Posted by DivorceLine in After the choice taken by the US Supreme Court in Troxel case, visitation and child custody for grandparents rights are being determined based on the most effective interests of the grandchildren. Elements such as the pre-existing relationship between the child and the grandparent and the reason for the parents’ objection regularly determine the level of visitation rights and child custody for grandparents seeking court ordered times to be with their grandchildren.
Nowadays, all states have statues authorizing a court to award visitation to a grandparent under specific circumstances. For example, California requires two prerequisite findings just before granting visitation rights to a grandparent. Very first, there need to be a preexisting relationship and bond between the grandparent and the grandchild and second, the requested visitation should be in the finest interest of the child. If the prerequisites are discovered, the court need to also balance the interest of the child in having visitation with the grandparent against the right of the parents to exercise their parental authority. Family Code § 3103 (a) (2).
In contrast to California, Virginia has a broader law permitting child custody grandparents visitation rights to be petitioned in the court even when the parents and children are in an intact household. Virginia’s Supreme Court rejected a challenge to its third party visitation law, on the grounds that it interfered with a parent’s fundamental constitutional right to autonomy in child rearing. The court held that the statute would be constitutional even as applied to intact families if visitation had been ordered even over the objection of a parent on a showing that the child would be harmed with out such visitation (Williams vs. Williams).
Nonetheless, Virginia is in the minority. Most state courts do not permit a grandparent to petition the court for grandparent visitation rights if the family is still intact. The intent is to preserve the parents constitutional right of privacy and autonomy in child rearing. For example, Illinois recently upheld the constitutionality of its grandparent visitation law which permits an award only when the family is not intact. The statue permitting grandparent visitation only for non-intact families was not a violation of the equal protection clause of the constitution (West vs. West).
Having read this I thought it was very informative. I appreciate you taking the time and effort to put this article together. Divorce based on insanity requires that the mental illness continue for a number of years, be declared incurable, or both. I once again find myself spending way to much time both reading and commenting. But so what, it was still worth it!
Good points. Bigamy occurs where one of the spouses to a marriage had a prior existing legal marriage at the time of marrying someone else. I would notice that as someone who in reality doesn’t write on blogs so much (if truth be told, this may be my first put up).