Do Grandparents Have Rights in Family Law

In this video, Bruce Provan, Managing Director of Page Provan Family and Fertility Lawyers, addresses the important issue of grandparents’ rights in Australia. Bruce discusses the challenges grandparents face when they are excluded from their grandchildren’s lives and the legal options available to them. He highlights the importance of maintaining a close and loving relationship with grandchildren and provides practical advice for navigating these complex situations. If you are a grandparent seeking to understand your rights and how to reconnect with your grandchildren, this video offers valuable insights and guidance.

Video Transcript:

Good morning. My name is Bruce Provan. I’m the Managing Director of Page Provan. We’re a firm of lawyers in central Brisbane that practises exclusively in family and fertility law. I want to talk this morning about the rights of grandparents in Australia. I sometimes come across this situation where grandparents have been excluded from the lives of their grandchildren. It’s a tragic situation. The question is, do grandparents have rights? And the answer is, yes, they do. But a lot depends on the relationship that the grandparents previously had with the children. If a grandparent is being excluded from the lives of their grandchildren, then the grandparents can make an application to court to be allowed time or to be able to communicate with their grandchildren. But it’s important that in making such an application, that the grandparents can demonstrate that they have developed a close and loving relationship with their grandchildren, so that it is in the best interests of those grandchildren to be able to spend some time with their grandparents. If the situation is that the grandparents have never had a relationship or never had a close relationship with their grandchildren, it becomes much more difficult to persuade the court that they should be allowed to spend time with their grandchildren.

So my tip is for grandparents, when you spending time with your grandchildren, try to make that a really enjoyable experience for the children. Obviously, the reason the grandparents are often excluded from the relationship with the children is that they have had a falling out with either their child or their child’s partner. So it’s important as grandparents to try and facilitate that relationship and make it a positive relationship so that grandparents are allowed to see their grandchildren.

The other tip is that if a grandparent has to make an application to court to be allowed to spend time with the children, to try to do it as early as possible. If the situation is that you haven’t seen the grandchildren for a number of years, much more difficult to persuade the court that it is in the best interests of the children to be able to spend time with you. If you want advice regarding spending time with your grandchildren and you’re being excluded from the lives of your grandchildren, please come to us and seek advice from Page Provan.