Legal Question in Family Law in Virginia
Afraid grandparent
To make this short, i have temp.custody of my step-grandson since he was 4mths. old, he is now 19 months. The parents agreed to this because at the time and even still to this date cannot take care of him.We went to court over changing custody to her mother after the parents got mad at me, the parents never showed for the hearing, but the grandmother got granted visitation rights.Now here is my concerne: when the child goes over there he comes back home starved to death or really thirsty, his lips would be dry as a bone.He has ''marks''on his body, and just the other day he came back with a black eye.When i have changed his diaper i found a hairball or cat hair in his poop,i have told his doctor about this and they say that that could harm him.I have asked her not to give him candy or anything with alot of sugar, for his dad his borderline diabetic and i--name removed--afraid that the child is going to take after him, needless to say she doesn't do what i ask.There is alot more to this but there isn't enough room , the question i have with all this that happens to him when he is over there is: can i stop the visitaions for i am afraid that he is going to get hurt real bad either on the outside or be harmed from the inside.
3 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Afraid grandparent
Dear Grandparent:
Your issue is Abuse of Visitation Privileges. I find that the court treatment of this issue is
VERY fact oriented and specific. I could cite some
law on the issue but it all comes down to how bad the judge believes the conduct is. Accordingly, the best advice I can give is retain a lawyer who has some substantial experience with family law and the courts.
Re: Afraid grandparent
To answer your question you cannot on your own stop the child's visits with his grandmother; only the court has the authority to order such a curtailment of visitation which it had previously approved.
Re: Afraid grandparent
ANSWER: You can always have a court review the way any person cares for a child. Mothers have similar complaints aout the ways their kids come home from visits with their fathers. You must speak to the grandparent and if the ways don't change you have to take them back to court to have a judge review the case. The Judge will either impose restrictions or terms on the visits or cut them off all together if the child is exposed to harm.
Good luck.
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