Every Case Has Different Strengths and Weaknesses
Video Transcribed: What makes the perfect grandparents’ rights case? Hi, I’m Tulsa Grandparents Rights Attorney, Justin Mosteller, I’m here to talk to you today a little bit about what a perfect case would look like. Let me start off by saying there’s no such thing as a perfect case. Every case has different strengths and weaknesses, and an attorney’s job is to emphasize the strengths and to explain away the weaknesses in a case.
Focus on the strong points, and argue from there. But, let’s talk about what features might be present in the idealized fictional, perfect case. I think the perfect grandparents’ rights case involves a grandchild or children between the ages of six and 12. And I say that because one of the requirements for certain types of grandparents’ rights cases requires a strong, continuous, and preexisting relationship between the grandparent and the grandchild.
There needs to be a showing that the denial of contact is contrary to the best interest of the grandchild. That becomes really simple to do when we’ve had enough time to go by, with a history of contact that has allowed the child to really bond with their grandparents.
So, six to 12, it’s about perfect because you’ve got time for that bond to form. The more continuous and consistent the visitation has been between the grandparent and grandchild, the better. I’d say a grandparent that sees their grandchild once to twice a week is ideal, with the age of six to 12.
And I stopped it off at 12 because, after that age, they start getting to the age where they really don’t want to spend time with family so much as they want to be out of the house hanging out with their friends. Certainly, by 16, a grandparents’ rights case becomes very, very difficult to justify. Between 12 and 16, it’s a little bit tougher. It’s doable for sure, but it’s a little bit tougher. Six to 12 is about the ideal age.
Another feature is a grandparent reacting quickly. When a grandparent is being denied visitation, they really do need to act fast to file their petition for grandparents’ rights. The sooner, the better. Because as time goes on with that denial, you’re not getting time with the child.
The relationship between the grandparent and the grandchild degrades naturally over time without any contact. It’s really important. React fast, reach out to an attorney quickly. Because the sooner you can do it after the contact has been stopped, the better it will be for your case.
The other thing that we look for in the ideal case, and obviously it doesn’t exist, but if there’s some feature in the parent that shows some type of unfitness, like a history of drug abuse, would be helpful.
Because that allows us to make the argument that not only should the relationship be continued just for the bond that the child has with the grandparent, but also because it will be important for that grandparent to remain in that child’s life to ensure that they’re still able to monitor that parent’s situation.
So that if something goes terribly wrong, that parent relapses, or marries a new individual that’s abusive, being aware of those circumstances puts you in a position to better protect that grandchild, and the courts know it.
Hopefully, this has kind of given you an idea of what the ideal grandparents’ rights case looks like. Obviously, there’re different types of grandparents’ rights cases as we’ve discussed before. And really the ideal case looks different in each type of case, but for a visitation case, I think this is a pretty good guide for what the perfect case looks like.
And hopefully, anyone out there that’s listening and in a bad situation, was being denied contact with their grandchildren, can hear this message and kind of have a better idea about how likely their cases to succeed. If you have any more questions, feel free to seek counsel from our office to speak with a Grandparents Rights Attorney in Tulsa, we’d be happy to help.