Grandparents’ Rights
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Grandparents’ Rights
Child custody matters sometimes extend beyond the parents and involve the child’s grandparents. The litigation team at Canterbury Law Group understands the delicate yet complex legal issues surrounding custody matters and the rights of parents as well as the potential rights of the grandparents. Our team of attorneys always strive to generate desired results while minimizing the emotional impact on the children.
Courts recognize the importance of maintaining a child’s bond with extended family members. Assuming the qualifying legal factors are met, and a grandparents’ rights petition is filed, the court will consider several specific statutory factors to determine whether a court-ordered grandparent visitation is in the best interest of the child. The court then must balance the parents’ right to raise their child how they see fit with a grandparents’ request for visitation. For this reason, grandparent visitation may often be limited. Therefore, it is critical for grandparents to retain an attorney early in the process to protect their rights prior to formally commencing legal proceedings.
In cases where a biological grandparent or great-grandparent is being denied contact with the child, the court can intervene and establish a grandparents’ court-ordered plan for visitation. Upon filing a petition for grandparent visitation, the court will at minimum require that: (a) the child’s parents be divorced; or (b) that one of the parents is deceased; or (c) that the child was born out of wedlock.
Once a petition is filed, the court will consider several specific statutory factors to determine whether a court-ordered grandparent visitation is in the best interest of the child. These factors include the historical relationship between the grandparent and child, the grandparents’ motivation for seeking visitation, the parents’ motivation for denying it, the quantity of visitation sought and how the child’s activities may be impacted and the benefit to the child in maintaining an extended family relationship.
The court then must balance the parents’ right to raise their children contrasted with the grandparents’ visitation request. For this reason, grandparent visitation rights may be limited in scope. Therefore, it is critical for grandparents to retain an attorney early in the process to maximize their rights.
Canterbury Law Group was founded to provide no-nonsense legal counsel for family law cases at the highest levels possible. We are an energetic and unified team of lawyers and paralegals deeply committed to solving our clients’ life changing problems. At Canterbury Law Group, each of our litigators has a strong and dynamic presence, which assists in delivering our clients with maximum results. We handle grandparent rights cases in Arizona, California and Nevada.
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