Parents have a fundamental right to raise their children in a manner they see fit, with certain limitations. One of the rights that a parent can exercise is the right to limit visitations between a grandparent and the child. When parents agree that a grandparent or any other third-party should not be allowed to visit the child, the parents wishes prevail over the grandparents and all other third parties.

However when there is a pending child custody action, meaning that the parents are trying to determine amongst themselves (or ask a court to do so), who will have custody and how much custody each will have, then a grandparent may intervene and ask court to grant them specific scheduled visitation with their grandchild.

Sometimes grandparents must rescue their grandchildren from tragic circumstances involving parental neglect or abuse. Often, at great personal cost and sacrifice, they provide the stability and safety that every child is entitled to. Wresting custody from wayward parents is a difficult task. Three questions have to be asked and answered.

• First, is the parent unfit?
• Second, is it clearly detrimental to the welfare of the child to be in the custody of the parent?
• And lastly, is it in the best interest of the child to be in the custody of the grandparent?

Many a grandparent feels that they are better parents providers for the children than the parents themselves and therefore the child is better off with the them; meaning the grandparents should have custody of the children. While this may be true, the grandparent has a very high burden of proving that the parents are “unfit” and that it is “clearly” harmful to the child to remain with the parents.

We have successfully helped grandparents rescue their grandchildren and even helped grandparents adopt their grandchildren. This is a technically difficult area of law and requires experience and expertise to properly assist grandparents in this cases.

We help grandparents with with a wide variety of issues, including grandparent visitation and custody. We can even help grandparents adopt their grandchildren, if need be.