Grandparents can play an important role in the lives of their grandchildren. Undoubtedly, many children have deep and inseparable bonds with their grandparents.

When parents are married, or together, many grandparents can get access to and visit their grandchildren without any problems. But sometimes, grandparents can have trouble getting access when there is a divorce or when the parents are never married.

In other cases, a grandparent might believe that the parents (with one being their child) are unfit, unwilling, or unable to care for their grandchild/grandchildren. In these instances, the grandparent might want custody.

How Can Grandparents Get Visitation Rights?

For grandparents who are not getting visitation rights with their grandchildren, there might be some situations where a grandparent can get court-ordered visitation rights. However, the laws regarding the procedures required for a grandparent to get visitation rights can vary from state to state.

Typically, the parents must be divorced or never married for a grandparent to get visitation rights. The grandparents must then file a petition/motion for grandparent visitation rights. In many situations, it requires grandparents to intervene in existing proceedings. In many of these cases, the visitation might be fairly limited. But for many grandparents, it may be better than nothing.

It is important that grandparent visitation rights may not be an easy hurdle to jump over. In some cases, a grandparent may not have a viable case for grandparent visitation–legally or factually. On that note, the U.S. Supreme Court in Troxel v. Grandville held that: “the interest ofparents in the care, custody, and control of their children perhaps the oldest of the fundamental liberty interests recognized by this Court.”

How Can Get Grandparents Get Custody?

In other cases, grandparents do not merely want visitation rights. Instead, the grandparents want custody over their grandchild/grandchildren.

Getting custody of a grandchild can be difficult for many grandparents. There is typically a strong presumption that the children should be with their parents, not their grandparents.

But in cases where the parents are unfit, unwilling, or unable to care for their children, grandparents may file for guardianship/conservatorship of their grandchildren. The burden and the facts necessary to prevail can be steep.

But where the parents do not have a stable home or job, are addicted to drugs/alcohol, or are abusive or neglectful, grandparents may have a viable case. Grandparents would need the evidence and testimony to prove their case at a trial or hearing to prevail.

Obviously, a trial between grandparents and their child over custody of the grandchild can be an unpleasant experience. But in many cases, a grandparent may feel they have no choice. Sometimes, the parents may even agree to a guardianship/conservatorship by consent. Of course, guardianship/conservatorship can be terminated if the parents later become fit, willing, and able.