The impact of divorce when children are involved is emotionally wrenching enough for parents. But grandparents can be equally impacted, particularly if, say, a former son- or daughter-in-law blocks them from seeing their grandchildren.
In such circumstances, can grandparents go to court to demand regular visits and a say in how their grandchildren are being brought up? Unfortunately, the answer is generally no. Grandparents generally don’t have an enforceable legal right to see their grandkids, whether it’s post-divorce or whether their own children are denying them access.
However, if you’re being denied access to your grandchildren, either by your adult child’s ex or by your adult child, it’s worth calling a family law attorney because there are instances in which a court might, in fact, grant you visitation rights or even custody, depending on the circumstances and state laws where you live.
For example, some states may allow a grandparent to seek visitation when either or both parents are deceased or when there is a special circumstance that would warrant the court getting involved on the grandparents’ behalf, such as an extraordinarily strong bond between the child and the grandparent. While in most states the law presumes that a parent is acting in their child’s best interest — including decisions to deprive grandparents of access to grandchildren — you may be able to rebut that presumption and prove that maintaining a bond with you is, in fact, in your grandchild’s best interest.
Additionally, if a court does order visitation, there’s a very high bar for the custodial parent to meet in order to cut off your access.
Take a recent case from Wyoming in which the children’s subsequent adoption by their mother’s new husband wasn’t enough to cut off the paternal grandparents’ rights.
In that case, biological father Grant Belden died in a plane crash when his two kids were toddlers. The relationship between Grant’s parents and his widow, Nicole, broke down. She soon moved away and denied the Beldens opportunities to visit the boys, claiming the visits were “great for the boys” but hard on her.
The Beldens went to court, which resulted in an agreement that they could have monthly visits and weekly phone calls. But when Nicole remarried in August 2021, her new husband, Andy Ward, adopted the children and told the Beldens they could now only see them three days a year, and if they didn’t agree, they would “get nothing.” Nicole and her husband also apparently began “poisoning” the boys against them.
The Beldens sought to enforce the prior agreement, but the Wards argued that the adoption rendered it void. The court disagreed, and the Wyoming Supreme Court upheld the court’s decision.
On the other hand, in another recent case, a Pennsylvania Superior Court judge ruled that a grandmother who took in her daughter, son-in-law and newborn grandchild, and provided much of the grandchild’s care and met much of his financial needs, still didn’t have the right to seek custody or visitation when her daughter and son-in-law moved out on bad terms eight years later.
As you can see, different state laws and factual circumstances can lead to different results.
