Articles Posted in Visitation

Last year, this blog covered an interesting ruling by the Court of Special Appeals in which the court ruled an adult sibling found to be a Child In Need of Assistance (CINA) had no rights to visit with her younger siblings against their parents’ wishes. Recently, the Court of Appeals issued a new decision in this case.

As noted in other blog posts, parents of minor children have a fundamental right to make major decisions about the care, custody and control of their children. Usually third parties who want visitation against the parents’ wishes have to make a showing of exceptional circumstances such that the court failing to grant visitation would have a very detrimental effect on the children. The earlier ruling followed a Supreme Court ruling about a Washington statute where the Court ruled a statute that didn’t give parents’ beliefs a presumption of acting in the child’s best interests was unconstitutional.

In this case, an older sister born in 1993 wanted to visit her half-siblings over the objections of her father from whom she was estranged after being declared a CINA. She had been deemed a CINA after her father wouldn’t let her come back home to him, his new wife and their two small children. Her own mother had committed suicide and she had alleged her father was abusive. Continue reading

In a 2008 case, a Maryland appellate court considered whether Maryland recognizes de facto parenthood. In the case, Margaret, a woman in a committed same-sex relationship was seeking custody or visitation of a child adopted by Janice, the other woman in the relationship.

The two women met in 1986 and lived together for the better part of 18 year lived together in Janice’s residence. Janice wanted to be a mother. She was not able to get pregnant through in vitro fertilization, so she adopted a girl from India. Margaret did not try to adopt the girl, though both she and Janice shared childcare responsibilities. In 2004, they separated and Margaret moved out.

After they separated, Margaret saw the girl 3-4 times per week. The two women started having problems and Janice restricted Margaret’s visitation. In the fall of 2004, Janice sent a letter requiring Margaret to arrange visitation through her and to get approval for any activities she wanted to do with the girl. Continue reading

Parents in Maryland and other states have the constitutional right to determine the “care, custody and control” of their children. There is a traditional presumption that a fit parent acts in the best interest of his or her child. The right to determine care, custody and control is not absolute, however. The issue of grandparents’ rights (or other third-party rights) sometimes complicates matters. Maryland jurisprudence on this issue is well developed.

In the seminal Maryland appellate case (Koshko), it was ruled that a grandparent must make a threshold showing either of parental unfitness or exceptional circumstances that demonstrate that a lack of grandparental visitation will have a substantial deleterious effect. A 2009 case considering the effect of Koshko on modification of an order arose from a situation between an unmarried mother and father and the father’s parents.

The father was seriously hurt in a motor vehicle accident in 2004 and was left in a coma. After that the relationship between the mother and the father’s parents became tense and the mother refused to let the father’s parents see her daughter. The grandparents petitioned for visitation and the mother sought only to limit the frequency of visitation. The visitation was granted on the schedule agreed to by the mother. The original order granting the grandparents’ visitation was made before Koshko was decided. Continue reading

Maryland divorces can be very stressful, having consequences for extended families, including grandparents. A 26-year study released last year found that the rate of divorce may depend at least partly on the strength of the relationship with one’s in-laws. The study found that a husband who has a close relationship with his wife’s parents has a risk of divorce that is decreased by 20 percent. On the other hand a wife with a close relationship to her husband’s parents has an increased risk of divorce.

The study conducted by Terri Orbuch, a research psychologist at the University of Michigan, looked at the relationships of 373 couples in their first year of marriage in 1986 and followed up with them. Orbuch explained that this study could be explained by the perceptions of husbands and wives. Women valued their close relationship to the in-laws, but saw them as interfering, whereas men did not take their in-laws actions as personally. Conversely, women felt taken care of when a husband made an effort to get along with her parents.

When a divorce happens, it may have an effect on how often grandparents visit with their grandchildren. In Maryland, since 2000, a grandparent seeking visitation must show (1) that there is parental unfitness or circumstances that show a detriment to the child without the grandparent’s visit, and (2) that visitation is in the child’s best interest. This is a tougher standard than many other states. Continue reading

For many years, a difficulty in Maryland family court has been figuring out a workable system of visitation for parents when one parent moves out of state. Many families face this challenge when one parent gets a job out of state. Since the rise of video conferencing technologies and electronic communication, a common trend in other states has been judge-approved “virtual visitation.” Virtual visitation is essentially cyber-parenting in which a non-custodial parent uses personal video conference, a video phone or a webcam to visit with a child.

This type of visitation is used as a supplement to in-person visitation over holidays and the summer break, but is not a replacement for those real visits. However, a non-custody parent can virtually read a child a story or talk about his or her daily adventures or disappointments, thereby strengthening their relationship.

The concept of virtual visitation was first codified in the state of Utah and next to follow was Wisconsin. The latter encourages courts to use the availability of electronic communication as a factor in decisions regarding custody and parenting time. Virtual visitation has been codified in at least six states. Many other states are revising their legislation to incorporate virtual visitation.

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In the case In re Victoria C., the Maryland Court of Special Appeals considered the question of sibling visitation by an adult sibling. The girl in question was born in 1993 and became an adult while the instant case was pending. Her mother passed away and her father married her stepmother in 2005. She has two half-brothers who are small children and an older brother. She lived with her father from birth until her father was accused of abuse, at which point she was sent to live with her mother’s sister in Texas in 2009, for one year before returning.

Upon her return from Texas, George wouldn’t allow his daughter to live with his family. She was taken into the custody of the county’s social services department. The court judged her a child in need of assistance (CINA) in 2010. Continue reading

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