In Tennessee, grandparents can obtain court-ordered visitation with their grandchild, although in limited circumstances. These include the death of a parent, when a parent is missing, if the child’s parents are not married, or if the child has lived with the grandparents for at least a year before being removed by the parents. So what kind of visitation schedule can a grandparent obtain?
Visitation Schedule for Grandparents
A new Tennessee Court of Appeals case, In Re Diawn B., highlighted the court’s job in drafting a visitation schedule once it is determined that a grandparent has a right to visitation. The trial court in that case set up a schedule that gave an overwhelmingly vast number of days to the paternal grandparents, and looked essentially like a parenting plan between two parents. The Court of Appeals reversed, and ruled the schedule “impermissibly interferees with the mother’s parental rights under the Tennessee Constitution” and was not “reasonable” under the grandparent visitation statute, Tenn. Code Ann. 36-6-306(c).
Future grandparent visitation cases will be held to this standard and precedent, which has set at least the high bar for what is clearly unreasonable when designing a visitation schedule for grandparents. If you have questions about grandparent visitation call the experienced family law attorneys at Maniatis Law PLLC at our office today! Hablamos Español.