This is Todd Burnham, the Founding Partner of Burnham Law, and an experienced family law lawyer with a superb record. This is a short post that will details the legal rights of Grandparents.
Grandparents Rights
Grandparents and great grandparents have legal rights to visitation, but there’s a catch. Troxel v. Granville is an important piece of case law regarding the rights of Grandparents that went before the Supreme Court in 2000. Troxel requires that courts must give weight to a parent’s decision regarding visitation with non-parents, including grandparents.
This doesn’t mean that grandparents have no visitation rights at all, but it does make it difficult for grandparents to win a legal case regarding visitation if the parents do not want the child to have contact with them.
It means that the grandparents have to prove that the best interests of the child outweigh the concerns or the objections that the legal parents have.
Grandparents and Great Grandparents have visitation rights, but it can be difficult to get them through the court.