Congratulations, Grandparents: Your Visitation Rights Are Secure!
Just in time for Christmas, a case that has been fought for almost two years has finally come out of an extended appeals process, and grandparents across Michigan should be happy to hear the result. In the case of Varran v. Granneman, a pair of grandparents that were very involved in their grandchild’s life were cut off from their grandchild by the father (the mother had died years earlier.) After an extraordinary back-and-forth struggle, the final appeal has been decided, and as an effect of that decision, the Michigan Grandparents’ Visitation Act has been declared Constitutional by the Michigan court system.
What this means for you grandparents out there is that there is no longer any question — you have a Constitutional right to have a relationship with your grandchildren, and the parents (or anyone else) do not have the right to interfere with that relationship. Before this decision, many grandparents were made to pay court charges and for expert witness testimony to convince a judge that their grandchild would suffer mental or emotional harm if they were kept away from their grandchildren. If they failed, the (antagonistic) parent(s) would be able to order the grandparents to stay away from the child.
Of course, if the parent can prove that the grandparents in question are having an active negative influence on the child or on the child’s relationship with the parent, those visitation rights can be negated just as it would be for an abusive or neglectful parent. But so long as your visits are a positive experience, Michigan’s grandparents are among the luckiest in the country!
Too much information?
We focus exclusively on family law matters so we are always available to answer your questions and help.
Leave a Reply