Parenting and Stepfamily Issues

Yes, and that is under the Grandparent’s Visitation Privileges Act. That’s one of the four categories that gives a grandparent standing to go into court – i.e., a child is being put up for adoption and you are the biological grandparent of that child, and you had a good solid, steady relationship with that child. […]

The short answer to that is no. A grandparent who takes on guardianship is not obligated to financially support the child. Technically, the parent is still legally responsible for that, so no, a third party cannot sue a grandparent to pay child support. Mary Ann Burmester is a family lawyer practicing in Albuquerque, New Mexico […]

As a parent or a grandparent, you’re having to choose between your adult child and your grandchild. It really is a difficult situation. My potential clients, they struggle. You want to be able to help your adult child parent your grandchild. But sometimes that adult child is unable or unwilling to heed your advice. So […]

The burden is on the parent to prove to the judge that the circumstances that existed, giving rise to the need for guardianship, are no longer there. Let me give you a few examples. What I see today is, a parent who is a very good parent – has a job, has a home, a […]

Yes. In fact, in family law in general, a lot of times temporary orders end up being permanent in the sense that if nobody goes to court to change or end the arrangement, it lasts through the child’s minority up until the child is legally emancipated. It’s typically age 18. But the process is, you […]

No, it doesn’t. That’s one of the reasons why the courts here generally look at a guardianship as opposed to custody. A grandparent getting custody of a grandchild does not terminate the parental rights of the parents. But when we look at our guardianship laws, our kinship guardianship laws, there are certain elements that have […]

Yes. We normally look at guardianship as opposed to custody. The word custody under New Mexico law really is used in parents getting divorced or parents who are not married. But the concept to the general public is, I want to be able to raise my grandchild. Their parents are unable or unwilling to do […]

I would caution them to think about the larger family dynamic. If you have to sue your own child to get access to your grandchild, what is that going to do to the bigger family situation? What I do see with some frequency is, one parent is out of the picture – either voluntarily or […]

Each state varies dramatically on when a grandparent even has the ability to ask a court to order visitation. In New Mexico, there are four specific fact patterns that give a grandparent that ability to go to court, which we call standing. First, the biological parent is deceased or the child is being put up […]

Grandparents have either the rights to visit with their grandchildren, under certain circumstances, or if their parents are unable or unwilling to raise them on their own, the grandparents can either seek custody or, more commonly, guardianship of the grandchildren. Again, it has to be under certain circumstances, but basically that’s what we think of […]