Grandparents Custody Rights

While most child custody information available today pertains to divorce cases, occasionally there will be a case brought to the family courts seeking custody or visitation rights for grandparents.

Since the divorce rate has increased dramatically over the past few decades, there have been a number of changes to what society now considers a "normal" family. There may be cases in which a grandparent simply wants to be legally granted the right to spend time alone with his or her grandchildren. However, as a result of other extenuating circumstances, there are an increasing number of custody cases involving a grandparent seeking custody of the minors.  These oftentimes result from the drug and alcohol abuse, physical or sexual abuse by a parent, or just economic issues resulting from single parenthood.

Therefore, there are now sections of the family code for each of the  individual states that have been established to address this issue of non-parental custody.  Grandparents' rights are not constitutional in nature, nor did they exist at common law.  In fact, recognition of grandparents' rights by state legislatures is a fairly recent trend, and most of the statutes have been in effect for less than 40 years.  While the basics - the right to petition for custody and / or visitation - are largely the same, the details do  differ from state to state, of course.  Federal legislation passed in 1998 also requires that courts in each state recognize and enforce grandparental visitation orders from courts in other states.

While there have been cases of this code be overturned for "violating the due process rights of parents to raise their children,"  Most state laws related to grandparent rights, however, have survived intact. Regardless, those who seek to win visitation rights of their grandchildren should check the current status of state family code in their own state.