Source: https://lindsayparvis.com/2017/09/21/maryland-grandparent-custody-visitation-exceptional-circumstances/
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 23:57:34+00:00

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When a grandparent wants custody of or visitation with a child, the grandparent must prove either that the parents are unfit or that there are exceptional circumstances. Once proven, then the court can consider what custody or visitation arrangement is in the child’s best interests.
(10) the child’s physical, mental, and emotional needs.
In its August 29, 2017 Burak v. Burak opinon, Maryland’s highest court changed the legal landscape regarding exceptional circumstances.
First, the court must first consider (and, so the grandparent prove) the first factor above – the length of time a child has been away from a biological parent – and determine that the child has been away from the biological parent(s) and with the grandparent(s) for a long period of time.
Second, if the court determines that the child has been away from the biological parent(s) and with the grandparent(s) for a long period of time, then it can consider the remaining factors.
The Appellate Court pointed to other court cases in which the child had been away from the parent, and with the grandparents, for years. Not just brief, even if frequent, periods of time. In short, a parent must have transferred constructive custody physical custody to the grandparents, for a long period of time, in order to satisfy the first factor.
Until now and the Burak v. Burak case, whether a grandparent wanted custody or visitation, both types of cases were treated the same way – requiring the grandparent to prove unfitness or exceptional circumstances before the court will consider whether it is in the child’s best interests to grant custody or visitation to a grandparent.
While the landscape is clearer (if not more difficult) for grandparents to seek custody based on exceptional circumstances, it is unclear how this will impact grandparent visitation cases. Until there is further clarification, after Burak v. Burak, it is difficult to know how the exceptional circumstances factors above apply to grandparent visitation cases. Because visitation, while a form of custody, assumes that grandparents are seeking time with, not residence of, the child.
Which means turning to prior law on grandparent visitation. Brandenburg v. LaBarre (a 2010 case) requires grandparents who want visitation to show either parental unfitness or exceptional circumstances “indicating that the lack of grandparental visitation has a significant deleterious effect upon the children”. Put another way, lack of grandparent visitation will be harmful or damaging to the children.
First, a parent’s refusal to allow contact between a child and grandparent, itself, is not sufficient proof of exceptional circumstances. This means that lack of grandparent contact is not, itself, damaging or harmful to a grandchild. A grandparent must show actual harm or damage to the child.
Second, Brandenburg v. LaBarre urges grandparents to prove exceptional circumstances using expert testimony that harm or damage will result from lack of grandparent contact.
In either event, Burak v. Burak makes the legal landscape of grandparent custody and visitation cases based upon exceptional circumstances far more challenging for grandparents.
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