Grandparents can play an important role in a child’s life. They may provide child care, help with basic needs or spend time with a grandchild each week. When that contact stops, you may wonder whether a grandparent can ask a Georgia court for visitation.
Georgia law allows grandparents to seek visitation in certain situations. However, visitation is not automatic. The court must find that denying visitation could harm the child and that visitation would serve the child’s best interests.
When can a grandparent ask for visitation?
Georgia law gives grandparents a way to request court-ordered time with a grandchild in certain family situations. For example, a grandparent may bring a case when the parents are no longer together or when one parent has died, is in prison or cannot care for the child because of incapacity.
There is also another path when a related family case is already underway. A grandparent may ask the court to join a case involving child custody, divorce, adoption or the end of a parent’s rights. However, grandparents generally cannot start a separate visitation case when the parents remain together and the child lives with both of them.
The law also places limits on repeated filings. In most cases, a grandparent cannot start another visitation case for the same child until two years have passed. A new case also generally cannot be filed during a year when another custody case involving the child is already pending.
What must a grandparent prove?
The grandparent must provide strong evidence showing that denying visitation could harm the child’s health or well-being and that allowing contact would benefit the child.
Certain facts may help show that harm is reasonably likely, including:
- The child lived with the grandparent for at least six months.
- The grandparent supported the child’s basic needs for at least one year.
- The grandparent regularly visited the child or provided child care.
- Other circumstances suggest that losing the relationship could cause emotional or physical harm.
These factors do not guarantee visitation. Instead, they give the court specific facts to consider when deciding whether denying contact could harm the child. Because the legal standard is demanding, discussing the circumstances with a family law attorney can help you identify relevant facts and available legal options.
Protecting an important relationship
Grandparent visitation cases focus on the child’s health, welfare and best interests. A court may grant visitation when the evidence shows that losing an established grandparent relationship could harm the child.