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Legal Information: Michigan

Restraining Orders

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Updated: 
December 18, 2023

What is the legal definition of domestic violence in Michigan?

This section defines domestic violence for the purposes of getting a domestic relationship personal protection order (“PPO”).

A judge can issue a domestic relationship PPO when the judge believes that a current or former spouse, someone with whom you have a child in common, someone you are/were dating, or someone who lives/lived in the same household as you may commit any of the following acts:

  • entering unlawfully onto property (premises);
  • assaulting, attacking, beating, molesting, or wounding you;
  • threatening to kill or physically injure you;
  • unlawfully removing minor children from you when you have legal custody of them and removing them is not permitted in the custody or parenting time order;
  • purchasing or possessing a firearm;
  • interfering with your efforts to remove your children or personal property from premises that are solely owned or leased by the abuser;
  • interfering with you at your job or school or acting in a way that harms your job or school relationship or environment;
  • having access to information in records concerning a minor child of both you and the abuser that will tell the abuser about the address or telephone number of you/your child or about your work address;
  • committing stalking or aggravated stalking against you even if s/he is not arrested for those crimes;
  • injuring, killing, torturing, neglecting, or threatening to do so to an animal in which you have an ownership interest, with the intent to cause you mental distress or to exert control over you; or
  • any other specific act or behavior that interferes with your personal liberty or that causes a reasonable fear of violence.1

1 MCL § 600.2950(1), (4)