's about giving a judge who has never met you a clear, consistent picture of what's been happening. Because ex parte petitions are usually decided on the written page alone, without you standing in front of the judge, the way you describe events in the petition itself matters even more than usual - specific dates and details tend to carry more weight than general statements. If you don't yet have supporting messages or photos, that's not a barrier to filing; you can still describe incidents from memory as specifically as you're able to.