Denver Grandparents’ Rights Attorneys

The attorneys at Griffiths Law have broad experience representing grandparents and other relatives in domestic relations cases. These cases can include grandparents’ rights to visitation and custody but sometimes include financial issues too where the grandparents have loaned or gifted money to the family. We have written a comprehensive blog on when a grandparent can seek to enforce legal rights, which you should consider reading here. Grandparent rights are fairly unique and can be complicated to enforce.

Grandparents’ rights include both a potential right to “visitation” and a potential right to “custody.” The courts in Colorado appreciate that a grandparents involvement with their grandchildren is important and necessary, so long as the child’s best interests are being obtained. However, whether a grandparent has the right to visitation with their grandchildren depends on several circumstances.

In general, there are two steps.

First, the grandparent has to establish that one of the “qualifying circumstances” exists under Colorado law allowing for grandparent visitation rights. Second, the grandparent must file a motion with the court along with an affidavit “setting forth facts supporting the requested order.” Under C.R.S. § 14-10-124.4(3), grandparents may have rights and request visitation when:

The child’s parents are already or currently having their marriage dissolved (divorced), separated, or annulled. (Any case where parenting time is determined is a qualifying circumstance.)
Custody of the child has been allocated to someone other than the child’s parent (a third party).
The child’s parent has passed away (but only if it is the parent that is your child).
Although these two steps are important, whether a grandparent has a right to custody is far more complicated. To learn more about grandparents’ rights in other states, look at FindLaw’s 50-state survey.

If you want to apply for visitation with your grandchildren.

First determine whether you qualify to make a request. You qualify if there is a pending case that affects the custody of the grandchildren, or there has been a case in the past, even if it is already concluded.

Once you determine if you can file for grandparent’s rights, you need to find out in which jurisdiction the action is pending or was pending and file a motion to intervene in the case and then file a motion for visitation, along with the required affidavit.

Learn more from our attorneys by scheduling a consultation below.