You thought it was a good idea at the time to agree to grandparent visitation. Even though your ex signed away parental rights, you had no problem with his parents. You even agreed to a consent order formalizing grandparent visitation. Something changed, and you now regret your decision. What now?
First, let’s take a step backward. Our guess is that you agreed to grandparent visitation because you thought it was in the best interests of your child. As we’ve written previously, parents do have the right to restrict grandparent visitation. For the court to order visitation, the grandparents must prove that the child will be harmed if they are refused a relationship. It is not an easy feat. That changes when the parent agrees by consent to the visitation.
Recent Court Decision Addresses Grandparent Visitation
The court recently addressed this very concern in a recent opinion entitled Slawinski v. Nicholas. In this matter, the child’s mother, Mary K. Nicholas had agreed to allow the paternal grandmother, Donna Slawinski, visitation rights. Mary has sole custody of her daughter, referred to by the pseudonym, Lilly in the court opinion.
The consent order regarding grandparent visitation was entered on January 13, 2015. At the time, Lilly was six years old. Mary agreed to allow her daughter to visit with her grandmother during the first weekend of each month. She shared that she “”would like to have contact with the grandmother and that it would be a positive experience for her.”
After four visits, Mary determined that the visits were a problem. When Lilly returned home after seeing her grandmother, she was very upset. Lilly cried at the mere mention of the grandmother’s name. Mary also claimed that Donna did not bathe the child during the weekend visits. Her hair was not combed. Lily’s father was present during one of the visitations, despite the fact that his visitation rights had been suspended by the court.
Mary was concerned about her daughter’s mental health as a result of the visits with her grandmother. The child actually asked her mother not to make her continue the visits. Consequentially, Mary motioned the court to terminate the grandmother’s visitation.
The trial court considered the mother’s application to terminate grandparent visitation. Since the visitation was done by consent of both parties, the judge agreed that if one party removed consent, termination was appropriate. The grandmother would be required to show that Lilly would be harmed if the visitation did not continue.
Donna did not show proof that the child would be harmed if grandparent visitation was stopped. The grandmother disagreed with the manner in which the lower court decided to end visitation unilaterally. The matter was brought to the Appellate Division for consideration.
The Appellate Court agreed with the grandmother as far as procedure. It found that “once a parent enters into a consent order allowing grandparent visitation, a request to modify must be considered in accordance with the framework established in Lepis v. Lepis, 83 N.J. 139, 157-59 (1980), and applied to custody and visitation disputes.”
What does this mean exactly? First, one party cannot just pull out of consent order regarding grandparent visitation. The Lepis case sets the standard to say that a change in circumstances would be necessary to warrant a modification or termination of the consent order. The case was returned to the lower court to determine if a change of circumstances existed in this matter.
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Want to learn more about grandparent visitation? At the Law Offices of Sam Stoia, we can provide you with experienced legal advice. Contact us to set up a complimentary meeting.