Visitation Rights for Grandparents

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Grandparent Visitation Rights After a Contentious Divorce

October 26, 2021

When a couple decides to end their marriage through a divorce, the legal proceedings have a ripple effect throughout their extended family. These effects have more weight when children are involved in the divorce. While child custody rights and visitation privileges are worked out between the parents, other family members can have their voices and rights fall on deaf ears and fail to get the attention they deserve — the grandparents.

The Forgotten Caregivers

In many modern nuclear families, grandparents play an essential role in the upbringing of the grandchildren. Grandparents spend time with them, passing on the knowledge and experiences to the next generation. So when their adult child and their spouse go through a divorce, they want to ensure they still have the opportunity to visit their beloved grandchildren.

What Are Your Options?

While the visitation rights for the parents of the children are hashed out during the divorce proceedings, grandparents wonder what their rights will look like. Do they have to settle for visiting their grandchildren when they're visiting with the child's directly related parent? What are the options if the relationship with the children's parents has soured as well?

Fortunately, with an experienced family law attorney in your corner, you can determine the rights and legal action you can take to secure your visitation rights. While grandparents do not have explicitly stated visitation rights like their children, they do have the right to ask for these rights. Through asking about the visitation rights, you open the dialogue to begin arranging your visits through the courts.

How Do You Prepare for the Visitation Hearing?

The first step towards ensuring you receive the visitation rights you desire is establishing the burden of proof. You and your representation must prove to the courts that your grandchild will be worse off without you in their life in some capacity. You can present the most relevant evidence you can to help support your case.

Usually, you can leverage certain aspects of the divorce to your advantage in establishing that approved visitation time with you is ultimately beneficial for the child. Usually highlight drastic changes in the child's life after the divorce, establishing a strong existing relationship between grandparent and grandchild, and expert testimony that the grandchild could suffer acute psychological harm from separation from their grandparents.

Establishing What's in the Best Interest of the Child

While visitation laws can be murky, an experienced family law firm can help make your case as strong as possible. Grandparent visitation cases in family court hinge on your ability to establish that spending time with you is in the child's best interest.

By creating a case centered around your relationship with the child, their parents, how long it's been since they had contact with you, the existing visitation agreement with the parents, and other factors, your odds of visitation rights can increase.

Need Legal Advice for Your Visitation Case? Berg & Pearson Can Help!

The divorce process can be challenging for parents, children, and extended family members alike. Just because your child has begun filing for divorce doesn't mean you never have to see your grandchild again.

With the experienced child custody lawyers at Berg & Pearson PC in your corner, your visitation case will be as strong as it can. Contact us for free phone consultation and schedule an appointment with our team today!

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