Grandparent Visitation

Child custody and visitation disputes typically involve a child’s parents, but not always as a lot of grandparents are now involved in the raising of a grandchild. Even though parents are often the main parties in a child custody dispute, grandparents’ input is equally important. Grandparents may also have rights regarding visitation and custody of their grandchild.

Wisconsin has incorporated statutory guidelines for granting visitation rights to grandparents. The purpose of granting grandparent visitation rights is to allow grandparents to maintain contact with grandchildren. There are most commonly two types of laws that exist concerning grandparents: restrictive visitation statutes and permissive visitation statutes. Restrictive visitation laws only allow grandparents to seek visitation rights if the parents have divorced or if one or both parents are deceased. Permissive visitation laws will allow a grandparent or another third party to request