“New Rights for Grandparents?”
Report from today’s Daily Mail here.
There are quite a lot of good points in the Deputy Prime Minister’s speech about families. It is pointed out that the previous government was “obsessed with micromanaging every aspect of family life” and “forgot what families really need”.
However the new rights promised for grandparents are less sweeping than is claimed. The fact is that Grandparents already do have rights.
The current law and the proposed change.
Under the current law a person can make an application to a court for things like contact or residence orders but most people -other than parents – usually have to ask the permission of the court first. This seems reasonable because otherwise even a person with very little connection with a child could disrupt a family by bringing court proceedings.The proposed change in the law will mean that a grandparent will automatically be able to apply, without the need for the court’s permission in the same way that a parent can.
Although this sounds significant, the reality is that for almost any normal case the courts already give that permission to grandparents.
The most significant effect of the proposed change seems to me that it takes out a procedural “hurdle” but it is a hurdle which should hardly be a big deal anyway.
An other effect may be that it gives some small “symbolic” legal status to grandparents – as people who no longer need permission of the court to apply for court orders.
The real barriers that grandparents come up with are similar to those of parents denied contact with their children. If a custodial parent opposes your contact you will still find yourself up against that.
Tags: grandparents' rights
