There have been a number of Indiana decisions on grandparents' visitation rights and I plan to do an article on this at some point in the near future. For instance, in June there was a much-reported Indiana Court of Appeals decision denying visitation rights to a step-grandfather. See ILB entry here. A week or so before that opinion, another appeals court ruling permitted grandparent visitation in different circumstances. See entry here. In that decision, the Court of Appeals quotes the Indiana law:
Ind. Code § 31-17-5-1 (1998) governs grandparent visitation rights, and provides that: (a) A child’s grandparent may seek visitation rights if: (1) the child’s parent is deceased; (2) the marriage of the child’s parents has been dissolved in Indiana; or (3) subject to subsection (b), the child was born out of wedlock. (b) A court may not grant visitation rights to a paternal grandparent of a child who is born out of wedlock under subsection (a)(3) if the child’s father has not established paternity in relation to the child.Further, I recall reporting on a number of decisions from 2003 (that is why the article is planned). All this is an introduction to a story today in the Chicago Sun-Times about a new Illinois law. The story, headlined "New law enables grandparents to file for visitation rights," reports:
Grandparents in Illinois have an explicit legal right to file for visitation rights to their grandchildren under a new law signed Thursday. Sen. John Cullerton (D-Chicago), a co-sponsor of the bill, said Illinois was the only state without a grandparent visitation law.Posted by Marcia Oddi at August 13, 2004 11:17 AM"This law puts the best interest of children first and helps clear a path for grandparents to see their grandchildren,'' said Gov. Blagojevich in signing the measure. According to Blagojevich's office, grandparents can now ask judges for visitation if the parent has made "an unreasonable denial of visitation'' and one of the following conditions exist:
* A parent is incompetent, deceased or has been sentenced to jail for more than one year.
* The parents are divorced or separated for three months and one parent does not object to visitation.
* The child is illegitimate, the parents are not living together and the grandparent is related to the mother.
* The grandparent is related to the father and paternity has been established.
* * * In the 1970s, state legislatures began to pass grandparent visitation statutes, partly due to lobbying efforts of senior citizen groups. Those laws came under greater scrutiny after a 2000 U.S. Supreme Court decision on a Washington state case that overturned broad child visitation rights for grandparents. That decision was based on lack of standards in the Washington state law. Under the new Illinois law, standards are spelled out that will survive court tests, Blagojevich's office said.