Visitation Rights Case Study

In the State of Kansas, the court may grant grandparents reasonable visitation rights upon a finding that the visitation rights would be in the child's best interests and when a substantial relationship between the child and the grandparent has been established. According to the Kansas Bar Association, Kansas law allows grandparents to request visitation if they have a well-established and substantial relationship with the child yet the laws regarding grandparent visitation rights are written in a way that is open-ended without clear guidelines. The guidance is limited, and it can be left up to interpretation the meaning of best interest and substantial relationship. In the case of Mr. and Mrs. Goodfellow where the child’s natural parent …show more content…
They would need to provide examples of the time spent with their grandson, what activities they participated in, how they maintained their relationship other than the visits that they had every three or four months. What kinds of contact they had, for example, via telephone, letters, or by video. Once they have proven the substantial relationship, they would then need to prove that it would be in the best interest of the child to maintain the relationship. The parent could in fact show that the time the Goodfellows spent with their grandson was limited and they in fact did not have a close relationship given that their visits were not frequent given that they all lived in the same …show more content…
If your grandchild’s parent objects to you spending time with the child, you must be able to demonstrate that the parent is being unreasonable.” Family research indicates that grandparent-grandchild relationships may sometimes have adverse influences on a child by undermining parental authority especially in cases such as these where the two parties are not in agreement and have a strained relationship. The Goodfellows claim the father believes them to be making negative and derogatory comments about him to the grandchild which is the reason he severed the relationship with the grandparents. Even though Goodfellows never liked their son-in-law and have a strained relationship they would likely have to prove his other claims false because if the claims are true this could possibly cause harm to the child and the court may find that it isn’t in the child’s best interest to continue the relationship. The grandparents may argue that it would be detrimental to sever the relationship with the grandson and would cause him further