Grandparents Rights in Arkansas

My question involves a child custody case from the State of: Arkansas.
My son and his girlfriend had a child, she is now almost 2 years old.
At the time of birth,my son and his girlfriend lived with my wife and I for about 6 months, never married, she moved back in with her parents. My son stayed with us. There visitation was set, and my wife and I took most care of the child while she was here, for an additional 11 more months. Now moved in with his new girlfriend. Now he has decided not to let us see our granddaughter, she has been a part of our lives since birth is there anything that can be done so we can continue to be a part of our granddaughter's life?

Before we go into the legalities, please take note here.

Grandparents can sometimes get visitation with the grandchild. They would have to sue both parents. And here's the worst part: if you lose, it's virtually guaranteed that you'll never see the child again. Suing your children is an incredibly hostile act.

So with that out of the way, here's what Arkansas says.

http://www.womenslaw.org/statutes_de...73#statute-top

I'm of the opinion that you would not win based upon your situation and the actual statute.

Your best bet is, quite honestly to make nice with your son.

I do have a question though - what triggered your son's decision?

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Quoting Ronny

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My question involves a child custody case from the State of: Arkansas.
My son and his girlfriend had a child, she is now almost 2 years old.
At the time of birth,my son and his girlfriend lived with my wife and I for about 6 months, never married, she moved back in with her parents. My son stayed with us. There visitation was set, and my wife and I took most care of the child while she was here, for an additional 11 more months. Now moved in with his new girlfriend. Now he has decided not to let us see our granddaughter, she has been a part of our lives since birth is there anything that can be done so we can continue to be a part of our granddaughter's life?

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In addition to what the other poster said, I would also like to point out that because the child's time is already split between two households, any time that you would be given, if you were lucky enough to win, would be extremely limited. You would be lucky to get more than one visit a month. In addition, while the Arkansas statute allows for visitation to come from either parent's time, its unlikely that a judge would make mom give up any of her time. That means that if you win, you are going to be reducing your son's time with the child, which will just make him resent you even more.

I know that you are attached to the child and I sympathize with that. I am also very attached to my grandchildren, who also lived in my home with their mother for a long time. I usually see my granddaughter for a few hours a week because I provide after school care for her on Monday's, but I don't see her younger brother more than every few weeks, because he is in regular daycare. I would not dream of attempting to sue my daughter for visitation rights. Even if she got mad at me for something, I would wait it out until fences could be mended. I would not risk destroying any hope of having a long term relationship with my daughter.