Watching your grandchildren struggle with setbacks in their family life is heartbreaking at the best of times. It is far worse when you don’t know where they are—or when a parent refuses to let you see them. 

In Colorado, you can at least be assured that the courts will hear your request to see your grandchildren and offer your support. If you are unable to visit your grandchildren after a divorce, a death, or a foster care placement in Colorado, you can petition the court to grant you visitation rights.

Visitation Rights: When Are You Eligible?

Who Can File a Request

Colorado law recognizes the importance of children’s relationships with grandparents and great-grandparents. When a Colorado child’s custody or parentage is at stake in a court case, such as—

  • Paternity disputes
  • Divorce, separation, or annulment
  • Juvenile neglect/abuse cases where the child has been placed outside the home
  • Guardianship or estate cases after the death of the parent who was the grandparent’s child

—grandparents and great-grandparents may file a request for reasonable family time with the court. Any grandparent by adoption, half-blood, or marriage qualifies to make this request. A parent’s own parenting time schedule should not affect a grandparent’s separate request for family time. See C.R.S. § 14-10-124.4.

Who Cannot File a Request

If a court has terminated a mother’s or father’s parental rights to a child, that parent’s own parent can no longer request family time as a grandparent. Similarly, after a child has been adopted, their biological grandparents do not have the right to request family time. As painful as it may be, the court cannot intervene without legal grounds. 

For that reason, no grandparent has the right to file a request for family time unless there is an ongoing court case over the child’s custody or their parents’ responsibilities. When a family is legally intact, the state cannot intervene in parents’ decisions about allowing their children to see their grandparents. 

How the Filing Process Works

A grandparent’s request for family time should be filed at the Colorado district court in the county where the child lives. This request must include your relationship to the child and your argument about why it is in the grandchild’s best interest. You must also disclose whether you or anyone else involved has ever been subject to a restraining order. 

The request can be filed as a motion to intervene in a current case, such as a divorce, or as a new case, depending on the situation. Your family law attorney will understand when and how to file your request. When filing the request, the attorney must also serve a copy on each party involved in the child’s case. Once the other parties have been served, they have 21 days to respond. 

Anyone who objects may file opposing affidavits with the court and request a hearing. The court can also decide to hold a hearing on its own initiative. If no one requests a hearing, the court will determine whether the request is in the child’s best interests by reviewing the filings and evidence before it.

The court will begin with the presumption that a parental decision about grandparents’ visitation is in the child’s best interests. If the parents object to visitation, you can overcome that presumption “upon a showing by clear and convincing evidence” that it is in your grandchild’s best interests to visit you.

To determine what is in the best interests of a child, Colorado courts consider a number of factors, including:

  • the wishes of the child, if they can express “reasoned and independent preferences”
  • the relationship of the child with their grandparents and with their parents, siblings, and anyone else that could “significantly affect the child’s best interests”
  • any report of domestic violence presented by a court-appointed investigator or the child’s representative
  • the child’s adjustment to their home and community
  • the mental and physical health of everyone involved (although disabilities alone cannot be used to deny family time)
  • the physical distance between the parties, as a practical consideration
  • “the ability of each party to place the needs of the child ahead of his or her own needs”

See C.R.S. § 14-10-124(1.5)(a).

When any party requests it, or the court thinks it best, the court may appoint another attorney as an independent representative for the child. This attorney, also called a guardian ad litem or GAL, represents the child’s best interests. Those best interests may or may not be the same as the wishes of the child or any other party. Unless they are indigent, one or more of the parties will have to pay the GAL’s fees.

If the court is convinced, it will grant you reasonable family time with your grandchildren. However, if the court decides against the request, you must wait two years before filing another request for family time, unless you can show good cause for filing earlier. 

After its decision, the court may award attorneys’ fees to the party that prevailed. 

Keeping Families Together in Their Hearts

To secure the right to see your grandchildren, you need a Colorado family law attorney who understands not just the risks and benefits of each move but the love and support that your family needs to share. At the Lux Law Firm, our legal team understands your hopes and your family’s needs. Call our Colorado Springs office today at 719-451-7469 to schedule your free case evaluation.