Legal News Alert #109

New Law Regarding Grandparent Visitation Rights Stalled in Committee

In response to the recent Michigan Supreme Court decision that declared Michigan's 33 year-old Grandparents' Visitation Rights Law unconstitutional, both houses of Michigan's legislature have unanimously passed in December 2003 a new law which hopefully fixes the problems that made the old law unconstitutional. Unfortunately, because the House's version of the bill and the Senate's version are not exactly identical, the two bills are languishing in the Committee on Senior Citizens and Veterans Affairs.

Bill's Sponsor Has No Idea When Law Will Come Out of Committee

When Nichols & Eberth made inquiry today of the bill's primary sponsor, Rep. Edward Gaffney, a staff member advised that there was a dispute over some of the details and although they had no idea when these details would be resolved, "it would not be soon."

Provisions of the New Law

Both the House and the Senate versions have the same basic provisions which give grandparents the right to petition a court for grandparent visitation if ANY of the following circumstances exist:

• An action for divorce, separate maintenance, or annulment involving the child's parents is pending before the court.
• The child's parents are divorced, separated under a judgment or have had their marriage annulled.
• The child's parent who is a child of the grandparent is deceased.
• Except as otherwise provided in the statute, legal custody of the child has been given to a person other than the child's parent, or the child is placed outside of and does not reside in the home of a parent.
• The grandparent, at any time during the life of the child, has provided an established custodial environment for the child as described within the act, whether or not the grandparent had custody under a court order.
• The child's parent has withheld from the grandparent opportunities to visit with the child to retaliate against the grandparent for reporting child abuse or neglect to FIA or a law enforcement agency, if the court finds reasonable cause to believe that the child abuse or neglect occurred and the court finds that denial of grandparenting time would cause harm to the child.
• The child's parent lives separate and away from the other parent and child for more than one year.
• The child's parents have never been married to each other and are not residing in the same household, as long as the putative father has acknowledged paternity under the law or been determined to be the father by court order.

Grandparents Must Wait for New Law to Take Effect in Order to Have Day in Court -- Old Orders Put in Limbo

What is frustrating to many grandparents across our state and to several of our firm's grandparent clients is that until the new law is enacted, they have no "standing" to even file a petition with the courts much less have a hearing. This is why Nichols & Eberth and other law firms who practice family law are endeavoring to get legislators to resolve their differences and get this new law enacted. It has been nine months since the old law was declared to be unconstitutional. This placed all of the thousands of prior court orders which allowed grandparent visitation in a state of limbo.

NICHOLS & EBERTH, P.C.
22374 Garrison, Dearborn, MI 48124

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