How Can Grandparents Get Visitation

My question involves a child custody case from the State of: Colorado

As I've previously posted I've recently obtained sole custody of my son. For a while I've been wanting to move and now sems like the right time to do it but from what I understand I would have to file relocation with the court. I am doing so as soon as possible. Can grandmother file for a motion for visitation?? As of now dad has no right to my son per he is in prison and will be there for the next five years and when and if he gets out he will need to file for visitation. Just trying to understand if they do file what are the chances that we may not be able to move. This move will be very beneficial for my kid and myself per I would have family and better job opportunities.

Try reading this first: http://www.coloradolegalservices.org...-a-grandparent

The key is whether or not you actually want the grandparents to have court ordered visitation. As a rule, I'm not a fan of grandparent (or any third party, really) visitation outside of exceptional circumstances. My usual advice is to NOT agree to anything in mediation and make the grandparent/s prove their case in court.

But have a look at that website to see how it works; the one thing I'm going to double check is the mentioning of divorce and separation - are you and Dad married?

No we never were

Okay, thank you for clarifying

When a parent requests permission to relocate their child, the court basically has two choices. They can allow the relocation or, if the parent wants to move regardless, switch custody to the other parent. That obviously cannot happen in your case so I can't see any reason why the court wouldn't allow the move.

The grandparents cannot prevent you from moving. They can try to get court-ordered visitation but what are your thoughts on that? Is that something you'd agree to?

Under Colorado Revised Statute (CRS) § 19-1-117(1) a grandparent may seek visitation in one of the circumstances that Dogmatique listed in her reply. Note that grandparent visitation is in general not easy to get when the parent(s) having custody of the child object to it. Indeed, CRS § 14-10-124, which sets out the factors for the court to consider when determining the best interests of the child lists among those factors the “wishes of the child’s parents.” And the U.S. Supreme Court has held that generally a fit parent’s decisions regarding his/her child will be presumed to be in the child’s best interests. Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57 (2000). So, here it would matter what you and the father both submitted to the court regarding your wishes concerning grandparent visitation. Usually the way it works out when a parent wants his/her parents to have time with the kid is that those grandparents see that grandchild when their child has time with the grandchild. In other words, generally the father’s parents would have to see the kids on the father’s time. As the father cannot exercise custody/visitation himself because he is in prison, the court might consider grandparent visitation while the father is in prison as a way to maintain a relationship with his side of the family.

But even if the grandparents won visitation here, it would not prevent you from moving with the child. The last sentence of CRS § 19-1-117(3) states: “The court may not make any order restricting the movement of the child if such restriction is solely for the purpose of allowing the grandparent or great-grandparent the opportunity to exercise his grandchild or great-grandchild visitation rights.”

I would not agree to any visitation because during the time I was trying to get this resolved I didn't like how they treated my son. My son would tell that they kept telling him that they were going to take him away from me and in general just put stuff into his head. My son has told me crying that he doesn't want to be taken away.

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Quoting ablopez

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I would not agree to any visitation because during the time I was trying to get this resolved I didn't like how they treated my son. My son would tell that they kept telling him that they were going to take him away from me and in general just put stuff into his head. My son has told me crying that he doesn't want to be taken away.

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Then if it were me, I would not entertain the idea of grandparent visitation at all. If they file, do not agree to visitation in mediation - make them prove their case in court.

I understand where they're coming from (I actually have four grandchildren wrecking our house as I type this :) ), but their wants should never come before the best interests of the child.

I was reading on the link...what if our situation doesn't fall within any of those circumstances???

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Quoting ablopez

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I was reading on the link...what if our situation doesn't fall within any of those circumstances???

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I'm not sure where you're going with your question - could you clarify for me please?

(I'm old, it's the weekend :) )

On the page it says

"In Colorado, any grandparent may seek a court order granting contact and visitation rights, in the following situations:

When the marriage of the grandchild's parents has been declared invalid or dissolved, or the court has entered a decree of legal separation, or
When the legal custody of the grandchild has been given to a party other than the parent, or the child has been placed outside of and does not reside in the home of the parent, excluding any child who has been placed for adoption or whose adoption has been legally finalized; or
When the grandchild's parent, who is the child of the grandparent, has died.
A grandparent can seek a Court Order allowing grandparent visitation if, and only if, one of these situations is present.

Seems my situation does not fall under any of those circumstances.