On Friday, we talked about custody and visitation cases where a grandparent – or other non parent – petitions the court for custody and/or visitation. The cases I described on Friday are otherwise normal custody cases, where mom and dad share custody and visitation of the minor children in question. In those cases, grandparents (or other nonparents petitioning for custody and/or visitation) have to meet a standard beyond the typical “best interests of the child” standard. They have to show … [Read more...]
Grandparent and Non Parent Rights in Custody Cases Part 1
Grandparent and Non Parents Rights in Custody Cases It’s a truth universally acknowledged that children are wonderful. Well, unless they’re terrible, because sometimes that happens, too. But, regardless of how terrible they might be on any particular day, they’re certainly loveable, and they wiggle their way into our hearts – and the hearts of lots of other people that they come into contact with -- in about a million different ways. When grandparents and other non parents (like aunts, … [Read more...]
Grandparents in Custody and Visitation Cases
At this point, very little that I see is something that I’m seeing for the first time. Most of the time that’s good, because it means I have a level of familiarity with a lot of different scenarios, and I at least have some experience to draw on, even if the combination of circumstances is unique in each case. Sometimes, though, even when things are NOT new or unusual to me, I still find it surprising. One of those things is when my client tells me that her parents were abusive – and then, in … [Read more...]
Delegating visitation during military deployment
Delegating visitation during military deployment In our area, dealing with the military is, for better or for worse, just a part of daily life. We’re pretty attuned to the specific issues that the military faces, and, for many of us, whether we’re current or former military service members or spouses, there are a lot of family law issues that are involved as well. When it comes to custody and visitation, deployment is a big issue. Specifically, what happens to the kids while one parent is … [Read more...]
