NH Law About ...: Grandparents' Visitation: Read About The Law ...

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Introduction

This guide focuses mainly on New Hampshire law, but there are federal elements to this topic as well. The research guide, Grandparents' Visitation Rights, available in print or online at the Law Library, will give you a sense of the scope of the task and point you towards more resources.

Grandparents' Visitation Rights: A Legal Research Guide by Joel Fishman
Call Number: KF241 .L74 2021
ISBN: 9780837741451
Publication Date: 2021
"This work is a second edition of M. Kristine Taylor Warrens Grandparent Visitation Rights: A Legal Research Guide (2001), which provided a useful summary of the statutory law, case law, and secondary sources available at that time. Over the past twenty years, grandparents visitation rights have grown dramatically with revisions of the law, many more cases at all levels of the federal, state, and local courts, and in secondary sources."

New Hampshire Forms

In New Hampshire, a grandparents' visitation case is filed in the Family Division. Which court location to choose will depend on whether there's already been a divorce or parenting action or where the child lives. There may be different requirements depending on whether a divorce or parenting action is open, whether it's closed, or whether there is no action filed at all. Talk to a lawyer and the court about what forms you'll need.

Circuit Court. Family Division
NHJB 2228-F Petition for Grandparent Visitation
NHJB 2077-F Personal Data Sheet
NHJB 2201-DFP. Motion
Generic form completed by a person motioning the court for some relief.
Circuit Court. Family Division. Divorce/Parenting Forms

Online and Print

603 Legal Aid. Grandparents' Visitation Rights in a New Hampshire Divorce
"Grandparents may petition the court for reasonable rights of visitation of a minor child as long as access by the grandparent to the child has not been restricted for any reason so far."

A Practical Guide to Divorce in New Hampshire by editor, Michael Alfano ; judges, Robert J. Foley [and others] ; authors, Michael Alfano [and others].
Call Number: KFN1300 .P73
Publication Date: 2021
§ 11.8.4 covers grandparents' visitation rights, and § 25.4.5 discusses the legal standard for grandparent visitation cases.
Family Law by Charles G. Douglas III
Call Number: KFN1280 .N48
Publication Date: 2014
Chapter 14, Part D is on Visitation and § 14.26 addresses grandparents' rights. Also included in that chapter, stepparent rights, unmarried parents' rights, modification of visitation and more.

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51 COA2d 573. Cause of Action by Grandparent to Obtain Visitation Rights to Grandchild
"This article discusses litigation to secure grandparent visitation with grandchildren. Such proceedings are commenced by grandparents who seek to obtain an award of, or court order for, visitation with their grandchildren. While there is necessarily some examination of actions brought by grandparents related to obtaining custody of their grandchildren, the focus of the article is on grandparental-visitation actions. A cause of action for grandparent visitation is most often commenced by, and against, individuals. In other words, it is a private cause of action. However, where government or other public agencies are involved in the care and custody of the subject child, the cause of action may reflect the concerns of the public interest."
69 Am. Jur. Proof of Facts 3d 281. Grandparent Visitation and Custody Awards
"All fifty states now have statutes allowing grandparents visitations rights under certain circumstances. This article will review those statutes, in particular the different circumstances that would allow the grandparents to petition for visitation, such as the fact that one parent is deceased or that the parents are divorced, the standard for awarding custody to grandparents, and the procedural requirements of the statutes."
71 A.L.R.5th 99. Grandparents' visitation rights where child's parents are living
"Visitation rights are sometimes awarded to nonparents with the parents' consent, or without serious objection by them, in which case they are then generally upheld against later or collateral attack. In some jurisdictions, statutes have been enacted giving to grandparents of minor children whose parents are divorced or separated visitation rights. Such a statute creates a presumption that the best interests of children are served by maintaining contact with their grandparents. Under common-law principles, grandparents did not have any legal right to visit and to communicate with their grandchildren if such visitation or communication was forbidden by the parents. Courts, however, have increasingly recognized that grandparents may have a legal right of visitation if such visitation is found to be in the best interests of the particular child involved."

Please remember that this guide is for information purposes only and is not comprehensive.
It is intended as a starting point for research, to illustrate the various sources of the law, and to provide guidance in their use.
NH Law About ... is not a substitute for the services of an attorney.