Lawyers: How does grandparent's rights work between two states?

[Superdude]

Here’s the deal:

I have an almost-5 year old neice. She’s my brother’s child. He and his wife are divorced.

Mom (her mother, that is) lives in Indiana. Dad lives in Kentucky.

My mother hasn’t seen the child in about 5 months (I personally think that she obsesses overly much over this kid, but that’s a topic for the Pit), and wants to desperately. However, the state of Indiana has no grandparent’s rights statutes (at least, none that I am aware of). Kentucky does.

Now, my mother’s a borderline alcoholic who pops pills like they’re LifeSavers, can’t hold a job because of it, and is currently living with her niece, but about ready to be kicked out because the landlord won’t allow it any longer. She also lost her house in February because she lost her job, and stayed in bed drunk rather than go find another job. So I’m pretty sure that any petition she presented to the court would be summarily denied.

But if the mother of the child has primary custody of the child (Dad is trying to get custody, but takes his daughter to the emergency room basically every time he has her because he’s CONVINCED that she’s being molested, even though the ER doctors have told him repeatedly that there’s no evidence, and that she gets a lot of urinary tract infections because she takes nothing but bubblebaths), and resides in a state that doesn’t have grandparents’ rights, what would such a petition do? Force her to only see her granddaughter when the father has her? If ever?

[MikeS]

I’m not a lawyer. What follows is not legal advice, but merely an attempt to inform a fellow citizen of the relevant statutes. Anything I say below should be taken with a grain of salt.

From my reading of the Indiana Code (available here), grandparents can petition for visitation rights:

**IC 31-17-5 Chapter 5. Grandparent’s Visitation

IC 31-17-5-1
Right to seek visitation**
Sec. 1. (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.

IC 31-17-5-2
Best interest of the child; in chambers interview of the child
Sec. 2. (a) The court may grant visitation rights if the court determines that visitation rights are in the best interests of the child.
(b) In determining the best interests of the child under this section, the court may consider whether a grandparent has had or has attempted to have meaningful contact with the child.
© The court may interview the child in chambers to assist the court in determining the child’s perception of whether visitation by a grandparent is in the best interests of the child.
(d) The court may permit counsel to be present at the interview. If counsel is present:
(1) a record may be made of the interview; and
(2) the interview may be made part of the record for purposes of appeal.

[section 3 deals with what information the petition must contain]

**IC 31-17-5-4
Venue **
Sec. 4. A grandparent seeking visitation rights shall file a petition requesting reasonable visitation rights:
(1) in a circuit or superior court of the county in which the child resides in a case described in section 1(a)(1), 1(a)(3), or 10 of this chapter; or
(2) in the court having jurisdiction over the dissolution of the parents’ marriage in a case described in section 1(a)(2) of this chapter.

Nothing there says that the grandparent must reside in Indiana (although that may be implied by some legal principle I’m not aware of.) So if I’m reading this correctly, your mother could file suit in the county where your brother’s ex-wife lives.

This sounds like a nasty situation. I hope things get better for you & yours soon.