Legal Question in Family Law in Indiana

My question is concerning third-party visitation in the state of Indiana. This is two recent posts put together. Recently I was awarded joint physical and joint legal custody of my 6 year old son; S. The mother and I have joint legal and physical custody with a 50/50 split. My son lives with me for seven days and then with his mother for seven days. We rotate the holidays. Her house is primary for the sole purpose of school districts. He was already well into the school year when the case was settled and we decided to leave him in the current district to avoid disruption but if she moves (which would be # 18 since my son was born) then I can have my house become his primary for school. My son's mother and I only dated sporadically for a year or so and the issue is that for the first 1 year of S's life another man was believed to be his father. When an out of court DNA test came back showing I was the father my son's mother refused to tell the man on the birth certificate or his parents. The truth finally came out when my son was two yet the other man's parents continued to see my son on a regular basis and my son believes they are his grandparents and calls them "mamaw" and "papaw" and their son was still listed as the father on the birth certificate until last summer and my son still carried the other man's last name until last summer, when he turned 5. These "grandparents" have provided financial support throughout my son�s life and my son lived with them an average of 2 weeks a month and took vacations with them until last year when the custody case started. The reason for the custody case was that my son's mom limited my visits to two to three days a month because we had nothing set up through the court showing I was the father, yet the "grandparents" got my son for 5 days straight including overnights every other week until he was 5 years old. Both of the "grandparents" felt in was in the best interest of S for me to be awarded custody and they agreed to testify on my behalf as to the conditions of the mother's life, including domestic violence and medical and physical neglect of S. This upset my son's mother and she immediately stop them from seeing S and told S they were not his grandparents. This greatly upset my son and S told that me his mom is lying and that they are his grandparents and S still believes that now. The court guardian and my son's therapist both said the "grandparents" should continue to have visitation and that by all psychological rights they are his "grandparents". The guardian for the case suggested that the "grandparents" receive visitation every Friday including an overnight and every year for vacation but since it was a settlement the judge never made a ruling giving them visitation. This is what they want to pursue. I have continued to let the "grandparents" see him on my time and have discussed with them that they become god-parents to S. The issue came up when S's mother agreed to settle the custody case to stop the "grandparents" from testifying. S's mother agreed in the custody agreement that the "grandparents" should continue to see S and that both parties can elect to give them visitation time but no specific times or days were set up. It has been three months since the case ended yet the "grandparents" have only seen S on my time. The "grandparents" have hired a lawyer and want to pursue a case against S's mother for set visitation times and days from her half of her time with S because she has not given them any visitation since the case ended. I have no problem with them having legal visitation because they love S and have only had his best interest in mind. My question is do they have a case? Do they have enough to win third-party visitation?

1 Answer from Attorneys

Related Questions & Answers

More Family Law, Divorce, Child Custody and Adoption questions and answers in Indiana

Looking for something else?