Divorce is a life event that complicates the lives of many Arizona residents. While the dissolution process tends to impact the spouses involved, it has the tendency to greatly affect the lives of the children involved as well. Some messy or complex divorces have the propensity to impact more than just the spouses an their children. In some cases, the parents of the divorced spouses could be affected as well. This could lead to disputes surrounding the relationship between a grandparent and their grandchildren.
To some degree, every state in the nation has some form of law governing grandparents’ rights and the visitation rights of grandparents. These laws grant grandparents the legal right to visit their grandchild. The intent of these laws is to maintain contact and the relationship between a grandparent and a grandchild.
With regard to restrictive visitation laws, these only allow grandparents to seek visitation rights if the parents of the grandchild have divorced or they are deceased. On the other hand, there is more leeway when granting visitation under permissive visitation laws. These allow grandparents to request visitation even when both parents are still alive or are still married. Typically, courts will consider the best interests of the child when granting visitation in these situations.
Certain factors, such as the best interests of the child, often guide the courts decision when rewarding grandparent visitation rights. Courts also look to the relationship between both parties before the divorce and whether maintaining this relationship with benefit the child.
In most cases, grandparents have can get access to visit their grandchildren. If you are currently in a dispute regarding the visitation of your grandchild, it is important to understand your rights in the matter.
Source: FindLaw, “Grandparent Visitation Rights,” accessed March 19, 2017
