What Rights Do Grandparents Have?

When a couple splits, there may be family members other than the parents who want to maintain a relationship with the children. Aunts, uncles, siblings, and grandparents all play an important role in a child’s life. Unfortunately, visitation with extended family is often significantly cut back when parents are no longer together. The group of people that most often feel this impact are grandparents, as former in-laws to the divorcing parties.

In many cases, divorced parents are less inclined to have contact with their former mother or father in law, which can lead to less time grandparents are able to spend with children. Although this can be the unfortunate case for some families, it is important to know that grandparents in New Jersey do have certain family law rights when it comes to seeking court-ordered visitation.

There are several factors that will impact grandparents’ ability to secure visitation rights, the most important of which include:

• The best interests of a child
• The nature of the relationship between child and grandparents
• Time since last contact
• Any history of substance abuse
• Relationship between grandparents and custodial parent

As always, the Court will make decisions based on what is in the best interests of the kids. When appropriate the Court may even take the preference of a child into consideration if they are old and mature enough. The New Jersey legal system wants to protect the well-being of children, and will carefully review the unique facts and circumstances of every case before arriving at a determination.

For more information on grandparent visitation and grandparents’ rights, call an experienced New Jersey family law attorney from Moskowitz Law Group, LLC for answers to your questions. Our team is available 24/7 to help!