A Closer Look at Grandparents and Third-Party Custody/Visitation Arrangements

Whenever a couple makes a decision to get married, they do in fact make a commitment to each other and it is at first a relationship which exists among a pair of individuals. If they have got children, however, a family is the final result, and the original marital partnership now expands. The extended family on the two sides is generally going to establish a bond with any children, especially the children's grandmother and grandfather. Everyone knows how close not to mention important associations among grandparents and grandchildren might be, and they mainly function to reinforce the family as a whole.

The fact that all these relationships develop, and they might expand to aunts, uncles and also family friends too, tends to make separation and divorce even more complicated. The relationship is not simply about two people; there are lots of other people concerned, plus they are all helpless in a way, inspite of their own emotional investment in the extended family group. Thankfully the vast majority of divorcing husbands and wives acknowledge this, and so they keep the best interests of their children and also the rest of the family unit at heart and facilitate the possibility for continuous visitation.

Yet, you will find occasions when grandparents may be refused visitation rights, and Chapter 153 of the Texas Family Code provides for the court's ability to award visitation rights to a grandparent or maybe grandparents under particular circumstances. However, the legal presumption would be that the custodial dad or mom must have a good reason for blocking visitation, and so the responsibility would be on the grandparent to show that the child's actual physical or possibly emotional well being is damaged by the refusal of visitation rights.

Grandparents or various other third parties can sometimes be granted custody of children in specific situations. Such an example would be if the child or even children was residing with the grandparents for a time period of more than six months, and also they petition the court within 90 days from the date when the children were removed from their custodianship. In addition to this scenario, grandparents may seek custodianship if they feel that the children are being endangered in their existing living situation. However just as before, the grandparents would really need to be able to establish that the custodial mom or dad was in fact unfit to retain custody of the children of his or maybe her child.

Should you have questions or concerns regarding grandparents and third-party custody/visitation, contact a Killeen child custody lawyer in order to request a free consultation. The best divorce lawyer Killeen Texas can offer the assistance you're looking for with any aspect of a Killeen TX divorce.