What’s really interesting about the divorce process in Texas is that grandparents generally are not going to be involved in the divorce process, and they’re generally is not going to be an attorney that represents the grandparents’ interest when it comes to a divorce. Now that being said, that doesn’t mean the grandparents don’t have rights. Grandparents do have rights in Texas, although they can be very limited under certain circumstances. Generally speaking in a divorce or child custody matter, if both parents are alive and willing and able to provide adequate care for their children, there usually is not going to be a break in that for the grandparents to come in and get access.

Now that being said, there are extenuating circumstances, for example if a spouse were to die during the divorce, and that grandparent no longer has access to the grandchildren through their child. Or if a grandparent’s child is incarcerated, for example, leaving them without access to the children through their child. So there’s a special set of circumstances in which it does open the door to grandparent visitation. That being said though, grandparent visitation is not an absolute in the state of Texas. It’s a very, very particular area of the law that’s been refined by case law as well as the statutes of the state of Texas.

And so we would recommend that if you’re a grandparent and you have a question about whether or not you have standing to either ask for custody, or get visitation, or have any rights to your child, to come and speak with us because we can help guide you to determine whether there are grounds to secure some access, or visitation, or rights. We do this all the time, and many of us here at the farm have handled grandparents’ cases with very, very positive outcomes.