Deaths or disputes within the family can leave grandparents out in the cold when the children’s parents prevent contact between the children and their grandparents. In certain limited cases, grandparents may have legal options to restore this precious relationship.
If you are being denied access to your grandchildren, explore your legal options with a New Canaan grandparents’ rights lawyer. An experienced family attorney can learn about your situation and help you develop an effective strategy to stay in your grandchildren’s lives.
Access to grandchildren is sometimes denied because of a dispute or feud between the parents and grandparents. In cases of divorce or the death of a grandchild’s parent, the grandchildren’s custodial or surviving parent may be reluctant to maintain ties with their co-parent’s family.
Grandparents may believe they have a legal right to spend time with their grandchildren, but that is incorrect. Connecticut law and the U.S. Constitution provide parents with broad rights to determine who spends time with their children. Grandparents have no right to a relationship with their grandchildren if the parents do not want contact.
A seasoned lawyer in New Canaan can discuss a grandparent’s legal rights. Although legal action could be effective in some cases, attempts to repair the relationship with the grandchildren’s parents are likely to yield more favorable results in many instances.
Several types of family therapy exist that can help repair the relationship between grandparents and parents. Family therapy can address communication issues, grief and bereavement, substance abuse, and mental health issues.
Family mediation allows those in conflict to work with a neutral third party who can facilitate discussions about problems in their relationship. The mediator does not suggest treatments or solutions but can help family members learn to communicate more effectively and find common ground in disputes.
Grandparents and great-grandparents can petition a court to allow them to visit their grandchildren. The relationship with the grandchildren need not be biological; grandparents can ask a court to grant them visitation through marriage or adoption. However, grandparents must meet a high bar to prove that visitation is warranted.
A grandparent seeking visitation must prove that they had a parent-like relationship with their grandchildren in the past, and severing the relationship harms the children. A grandparent could demonstrate the former closeness of the relationship by showing that they lived with the children, spent substantial time caring for them, and were a part of their day-to-day lives.
Occasional visits in the past may not be sufficient to convince a court that visitation should be granted over a parent’s objections, even when there is mutual affection in the relationship.
When a grandparent can demonstrate a parent-like bond, they must prove that denying access to the grandchildren will harm the children. A New Canaan attorney will introduce evidence like the parents’ and grandparents’ fitness to care for children, the length of the relationship between grandchildren and grandparents, and the specific tasks and duties the grandparents performed for the grandchildren. When the children are old enough to state a reasoned opinion, their preferences may have an impact on the judge’s decision.
When parents and grandparents have an informal arrangement that the grandparents will temporarily care for children, the grandparents have no parental rights. The parents can regain possession at any time, and the grandparents would need parental consent to get the children medical care or make educational decisions for them.
There are three methods for grandparents to gain parental rights. A grandparent could:
A court will make its decision based on the children’s best interests at the time of the court proceeding.
The procedures for obtaining the different forms of custody vary. A New Canaan lawyer can help a grandparent make an effective application to obtain permanent legal custody of their grandchildren.
It can be heartbreaking for grandparents when they are denied access to their grandchildren. The law gives parents the right to control who their children spend time with, and they can legally deny the grandparents access.
When you want to see your grandchildren but a parent does not allow it, contact a New Canaan grandparents’ rights lawyer. They can review your situation and recommend the best way to proceed under the circumstances. Get started today.
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