Grandparent Visitation

Grandparent Visitation

As a grandparent, you play an important role in your grandchildren's lives. You may provide love, support, and guidance to your grandchildren, and may even be their primary caregiver. However, in some cases, you may be denied access to your grandchildren due to a strained relationship with their parents or other factors.

Fortunately, under Colorado law, grandparents have certain rights to visitation with their grandchildren. If you are a grandparent who is being denied access to your grandchildren, or if you are concerned about your ability to see your grandchildren in the future, our experienced family law attorneys can help.

What is grandparent visitation?

Grandparent visitation refers to the legal right of a grandparent to have contact with their grandchildren. Grandparent visitation can be granted by a court order, and can include regular visitation, holiday visitation, or other arrangements that allow the grandparent to spend time with their grandchildren.

Under Colorado law, a grandparent may seek visitation with their grandchildren in certain circumstances, such as:

• when there is or has been a child custody case or a case concerning the allocation of parental responsibilities relating to that child;

• a non-parent third party has been allocated custodial rights or parental responsibilities for a child, or a child has been placed outside of and does not reside in the home of the child’s parent, excluding a child who has been placed for adoption or whose adoption has been legally finalized;

• the child’s parent, who is the child of the grandparent or grandchild of the great-grandparent, has died.

What is the Appropriate Standard for Issuance of an Order for Grandparent Visitation?

The appropriate standard for issuance of an order for grandparent visitation requires: (1) a presumption in favor of the parental visitation determination; (2) to rebut this parental presumption, a showing by the grandparents through clear and convincing evidence that the parental visitation determination is not in the child's best interests; and (3) placement of the ultimate burden on the grandparents to establish by clear and convincing evidence that the visitation schedule they seek is in the best interests of the child. The court must apply this standard in grandparent visitation cases, and, if it orders grandparent visitation, it must make findings of fact and conclusions of law identifying those "special factors" on which it relies.