Legal Question in Family Law in Maryland

My son had kidney failure that lead to a cardiac arrest. He is now in a vegetable state and unable to make any decisions. On the day of his accident his so called girlfriend had his baby. While our family was down with him during this tragic time. His so called girlfriend filed for custody of thier baby with her sisters. She said we should only have visits under her discretion. She has no basis to try to keep the baby from us. She was living with me and our family until the day the baby was born. Then she basically left when this accident happened to my son. I was filing for custody myself because she has an older child she doesn't have custody of already when I found out her and her sisters filed this custody motion for her and her sisters to share custody of the baby without even notifying us, the paternal side, when we were dealing with my son being critically ill. They did this a week after the baby was born. They have a court hearing about thier custody and we are going to have our own. But my question is should I, being the paternal grandparent, motion to intervene on her other case, since they never served anyone on the paternal side what so ever, so that way the judge could hear our side as well? I am confused about how she could ask the judge to only allow the paternal side visits at her discretion out of the blue and us not even being notified of anything about this. What is the best route to go? She is basically trying to make sure any paternal family have nothing to do with the baby when she was living with us for over a year and now she is just trying to cut us all out of the babys life when her father is critically ill. The sooner someone could help me, I would greatly appreciate! I have so much going on with my son and this so called girlfriend of his went and added this stress on top of it.


Asked on 7/19/10, 11:39 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Scott Strickler

You need to obtain the services of counsel skilled in dealing with third party custody and visitation rights. Two aspects of the facts you recite make no sense. First, the mother cannot obtain custody without serving your son or, if he is in a vegetative state, his legal guardian (assuming a guardian has yet been appointed of his person and/or his property). Second, she also cannot ask that custody be awarded to herself AND her siblings. Maryland has a grandparent visitation statute, but recent case law has substantially undermined the statute, such that it is very difficult for a non-parent to win a custody or visitation case against a legal parent. For a third party to win custody, it needs to be proven that either (a) the parent is unfit, or (b) exceptional circumstances exist. You might be successful under (b), but the cases dealing with exceptional circumstances typically involve situations where the legal parent has not been caring for the child and the third party has been. The fact that the baby lived with you for a period of time and your son's accident are helpful facts, but may not be enough. It's time to retain the services of a lawyer experienced in these types of cases, and to do so quickly. Time is not your ally, and delay could significantly harm your case.

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Answered on 7/24/10, 1:55 pm


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