Grandparents’ Rights To Visitation

Illinois has a statute that is referred to as the grandparent visitation statute. If a Chicago grandparent wants a court to order visitation, the burden is on the grandparent to demonstrate that the parent’s actions regarding visitation are harmful to the child’s physical, mental or emotional health. Among the factors that the Cook County court shall consider are whether the child has lived with the grandparent for at least the last 6 months, whether the grandparent was the primary caregiver for at least the last 6 months, the physical and mental health of the grandparent, whether the petition was filed in good faith, and the preference of the child, if the child is mature enough to give a preference. In the case of In re Anaya R., the Cook County court denied the grandmother’s petition for visitation for various reasons including that she had filed a petition for guardianship in bad faith and had made false or fraudulent statements in the petition. Further, the court found that the grandmother was attempting to interfere with and damage the parent-child relationship.