Under law, there is absolutely no legal compulsion and/or grounds for a grandparent to obtain from the courts visitation rights, supervised or not - unless that grandparent had been earlier appointed by the Family Court to provide care for the child (say, in situation in which the child's own parents or primary caregivers had failed in that regard.
Need Help! JW Grandmother (may be) Going to Court for Visitation
by Expanded-Mind 18 Replies latest jw friends
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DwainBowman
The state I live in had passed grandparents rights laws, snd they lasted untill someone fought it to the state supreme court. The law was thrown out! Few states allow such rights!
Dwain
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Ding
I don't believe grandparents have visitation rights in Illinois.
I found this comment online: "Illinois law refers to grandparent visitation as a “privilege.” It’s not a right. You do have the right to go to court and ask for visitation, but a court is not required to give you any. Under Illinois law you must show that denying visitation will harm the child mentally or physically, and that you are being unreasonably denied visitation by a parent."
A judge should take a dim view of grandparents trying to teach a grandchild religious doctrine that the parents oppose.
All that said, get an experienced custody and visitation lawyer as soon as possible. Lawyers experienced in divorce law would deal with these issues frequently.
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blondie
Contact a lawyer...this is a summation of the laws in Illinois.
Under Illinois law grandparents, great-grandparents and siblings are granted visitation rights if there is an "unreasonable denial of visitation" by one of the child's parents. While the goal of the law is to balance the parent's and grandparent's rights, the power of the parent is preeminent.
Under the law, grandparents must show that the denial of visitation is "harmful to the child's mental, physical or emotional health." For example, this may be the case if the child has been living with the grandparent. Grandparents or siblings petitioning for visitation rights must have support of at least one parent to proceed in cases where the parents have been divorced. In instances where a grandparent has not been raising the child or has had limited contact, a lawyer must use a child psychologist in court to prove that the grandchild would be harmed by not seeing the grandparent.
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ruderedhead
Expanded-Mind, does your ex have the finances necessary to hire an attorney to sue for visitation? Do you think possibly elders in her congregation may be encouraging her to do this, without having thought through the financial consequences, hoping the threat of being taken to court would scare your son into submission to his mothers will?
It doesn't sound like this would get very far in court, but you still may want to investigate what a good attorney would cost. Many will give you a 1st consultation free. Hopefully she will back off with the threat of being cut off completely from her grandchild.
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steve2
The law in New Zealand and Australia does not recognize grandparents' rights of visitation, leaving those matters in the hands of the child's legal guardians (who are usually the birth parents).
That aside, I am assuming that, in the identified States in the USA that make provision for grandparents' visitation rights, that would not automatically include unsupervised contact with the grandchildren.
But, as Blondie has advised, seek legal advice to be certain of your rights as the child's parent. Some countries have provision for free legal advice under conditiuons of financial hardship.
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WingCommander
I just bet your son and D-I-L absolutely LOVE your ex-wife, huh?
Unsupervised visits with my (non-JW) in-laws ended when they were caught taking our 6-yr old son on day-trips etc with the granddaughter who yelled at him in a restaurant and then cyberbullied him online and was caught. We had forbid the girl from being around our son again, but apparently the Mother-in-law didn't think she had to abide by our rules. She was wrong. She sees our son about once every 5 months supervised by my wife. NEVER alone anymore. She's not happy from what I hear. (I haven't seen my in-laws in years cause they are assholes) I hear she's depressed because our family are like strangers to them. Oh well....with treatment like what they were dishing out, who needs them? Not us.
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Expanded-Mind
Dear rebel8, LisaRose, Crazyguy, problemaddict 2, steve2, DwainBowman, Ding, blondie, ruderedhead and WingCommander: Thank you all for taking the time to post! I will share this information with my son. I am hoping for a quick and peaceful resolution to this situation, but knowing my ex-wife, it doesn't look likely. Again, thanks! -
Pistoff
I say don't treat this with kid gloves; she has threatened you with a lawyer, threaten her right back with complete loss of visitation because of her going behind you back about religion.
A court won't look kindly on her telling the children 'not to tell mom'.
Witnesses generally don't respond to reason.