A recent Colorado Supreme Court ruling on the visitation rights of grandparents is being hailed in some quarters as a victory for people trying to ensure that relations with grandkids continue even when families are divided by divorce or other strains and tensions.
Denver family law attorney Richard Harris told The Post, “The ruling re-instates grandparent visitation as a feasible option in our state.”
The court’s decision came in the case of a boy whose parents had died and who was later adopted by an aunt and uncle. The adoptive parents and the paternal grandparents disagreed about visitation and contact.
A majority of the Supreme Court decided the appellate court had established an inappropriate standard for the grandparents and issued its own rules for what grandparents must prove to gain visitation rights.
While experts sensed a shifting of the legal ground, neither grandparents nor anyone else involved in feuding families should be under any illusion that going to court is the easy way to solve their problems. The case in question dragged on for nearly six years and has been sent back to trial court for further consideration in light of the high-court ruling.
Divorce, death of a parent, loss of custody and even adoption are stresses in family life that can stretch and even break generational ties. Many grandparents have had the sorrowful experience of losing touch with a beloved grandchild when the child’s parents split up, die or remarry.
Lots of those family tragedies end up as lawsuits, but domestic law experts almost unanimously advise that it’s much better to try to solve family disputes without calling in the lawyers. The experts recommend seeing a professional mediator if family members can’t agree on visitation themselves. Other good tips to remember are:
Give new relationships, such as when a step-parent enters the picture, time to stabilize before agitating over visitation issues.
Avoid involving grandchildren in adult arguments and animosity.
If you decide to go to court, remember that laws vary from state to state, and that the applicable law is that of the state where the grandchild lives.
As the state Supreme Court noted in its decision, the best interest of the child is the overarching standard in these kinds of court cases. That’s the standard parents and grandparents also should follow as they struggle with visitation disagreements.
