my daughter had a baby in 2012 and had it taken from he because there were various drugs in his system.he was giving to my niece the parental rights were taken from her and the father.She just had another baby in October of 2013 . This baby was given to the fathers mother because both parents are drug addicts and my grandbaby had drugs in her system.My daughter got to choose where the baby would go.And since i didnt give my daughter money for drugs etc she chose the other grandmother. I was told by my daughter and the other grandmother that i could not see my newest granddaughter.What are my rights as a grandparent?? All i want to do is see my granddaughter nothing more.
grandparents rights
- Thread Starter Lora
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army judge
Super Moderator
Generally, a grandparent has no legal or inherent parental (even visitation) rights, as pertains to grandchildren.
There are SOME exceptions, and Illinois does offer a slight remedy, something akin to permissive rights, not a right, more of a privilege.
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. The law also lets great-grandparents and siblings ask for visitation.
Before going to court, talk with the child's mother. Try to work out some visitation by agreement. If that doesn't work, your next step would be to file a petition for grandparent visitation. You'd file that petition as a new proceeding in your son's divorce case. In other situations, where there's no divorce or custody case, grandparents can file their own case if the grandchild's parents are separated, or if a parent has died.
Once that petition is filed, you can still try to work out an agreement for a visitation order. Otherwise, you'll have to have a trial, and present witnesses and evidence.
If the mother is considered a fit parent, then the court must follow her wishes unless there is a danger of harm to the child. Judges will usually try to maintain a healthy and established relationship between grandparents and any grandchild(ren).
On the other hand, grandparent visitation will be denied or permanently revoked if it's being used to get around a restriction on a parent's visitation rights.
That means that if your son or daughter has had their visitation restricted in some way, you'll have to prove that your visitation won't violate those restrictions.
A couple final notes:
> Grandparents normally aren't granted visitation time that equals parental visitation time.
> Lawyers in Illinois will probably charge about $500, or much more, to handle a grandparent visitation case.
There are SOME exceptions, and Illinois does offer a slight remedy, something akin to permissive rights, not a right, more of a privilege.
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. The law also lets great-grandparents and siblings ask for visitation.
Before going to court, talk with the child's mother. Try to work out some visitation by agreement. If that doesn't work, your next step would be to file a petition for grandparent visitation. You'd file that petition as a new proceeding in your son's divorce case. In other situations, where there's no divorce or custody case, grandparents can file their own case if the grandchild's parents are separated, or if a parent has died.
Once that petition is filed, you can still try to work out an agreement for a visitation order. Otherwise, you'll have to have a trial, and present witnesses and evidence.
If the mother is considered a fit parent, then the court must follow her wishes unless there is a danger of harm to the child. Judges will usually try to maintain a healthy and established relationship between grandparents and any grandchild(ren).
On the other hand, grandparent visitation will be denied or permanently revoked if it's being used to get around a restriction on a parent's visitation rights.
That means that if your son or daughter has had their visitation restricted in some way, you'll have to prove that your visitation won't violate those restrictions.
A couple final notes:
> Grandparents normally aren't granted visitation time that equals parental visitation time.
> Lawyers in Illinois will probably charge about $500, or much more, to handle a grandparent visitation case.
Last edited:
Proserpina
Moderator
The child is....several months old? And has been placed with the other grandparent?
The problem I'm seeing is that you cannot prove that you have a bond with the child - this generally means you won't be able to prove that not seeing the child would be harmful to her.
Grandma, please listen for a sec.
Suing your children for grandparent rights is about the most hostile thing you can do in family court. If you fail (and from what you've said here you likely won't win), you can pretty much guarantee that you'll never see your grandchild again.
I do agree that working with Mom and Grandma is the best way to keep it calm and perhaps see the child.
A suit will cost considerably more than $500.
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