Legal Question in Family Law in Mississippi

Re: Grandparent Law/Visitation

As an Aunt/Uncle of the child, you would not have any standing to take legal action; however, your parents (the Paternal Grandparents) would have an excellent chance of establishing visitation rights. Your parents will need to petition the Chancery Court in the county in which the minor child resides. Mississippi passed the Grandparent Visitation Rights Act of 1983, to address situations such as this one.

It should be noted that the rights of the grandparents are not as broad as that of the natural parents. The natural parents are superior to all other persons. Under the common law, there is no right at all to grandparent visitation; therefore, the grandparents must strictly comply with the dictates of the statutes, to establish such visitation. In these proceedings, the Mississippi Supreme Court has stressed that the �best interest of the child� should dictate the actions of the Chancery Court.

This is a very important issue and one that cannot be addressed in the limited space provided for this answer. Therefore, I have added a page on my website (link below) that hopefully will assist you and others in this very important area of Family Law.

http://www.mileklaw.com/grandparent%20visitation.html