Rule 3.988.Dispositional Hearing

MCR 3.988 is the sanction stage of a minor personal protection order case. Judgment finding a violation has already entered, and the question becomes what the court does about it. The rule sets the clock, names who has to be in the room, loosens the evidence rules, and lists the dispositions the court may or must impose.

Timing

Subrule (A) leaves the interval between the entry of judgment finding a violation and disposition to the court's discretion, subject to a ceiling of 35 days. Detention tightens that ceiling: when the minor is detained, the interval may not be more than 14 days, except for good cause. The rule treats disposition as something that may or may not follow, so the ceiling is an outer limit rather than a command to impose a sanction.

Presence of respondent and petitioner

Subrule (B)(1) lets the court excuse the respondent from part of the dispositional hearing for good cause, with one fixed point: the respondent must be present when the disposition is announced. Subrule (B)(2) gives the petitioner the right to be present. The person who sought the protection order is not a bystander at this stage.

Evidence

Subrule (C)(1) opens the door wide. All relevant and material evidence, including oral and written reports, may be received by the court and relied on to the extent of its probative value, even though the same material would not be admissible at the violation hearing. Subrule (C)(2) supplies the balance. The respondent, or the respondent's attorney, and the petitioner must be afforded an opportunity to examine and controvert written reports, and the court may in its discretion allow cross-examination of the individuals who made those reports when they are reasonably available. Subrule (C)(3) removes evidentiary privileges, other than the privilege between attorney and client, as an obstacle to receiving and using materials prepared under a court-ordered examination, interview, or course of treatment.

Dispositions

Subrule (D) sorts outcomes by the kind of contempt and by the respondent's age.

• Criminal contempt: if a minor respondent at least 17 years of age pleads or is found guilty, the court may impose a sentence of incarceration of up to 93 days and a fine of not more than $500.
• Civil contempt, respondent at least 17: the court shall impose a fine or imprisonment as specified in MCL 600.1715 and 600.1721.
• Civil contempt, respondent under 17: the court shall subject the respondent to the dispositional alternatives listed in MCL 712A.18.

The verbs differ. For criminal contempt the court may sentence; for civil contempt the court shall act, with the age line deciding which body of law supplies the options. Subrule (D)(3) adds a further tool: in addition to the sentence, the court may impose other conditions to the minor personal protection order itself, so the order the respondent violated can come out of the hearing with more in it than it had going in.