All of the First Steps to Handling Grandparents and Third-Party Custody and Visitation

Anytime you look at the question of the legal rights of grandparents when you are looking at visitation with their grandchildren the knee-jerk response might be that it will be reprehensible to consider that any individual would be so vindictive as to deny these kinds of important family relationships. Nevertheless maybe it is wise to take pause for a minute and think about why anybody might stand in the way of a grandparent that wishes to visit his or her grandchildren? If perhaps the mother or father is of sound mind as well as regarded by the court to be a capable custodian in every way, might there be some sort of logical explanation behind this refusal of visitation rights?

The issue of grandparents visitation is actually covered in Title 31, Article 17, Chapter 5 within the Indiana Code, and these laws and regulations do enable grandparents to petition a court in an effort to get visitation rights within circumstances. In order to seek a visitation order one of these conditions needs to be met: one of the child's parents is actually deceased; the marital relationship of the mother and father has been dissolved in the state of Indiana; the child has been born out of wedlock and the paternity of the petitioner's son has been established. If the marital relationship is in fact still intact plus the mother and father make the decision to disallow visitation the grandma and grandpa don't have any recourse.

The court will rule on the question taking a number of aspects under consideration, and one of these will be whether or not the grandparent in question had a history of substantial contact with the child. The judge may also meet with the child and try and establish whether the child feels like visitation with the grandparent would be in his / her interests. The reality is that the rights of the mothers and fathers are inherent and the burden of proving that visitation will be beneficial to the child sits with the grandmother and grandfather.

Custody can be given to grandparents and other third parties at the discretion of the court in specific situations. But unless both parents are not willing to act as custodian, the grandparents will have to show the unfitness of the custodial dad or mum.

If you have questions or concerns concerning grandparents and third party custody/visitation, contact a Fort Wayne IN family lawyer to arrange for a complimentary assessment. A good family law attorney Fort Wayne will provide you with the assistance you're looking for with any aspect of a Fort Wayne IN divorce.