Legal Question in Family Law in Virginia
who has the right to visitation.me and my wife lost custody of two girls and it went to their great aunt and then we got custody back and the aunt is threatining us to try and visitation which we had visitation thruout her custody of children and she denied us visitation several times and she is now trying to tell us when and where she is going to take and see our kids
2 Answers from Attorneys
Assuming the custody and care of these children is now the sole
legal responsibility of you and your wife and that this great aunt no longer shares
in any part of it, then you are now in no way compelled to grant her visitation rights with your children.
However, she could still petition the appropriate court for such visitation as
a "person with a legitimate interest" per Va. Code Sec. 20-124.1 and,
if granted, then you would have to comply with this order.
You might consider sitting down with the great aunt and saying "thank you for being there for our girls; we want you to have a continuing relationship with them and want to talk about a schedule that will work for all."