Sandra Fava, a Partner in our Roseland office, recently authored an interesting post on grandparent visitation in New Jersey. Her post describes the standard applied to applications for grandparent visitation. In that state the grandparent seeking visitation bears the burden of establishing that "not having visitation with him/her/them would cause harm to the health or welfare of the child."
Like New Jersey, Delaware places a significant burden upon a non-parent (third-party) seeking visitation, even if that third-party is a grandparent. To be deemed eligible to file a petition for third-party visitation, the third-party must be a relative of the child or have a "substantial and positive prior relationship" with the child. 13 Del. C. §2320. If eligible, the third-party (including a grandparent) must then satisfy a two part test to succeed on their petition. First, they must establish that visitation is in the child's best interests. Second, they must establish one of four factors with regard to each parent:
a) the parent consents to the requested visitation;
b) the child is dependent, neglected or abused in the parent's care;
c) the parent is deceased; or
d) the parent objects to the visitation, however the Court having given special weight to the parent's objection finds the visitation will not substantially interfere with the parent/child relationship.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
