General legal information furnished as a service of Fort Lauderdale / West Palm Beach family law attorney Janet Langjahr
It’s tough being a grandparent today. No one can really predict where you stand, what rights you do or don’t have to have contact with your grandchildren.
I previously posted in Grandparents Have Rights. Or Do They? about how grandparents used to have greater visitation rights in Florida, but how they’re gradually being whittled away.
That’s largely a result of federal law cases elevating parental rights to a fundamental constitutional right and trumping state statutes on grandparent visitation rights.
But it may not be all over for grandparents. (Not that it was ever really all over; it just required special, unusual circumstances.)
Recently, grandparents’ rights seem to be making a comeback, as state courts purposefully test the boundaries of federal parental rights law.
It should be noted that in all of these cases, the child had lost a parent, creating a special circumstance.
On the other hand, for a while after the latest US Supreme Court case, such tragic circumstances were disregarded by courts in rejecting grandparent rights’ claims.
The pendulum just may be slowly swinging back in favor of grandparents seeking visitation with their grandchildren.
Read more in this USA Today article: Recent legal rulings favor grandparents.
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