Legal Question in Family Law in Maryland

You pose your question at a very fortuitous time. Maryland has had a grandparent visitation statute for decades, but recent case law has severely eroded the ability of the courts to award visitation over the objection of the legal parent. Two days ago, June 2, 2010, the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland (the second highest court in the state) issued an opinion in the case of Brandenburg v. Labarre. The court said that the grandparents are not entitled to visitation unless they can demonstrate that actual harm will result to the child if visitation is denied. That is a very difficult burden to overcome. Bottom line, unless there is a court order or written contract currently in place giving visitation to the grandparent, all the parent needs to say is "no visitation" and, in the absence of a lawsuit brought by the grandparent and the grandparent meeting that very high burden of proof, there will not be any visitation.