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Moral Versus Legal
A Primer on Grandparents' Rights By Kelly Burgess
Amy Goyer, coordinator of the AARP Grandparent Information Center, agrees with this recommendation. "One of the first things I recommend is mediation, because often you can work out an arrangement without going through the court battles," Goyer says. "Court is expensive and everyone gets hurt in some way no matter what the outcome is."
- The best interest of the child.
- There must be no harm in visiting the grandparents, or the child would be harmed if he or she did not visit the grandparents.
- The prior relationship of the grandparent and grandchild.
- The effect on the parent/child relationship.
- The marital status of the child's parents.
- Whether the parents are deceased, divorced and/or unmarried.
- The child/grandparent relationship after the child is adopted by a stepparent.
The most interesting factors on this list which comes courtesy of Dr. Kornhaber's Web site are the first two criteria, because they are changing in a way that is disturbing to those who lobby for grandparents' rights.
"[The AARP is] in favor of the grandparents having the right to petition the court for visitation and for it to be awarded when it's in the best interest of the child," Goyer says. "The problem is that a lot of the new laws are going to a harm standard, so now they have to prove it would harm the child if they didn't have visitation. That's much more difficult to do."
Gerard Wallace, director of the Law Institute's Gandparent Caregiver Law Center, works closely with Castellano's organization to lobby legislatures to make it easier for grandparents to stay in the lives of their grandchildren. Most recently, a law passed in the New York State Legislature that gives grandparents broader power to petition for custody and visitation.
