My Son Has a Baby Do Grandparents Have Any Rights to See There Grandchild in Florida

Grandparent Visitation Rights in Florida

Quick Info:

Do Grandparents have Visitation or Custody Rights in Florida?

Aye but but if: Both parents are deceased, missing, or in a persistent vegetative state OR i parent is deceased, missing, or in a vegetative state AND the other parent has been convicted of a felony or an offense of violence evincing behavior that poses a substantial threat of harm to the minor kid's wellness or welfare. IF there is one parent who is effectually and not a fierce felon, grandparents have no rights to visitation.

Overview of Visitation for Grandparents

Although a divorce is technically the legal separation of ii spouses and the dissolution of their marriage, in reality the families of both spouses can be impacted by a divorce. Grandparents in particular may find that a divorce tin can mean the stop of any ability to meet their grandchildren. While some states have, in the by, given grandparents some ability to ask the court for visitation rights, Florida has traditionally been hesitant to grant a grandparent visitation rights, especially when one or both parents do non want a grandparent to encounter their kid. Where the parents and grandparents hold equally to the frequency and type of visitation between the child and the grandparents, courts will by and large non interfere with such an understanding. But where grandparents want visitation rights and one parent does not desire to allow visitation, Florida courts will demand to determine what, if whatsoever, visitation rights to award the grandparents.

The Electric current State of the Law on Grandparent Rights

Unfortunately, grandparent rights in Florida still remain hard to obtain. Fifty-fifty with the most recent statutory update, very specific criteria must exist met in society for a grandparent to obtain rights to encounter his or her grandchild.

Effective July 1, 2015, Grandparent'southward Rights in the State of Florida have changed. Earlier, a grandparent could petition for visitation rights if the parent'due south matrimony had been dissolved, a parent had deserted the child, or the child was born out of spousal relationship and the parents never married. Yet, it was very tough to obtain grandparent rights.

With the passage of Florida Statute 752.011,Petition for grandparent visitation with minor children, grandparents in Florida run across a glimmer of promise. But is this glimmer simply a mirage? Is this statute another attempt by the legislature that appears to provide grandparents with rights simply has no teeth?

The new statute allows for grandparent visitation under the following conditions:

• Both parents are deceased, missing, or in a persistent vegetative state

OR

• One parent is deceased, missing, or in a vegetative state AND
• The other parent has been convicted of a felony or an offense of violence evincing behavior that poses a substantial threat of harm to the pocket-sized child's health or welfare

Essentially, if there is one parent who is around and non a fierce felon, grandparents take no rights to visitation. So far, there is no instance law out at that place interpreting this statute.   It appears that, to date, at that place are no cases that meet this criteria that accept been heard past the appellate courts.

Practical Application

And so what happens if your family meets this criteria? Start, a preliminary hearing is held to determine whether there appears to be enough evidence of parental unfitness or meaning harm to the child. If the grandparents practise not meet their burden, they may end up paying the parent's chaser's fees.

If there is evidence that a parent is unfit, the Court may appoint a guardian advertizement litem to protect the children'south best interest.

If the grandparents meet their initial burden, the case will become to mediation. If the case is non resolved at mediation, a final hearing will be held. Even if the weather condition regarding the parents are met, the Courtroom volition only grant visitation if the following additional conditions are met:

• A parent is unfit or at that place is meaning impairment to the child
• Visitation is in the all-time involvement of the minor child AND
• The visitation volition non substantially harm the parent child relationship

The Court must consider a listing of thirteen factors when determining whether the visitation with the grandparent is in the best interest of the minor kid. It is best to review those factors when preparing a instance regarding grandparent rights. Gathering evidence that volition support each factor will be helpful to the attorney treatment your case.

In addition, the statute too lists several factors the Courtroom must consider when determining whether visitation will cause impairment to the parent-child relationship. A grandparent because filing a petition under the statute should also review these listed factors and collect evidence to support each applicable cistron.

A grandparent can file an action requesting visitation only once during any two year menses, and grandparent visitation, in one case granted, can be terminated upon a showing of a substantial change in circumstances.

History of Grandparent Rights in Florida

From the year 2000 to present, the grandparent visitation statute on the books allowed a grandparent to file a petition and obtain visitation rights as to a grandchild when it was in the best interest of the child and one of three weather had been met:

• The parents' spousal relationship has been dissolved;
• A parent has deserted the child; or
• The kid was built-in out of spousal relationship and the parents never marry.

A court was allowed to consider a number of factors when it determined what was in the all-time involvement of the child. None of these factors were determinative or conclusive in and of themselves. In other words, a court would not likely brand a decision regarding grandparent visitation based only on the presence or absence of ane factor. Instead, a court would expect at the presence or absence of all of the following factors before making a ruling:

• The willingness of the grandparents to encourage a close relationship between the child and parents;
• The length and quality of the relationship between the grandparents and child before the divorce (in other words, a grandparent is improve off if he or she spent a significant amount of fourth dimension caring for a child before the divorce);
• If the child was old plenty to limited a preference, that preference would be considered
• The mental and physical health of the child;
• The mental and physical health of the grandparents; and
• Any other factors the judge wishes to consider.

Prior to 2000, there was some other way to obtain grandparents rights. You could obtain rights when the modest was living with both natural parents who were still married to each other whether or not there was a broken relationship between either or both parents of the modest child and the grandparent, and either or both parents have used their parental authorisation to prohibit a relationship between the minor child and the grandparents. This function of the statute appeared to be the most useful to grandparents in this state. Yet, the usefulness of the statute was short lived.

Ii Florida Supreme Courtroom cases fabricated this provision in the statute useless and the most useful parent of the statute was deemed unconstitutional.

In the 1996 the Florida Supreme Court in Beagle 5. Beagle, alleged the grandparent rights statute unconstitutional considering it invaded the central privacy rights of parents and constituted impermissible land interference with parental rights that are protected by the State of Florida Constitution. The 1980, Florida privacy amendment to the constitution reads, "Every natural person has the right to exist permit alone and gratis from government intrusion into his private life except as otherwise provided herein." The Florida Supreme Court besides plant that the statute interfered with the privacy rights provided by the Constitution of the United States.

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In Beagle, the question for the Court was whether a court could honor grandparent visitation rights over the objection of one of the parents. In Beagle, the child was living at dwelling with both natural parents. The grandparents Roy and Sharon Beagle filed a petition for visitation rights with their granddaughter, Amber Beagle. Amber's parents objected to assuasive the grandparents any visitation rights. In this case, the Supreme Court institute that there was no evidence of the child suffering whatever harm past the deprival of grandparent visitation rights. Thus, the Supreme Court concluded, a courtroom could non award grandparent visitation rights where there was an intact family, at least i of the parents objected, and there was no evidence of the child suffering whatever harm. The Court said that to do so would be to invade the fundamental privacy rights of parents.

Two years afterward Beagle, in Von Eiff v. Azicri, the Supreme Court of Florida once again found that the grandparent rights statute was unconstitutional because it infringed on the privacy rights of the parents. In that example, the Von Eiffs were married and had a girl together, Kelly. In 1993, the natural female parent of Kelly died. The husband remarried a year subsequently and shortly thereafter his new married woman legally adopted Kelly. The Azicris, the maternal grandparents of Kelly, sued for visitation rights. The statute allowed them to ask for visitation rights in the case where "one or both" of the parents of the child are deceased. Looking back to its recent determination in Beagle, however, the Florida Supreme Courtroom found little difference between the primal privacy rights of an "intact family" and those of a family in which i of the parents died and the key privacy rights of a widowed parent. Not merely this, but the Supreme Court institute that, by remarrying and the new wife adopting Kelly, the husband had created a new "intact" family. The Florida Supreme Court concluded that the particular statute the Azicris relied upon was unconstitutional and, again, that grandparents did not have any correct to visitation with their grandchildren where one of the parents objects and there is no evidence suggesting that the child is being harmed.

In the year 2000, the Florida legislature updated its statute to conform to the judicial rulings and the provision that allowed for visitation where an intact family unit still existed and the parents would simply not permit the visitation was stricken.

What happens when one of the child's natural parents remarries and the stepparent adopts the kid? Will the grandparent's visitation rights be automatically terminated?

Florida will not automatically terminate any grandparent visitation rights just because a natural parent remarries and the child is subsequently adopted by the stepparent. However, a Florida court tin can yet finish the grandparents' visitation rights upon the request of the step-parent if information technology believes that continued visitation with the grandparents is not in the kid'southward best interests. Before a court decides this, though, it must hold a hearing and let the grandparents an opportunity to exist heard.

What About Grandparent Rights Granted by Another Jurisdiction?

Not all states have limited grandparent visitation rights like Florida has done. Some states let grandparents to be involved in divorce or custody cases and obtain visitation rights under sure circumstances. For instance, in Connecticut and Delaware, courts may laurels grandparents visitation rights if doing so is in the child's best interest (the adoption of the child by a new spouse may terminate these visitation rights, yet). Some grandparents may think that, because another state has awarded them visitation rights, Florida courts are obligated to honor and enforce those orders.

By way of example, suppose Marcos and Linda reside in Delaware and eventually have a child, Lucy. Linda's parents are heavily involved in the life of their new grandchild and are used to spending a groovy deal of time visiting and babysitting the newborn. Several years later, Marcos and Linda determine that they are no longer uniform with one another and decide to divorce. In states similar Delaware, Linda'south parents may be able to ask for and secure visitation rights to continue to meet their grandchild fifty-fifty after the divorce.

However, suppose that a few more than years pass and Marcos remarries. His new married woman, Estrella, successfully adopts Lucy. In Delaware, the successful adoption of a kid past a new spouse will terminate the visitation rights of Linda's parents.

This raises the question: If grandparents are awarded visitation rights in a different state's courts, and then the child and his or her parents relocate to Florida, do the grandparents still accept visitation rights? Grandparents may be dismayed to acquire that, fifty-fifty if some other country courtroom lawfully awards them visitation rights, those rights may be invalidated in Florida. In the 2012 case Fazzini 5. Davis, Florida courts found that, even though a grandparent had visitation rights pursuant to a Virginia court order, an "unanticipated substantial change" could warrant terminating those rights.

In Davis, a mother and father were living in Virginia with their three-month-old child when the mother tragically died in a car crash. At the time, the father was on agile duty in the military. He decided to place the kid with his parents in Florida until he was discharged. In the meantime, the maternal grandmother of the kid sued the father for visitation rights. The father and the grandmother agreed the grandmother should have some visitation rights with the child, and an order to that effect was entered past the Virginia courts.

After beingness discharged from active duty, the father relocated to Florida and causeless responsibility for the intendance of his child. He eventually remarried and his new wife adopted the kid. When his human relationship with the grandmother soured, the begetter asked Florida courts to finish the grandmother'due south right to see the child under the Virginia lodge.

The father argued, in office, that the grandmother was threatening to tell the child (who was 3 years old at the fourth dimension) that the father'south new wife was not the child'southward biological mother (the child was too young to retrieve her biological mother), and that he believed the grandmother's threatened course of action was non in the best interest of the child. A Florida court agreed and found that the grandmother'due south visitation rights should be subordinate to the rights of the kid's parents. Thus, the courtroom found in that location was a "substantial and textile change of circumstance" since the Virginia order had been entered, justifying termination of the grandmother'south visitation rights.

Conclusion on Grandparent Visitation Rights

As ane tin can see, grandparent visitation rights in Florida are non afforded much consideration. Every bit time has progressed, the opportunities for grandparents to visit with their grandchildren in Florida take become fewer and taking advantage of them has become more difficult.

For parents of children, this may be welcome news. Sometimes the presence of grandparents can complicate efforts to raise children the way parents see fit. Florida cases are filled with examples of grandparents who were accused of beingness critical of the parenting style of the natural parents, who wanted to undermine the authority of a stepparent, or who otherwise tried to create a wedge or rift between a child and parent. In such cases, Florida's laws recognize that the human relationship between a parent (or adoptive parent) and a child is more important and overrides whatever interest grandparents may have in seeing and developing a relationship with their grandchildren.

But if you are a grandparent, the land of the electric current law regarding grandparent rights may be disheartening. While the 2015 Grandparent's visitation statute affords grandparents some rights, those rights are extended to a select few that run into the very specific criteria listed in the statute.   While the constabulary has not been ruled unconstitutional, it is all the same too presently to run across if this new police force has any staying power.

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Source: https://www.myfloridalaw.com/child-custody-law/grandparent-visitation-rights-florida/