kent county dvccrt

Legal System

Personal Protection Orders

The Kent County Personal Protection Orders Department assists victims of domestic violence and victims of stalking in obtaining personal protection orders, assists the petitioning party enforce the orders and assists restrained parties with the processing of making objections. In 2002, the Circuit Court processed 2,104 Petitions for Personal Protection Order.

The PPO Office will assist in making the filing process go as smoothly as possible. Please remember that you have initiated your own lawsuit, you are representing yourself in this action. The PPO staff are not attorneys, investigators, enforcers or process servers.

This law makes it a crime to repeatedly threaten or intimidate someone or to make repeated unwanted contact that causes emotional distress. Unwanted contacts could be telephone harassment, coming onto your property or making threats.

Criteria For PPO

The petitioner and respondent:

• Are husband and wife and an action for annulment, divorce, or support (is/not) pending
• Were husband and wife
• Reside or resided in the same household
• Have a child in common
• Have or had an intimate dating relationship
• Have some other family relationship
• Are in a stalking situation as defined by:
  MCLA 750.411(h):
  "Stalking" means a willful course of conduct involving repeated or continuing harassment of another individual that would cause a reasonable person to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed, or molested, and that actually causes the victim to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, threatened, harassed or molested

Statutory Requirements

• Personal Protection Orders are not for civil matters such as custody and neighbor disputes. (For help in neighbor conflict, contact the Dispute Resolution Center at 616- 774-0121)
• Petitioner must be at least 18 years old unless accompanied by someone of that age or older who will consent to be petitioner's NEXT FRIEND, preferably a parent.

This office makes available the proper personal protection forms, provides direction for completing and filing those forms, and offers information on local sources that deal with domestic violence. The initial paperwork (the instruction sheet, petition and affidavit) can be downloaded from the Kent County Personal Protection Orders Department.

Other Requirements

• Parties filing need to present valid picture ID (includes other State driver's license, passport or school identification)
• A signed personal protection order must be served upon the respondent and a proof of that service, affidavit of service, needs to be filed in the case

Hours

General walk-in office hours Monday-Friday from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. Client interviews from 9:00 am to 2:30 pm.

PPO Expiration Date

Your PPO is only in effect up to the expiration date. This is located near the bottom right of the order in RED. IF you need to extend your order, you must come in to this office approximately three weeks before the expiration date, or call (616) 632-5067 torequest the paperwork to renew. Permanent (5 year) PPOs are available for long-term situations, and require a hearing.

Enforcement Of Order

If a violation occurs, do not call the PPO office -- call the police. A police report is needed to pursue a violation of the respondent through the courts. The petitioner will need to adhere to the PPO conditions as well as the respondent. Please note that only the Judge may change the conditions of or dismiss the PPO.

Change Of Address

Keep us updated on any address or phone number changes for the duration of the order.

Remember:
Interpreters are not readily available. - Please bring a friend or relative to assist in this need.
Child care is not provided by the Court, so you may wish to bring a friend or relative to assist in this area.
The processing of the PPO will take several days, so the petitioner should not expect to file for and receive a PPO on the same day.
The jurisdiction for PPOs fall under the Family Division of the Circuit Court.

What to Expect

The following is what happens when you come to the Personal Protection Office to file for a Personal Protection Order:

• Petitioner comes to the 3d floor of the courthouse to file a PPO in suite 3500.
• Front window staff gives out the petition and affidavit with instructions on how to complete.
• Front window staff requests and makes a copy of picture ID of Petitioner and next of friend, if required.
• Petitioner then completes paperwork and returns it to the front window staff.
• Front window staff attaches copy & original picture ID to completed paperwork and places in file for PPO Staff to interview in the order received.
• PPO staff, prior to meeting with petitioner, will do a case look-up in the court's computer system and complete as much of the order as possible prior to the interview.
• PPO staff meets with the petitioner, answers any questions and explains the petitioner's responsibilities. The PPO staff then completes the Order and notarizes the signature of the petitioner.
• PPO staff makes copies of the petition, affidavit and coversheet. Places originals and copies in red folder.
• Petitioner takes the red folder with the original and copies to the Clerk's Office, suite 2400, to open the case.
• Clerk's office opens the case while the petitioner waits. Clerk's office keeps the original cover sheet, affidavit and petition. They then places the copies back in the red folder and give it back to the petitioner.
• Petitioner returns the red folder and copies to the front window staff in suite 3500.
• PPO staff take the paperwork to the assigned Judge for review.
• Once the Judge has made the decision to grant or deny the PPO, it is sent back to the PPO staff.
• PPO staff will contact the petitioner by phone as soon as they receive the signed order from the Judge. They will inform petitioner that their order is ready to be picked up and if it has been granted or denied.
• After the PPO staff call, if petitioner does not pick up the signed order within 24 hours, unless a specific pick up date is stated by petitioner, the order will be mailed. PPO staff will let petitioner know this will happen if not picked up in 24 hours.
• Petitioner must present picture ID when picking up signed PPO.