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Question: What is the process of court to receive visitation rights?

Answer: The answer to this question depends on the relationship of the person who wants visitation rights to the child. A father would need to establish paternity and usually visitation will be established in the same action. He must file a petition in Superior Court to establish paternity. If he has been established as the father, he must file a petition to establish custody and visitation. (He is the father if he was married to the mother when the child was born, or if he has gotten an order of paternity from the Superior Court.)

Other people may also file petitions for visitation. Grandparents may file under some circumstances. Any person who has established a relationship with a child that is almost that of a parent ('in loco parentis') can also file. This relationship would be if the child lived with the person for a significant period of time.

Visitation will be granted by the court if the court finds that the visitation will be in the best interests of the child. What this means depends entirely on the circumstances.

If the other party (the mother for example) doesn't want the visitation to take place, she will present evidence why visitation is not in the best interests of the child.

The judge will decide whether to grant visitation,and will issue orders about how much visitation to grant.
Comments
1 thru 5 of 14 comments
On 02/26/09
jazmin from AZ said:
I am 13 years old but march 1st I'll be 14 and to make my story short when it should of been a book!! I dont want nothing to do with my dad I will never forget what he did in front and so close when I was 9 years old. Im sitting in the back seat of dads car when his girl friend and dad where fighting I was so scard but then he had beat this girl with a club to the face and ILL never forget it!! because I was screaming and crying My dad turns to me and said shut the ff up or you will get it too!!! I want only my mom....
On 10/20/08
jay from NJ said:
My girlfreind is the mother of my child and he is 1 month old. We both filled out the paternity papers at the hospital and the birth certificate came back with the fathers name blank. She moved back at home with her parents when she was 5 months pregnant.she is 18.I am not allowed at her house. I found out that the papers were intercepted at the hospital because she has family members who work there. Her mom threaten to have her baby taken away if she marries me.I was told that her parents may try to adopt my son and have him taken out of the country. What can I do? She still comes to see me
On 06/20/06
Lori from CA said:
i am a grandparent and for some reason my daughter refuses me and my husband to see are only grandchild do we have rights as grandparents
On 11/29/05
sara from SC said:
If a child was born out of wedlock and was visiting the father and he said the child wanted to stay with him instead of the mother does he has rights to house the chid he lives in georgia and shes 8 years old what kind of rights does he have if the child resides in another state
On 11/14/05
Jen from NJ said:
This comment is for Carrie from Il. I just wanted to let you know that I have been going through a similar situation with drugs. I actually got the court to make my ex take a hair test. They can not pass this test unless they are clean! It goes back 90 days. I suggest that you ask the court to have this test done. You could get information about it on google.com & bring it in to court. Make sure that you bring other court cases up that have used this test.
1 thru 5 of 14 comments


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