Grandparent Rights Attorney

A grandparent’s loving relationship with their grandchild can often result in lifelong positive benefits for both the grandparent and the grandchild. However, Colorado law has strict requirements concerning grandparents’ rights to visitation.

A grandparent may only obtain visitation rights in specific circumstances and must strictly adhere to the procedural requirements for seeking a visitation order. The grandparent seeking visitation faces a very high legal hurdle if the child’s parent objects to grandparents’ rights and the visitation request.

In Colorado, grandparents and great-grandparents may obtain reasonable grandparent rights to visitation only if there is or has been a “child custody case or a case concerning the allocation of parental responsibilities [APR] relating to the child.” This includes any of the following situations, whether or not child custody or parental responsibilities were specifically an issue:

Understanding grandparents’ rights in these situations can be complex, and the laws surrounding grandparents’ rights must be carefully navigated to ensure compliance with Colorado legal standards. If you believe you qualify for grandparent rights, it is essential to consult a legal professional to guide you through the process.

If a child custody or APR case is pending, the grandparent seeking visitation should request permission to intervene in the action to seek grandparent rights for visitation. If the court denies the request for intervention, the grandparent should file an independent action for visitation in the district court. The procedure for requesting grandparents’ rights to visitation is the same in both cases:

The Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects the fundamental right of parents to make decisions concerning the care, custody, and control of their children. As long as a parent adequately cares for their children, there is generally no reason for the state to intervene and question the parent’s decision-making ability.

In Colorado, there is a rebuttable presumption in favor of the parent’s decision regarding grandparent rights to visitation. The parent’s decision is given “special weight” and will be upheld unless the grandparent proves, with clear and convincing evidence, that the parent’s decision is not in the child’s best interest or that the parent is unfit to make the visitation decision. This “special weight” only applies to biological or adoptive parents, not legal guardians.

If the court grants grandparents’ rights to visitation over the parent’s objection, it must issue findings of fact and conclusions of law to explain the factors it relied on to overrule the parent’s decision.

An order granting or denying parenting time rights to a parent does not affect grandparent rights to visitation. However, an involuntary termination of the parent’s parental rights eliminates grandparents’ rights to visitation. An exception occurs if the termination is due to the death of the parents, rather than a legal termination. In this case, the grandparent’s visitation rights remain intact.

Similarly, if the child is adopted and the natural parents’ legal rights are terminated, grandparent visitation rights are also terminated, even if the adoptive parents are relatives, such as the child’s other grandparents. An exception applies when the child is adopted due to the death of the parents rather than a legal termination of their rights, allowing grandparent rights to survive the adoption.