The Farce About Grandparents Rights

Removing the need for grandparents to ask a courts permission to go to court is no significant step forward. It is no legal right to your grandchildren. Scotland has been operating like this for years and it has cost some of our members dearly in legal fees The present requirement of seeking courts permission is like a form of safety net for grandparents who do not have a good case.

If the grandparents fulfil the criteria, Ie have had a close and loving relationship not to far in the past with their grandchildren and it would be clearly harmful to the children to discontinue contact then a judge will probably give the grandparents permission to go to court. Their case could be said to have a chance of succeeding albeit in the best interests of the child.

If they do not fulfil these criteria then they will be more likely refused permission saving them wasting the courts time and paying for a lawyer for a case that has very little chance of succeeding.

We did a questionnaire (In our book ?Grandparents Speak out for Vulnerable Children?) and the replies condemned the legal profession for not giving the right advice.
?Animosity? is the main obstacle against contact orders being successful. The guardian of the child quickly learns through a certain Woman?s organisation that if they throw a strop in court the grandparents are refused contact because animosity in the relationship will reflect on the child.

?Non compliance of court orders? After the grandparents have spent a fortune and obtained a contact order, the guardian of the child has again been educated in ways of getting away with not compiling. Then the court order is not worth the paper it is written on.

The last time in Scotland it was said that grandparents were getting rights to their grandchildren which was defeated in a vote in Scottish Parliament caused a backlash from parents saying they strongly object to grandparents having any rights and caused a rift between parents and grandparents.
This must not be allowed to happen.

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Jimmy Deuchars
Grandparents Apart UK
22 Alness crescent
Glasgow G52 1PJ
0141 882 5658
http://www.grandparentsapart.co.uk