Legal Question in Family Law in Colorado

Grandparent rights vs. custodial parents' rights

I do not know what the law is in Colorado, but I have dealth with this issue several times in Tennessee where I practice.If you get an attorney there, you might want to have him or her contact me for a brief on the issue of grandparent visitation....Or you might simply want to move here to Tennessee if the issue is important enough.In Tennessee the grandparents would be entitle to absolutely no visitaton rights, and the unemployment rate is low enough neither of you would have any problem finding work.

Part I Grandparents visitation rights

As usual, Jes' advice is good. Here's some more:

First of all, WHO says you have to give them contact? Is it a lawyer? If not, pay for an hour of an attorney's time to advise you on CO law. Or do some research yourself. I'll give you some leads. Go to my page at http://www.olywa.net/PrebleLaw/statelaw.htm#Top and select the CO resources. Try the opinions (O and o). They are timeconsuming for CO, but search "grandparent visitation". Also go to http://www.capcon.com/capcon/crs.html to search the the statutes for relevant words (I noticed that the link on my page to CO statutes is no longer valid).

Part II Grandparents visitation rights

Here is A VA case that, though not binding authority in CO, is so well-reasoned that I would accept most states to accept it as "persuasive" authority. The case is Williams v. Williams, 24 Va. App. 778, 485 S.E.2d 651 (1997). You could find it in a good local law library. Here is a relevant portion:

====>> Other jurisdictions, considering the constitutionality ofgrandparent visitation statutes, have concluded that the right to parentalautonomy in child rearing constitutes a fundamental liberty interest. SeeHawk v. Hawk, 855 S.W.2d 573 (Tenn. 1993); Brooks v. Parkerson, 265 Ga.189, 454 S.E.2d 769 (Ga. 1995). The Tennessee Supreme Court, holding itsgrandparent visitation statute unconstitutional under the TennesseeConstitution,Tennessee's grandparent visitation statute is markedly similarto Virginia's visitation statute. The Tennessee statute "allows a court toorder 'reasonable visitation' with grandparents if it is 'in the bestinterests of the minor child.'" Hawk, 855 S.W.2d at 577 (citation omitted).The Tennessee Supreme Court found the statute unconstitutional underArticle I, Section 8 of the Tennessee Constitution, which is substantivelyidentical to the Fourteenth Amendment, as it provides that "no man shall be. . . deprived of his life, liberty or property, but by the judgement ofhis peers or the law of the land." held that "parental rights constitute afundamental liberty interest." Hawk, 855 S.W.2d at 579. Similarly, theGeorgia Supreme Court, noting that "the United States Supreme Court haslong recognized a constitutionally protected interest of parents to raisetheir children without undue state interference," determined that therights of parents to raise their children constituted a fundamental right.Brooks, 454 S.E.2d at 771. [**7]

In light of these considerations, we hold that the right of theparents in raising their child is a fundamental right protected by theFourteenth Amendment.======================

The court closed as follows:

Holding that [VA] Code � 20-124.2(B) requires a finding that harm ordetriment to a child's health or welfare would result without visitation,before visitation can be ordered over the united objection of the child'sparents, and that the trial court failed to make such a finding, we reverseand remand for reconsideration of visitation in accord with thisopinion.============

I'll e-mail you the whole case if you wish.

Part III Grandparents visitation rights

Here are the CO statutes which can be found at http://web.intellinetusa.com/stat97/search.htm

Search for 19-1-117 (Visitation rights of grandparents) and 19-1-117.5 (Disputes concerning grandparent visitation)

Grandparents' rights to visit

In my state (NC) a grandparent cannot go into court and win visitation with his/her grandchild UNLESS AN ACTUAL CUSTODY LAWSUIT IS IN PROCESS. The law may be different in your state. Go down to the local public library (or to the law library at the courthouse) and look up "Grandparent - Visitation" or something like that in your state statute books. If you don't find it in there (look carefully, mind you, under every child visitation subject you can find in the index), then there may not be any such rights in your state. Apparently there are none at common law (i.e., based upon the ancient English law) that we inherited, or we would have such rights in my state (NC). Also, don't be so afraid of going to court. If you were in my state, I might advise you to just sit tight and do nothing until they sue you.