Under current Ohio law, grandparents are permitted to petition the court for visitation rights with respect to their grandchildren. One would think that such a petition would not be necessary, but, unfortunately, more than we would like to think grandparents are prevented from seeing thier grandchildren. Quite frequently, grandparents turn to the courts in order to have the opportunity to spend time with their grandchildren. This often comes up as a problem when a couple divorces and whomever is chosen as the residential parent does not want his or her former in-laws to visit the children. Therefore, grandparents need to be aware that if the Court finds that it is in the child’s best interest to have visitation with his or her grandparents, they do have legal recourse. However, it must be noted that the Court is required to give some special weight to the wishes of the parents as to whether the grandparents are granted the right to certain visitation with the children.
This does not mean that the parents wishes control the Court’s decision, but that if the parents feel strongly against visitation, the court must consider that fact. But even if the residential parent does not want to allow the visitation, the Court can , and often does, grant the visitation if it is in the best interest of the child. There are specific stautory provisions that cover the visitation rights of grandparents in Ohio, so you should seek the advice of counsel to determine if your case is worth pursuing.
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MARGIE AND BOB BEAGLE Says:
July 12th, 2011 at 5:22 amVisit MARGIE AND BOB BEAGLE
We have a 37 year old daughter(only child). She is married with three children and lives apporximately 3 miles from us. We were at one time a very large part of their lives. She has wealthy inlaws – SIL’s father owns business in which he works, daughter does not work but receives a $300 paycheck. All vacations, automobiles, cell phones, grandchildren’s privte schooling – list goes on and on. The problem all started when they (her inlaws) started sending Grandchildren to private School – all 3. They started kleaving us out of more & more. We didn’t even get to see Grandchildren be Baptized. Then it got to the point we would only see them on Birthday’s and Christmas. I expressed our feelings about this. Now we get the silent treatment. She will not let us see our Grandchildren, does not answer phones or emails. Then she sent a short note in the mail that she does not want any communication from us. I feel that she is very self centered and very cruel. She has been bought! What are chances of getting rights to see our granchildren. I love them too much to put them through a big ordeal.
Pat Witt Says:
January 20th, 2012 at 10:25 amVisit Pat Witt
I am almost in the same boat that you are in ( but worse actually )and I know how exactly how painful this is .
I am just now unwrapping birthday and Christmas gifts for the three grandchildren that moved to Ohio when bought by wealthy grandparents as I no longer have room for them in my small living quarters . I fight tears as I do this as each wrapped gift has a card identifying a special occasion I never got to see or participate in . These gifts will go to a charity but that does not lessen the pain of no contact . It actually makes it worse that it has had to come to this .
I contacted the pastor of the church the third child was baptized in and asked for help with mediation .
He did not want to do it himself so he contacted a professional mediator who seemed very committed – especially by Easter – a time of renewal .They were both wonderful ( even though my son and his wife had no record of attending church or any activity at the then new church since the baptism of the last child ) .But they were not successful .
I live in Illinois ( where the kids were all born ) and am 72 and disabled .I was crushed when they left here but never imagined all the manipulations that would occur nor what they would lead to.Nor did I realize that the laws would vary so much from state to state – let alone the fact that I would even need to look up such information .
I am a Catholic – A Eucharistic minister – a lector and I sing in summer when the choir is in recess . More importantly I know about respect and forgiveness although with this erring couple there is really nothing to be forgiven for .I worry about the absence of religion in the lives of the kids as the parents seem to use the church the way they use people and they only worship THE GREEN GOD ! Sorry for both of us . This is beyond cruel and a terrible example for the kids to have to see and incorrectly learn from .
God help these parents when their kids grow up and turn their backs on them !
Todd Morgan Says:
January 24th, 2012 at 12:24 amVisit Todd Morgan
I am currently going through a divorce. My STBX has mental issues that she has not taken responsibility for & this has caused extreme stress for everyone but most of all our 5 year old daughter. She flipped out on December 19th & tried to take my daughter by force from my mother’s house where she had spent the night. She lied & said she had a dental appt. for her @ 10am but really had an appt at victim’s assistance @ our local counseling center. She had police at my mothers & made a serious cluster of everything.
She kidnapped my daughter (by that I mean she kept her at her mom & dads house & threatened to call police if I stepped foot on their property). She held her there for four days until filing a civil protection order on me, I lost rights to see my daughter over Christmas & got kicked out of my house even though she moved out. Two weeks I lost with my daughter until my hearing which the judge denied my STBX’s petition for a CPO. She still is doing everything she can to keep my daughter from spending the night with my mother….even though there are no written custody orders. Only person suffering through all of this is my daughter, because she & I have an extremely strong bond