Tarpon Springs Visitation Attorneys

Grandparent time-sharing rights

We have law offices in Largo, Holiday & Palm Harbor serving Tarpon Springs and Pasco, Pinellas, and Hillsborough Counties

K. Dean Kantaras is Board Certified in Marital and Family Law by the Florida Bar

Grandparents' rights to visitation, now called time-sharing, depend on a number of factors based on Florida law and influenced by a U.S. Supreme Court decision in a landmark case. Tarpon Springs visitation lawyers at the Law Offices of K. Dean Kantaras, P.A. help parents and grandparents in Florida address the legal issues involved with time-sharing.

Florida time-sharing laws

Our web page on Time-sharing and Visitation Rights explains the guidelines Florida courts use when determining time-sharing between parents. Guidelines are similar but more stringent for grandparents.

Florida time-sharing laws generally take into consideration the following factors when granting grandparents time-sharing rights:

• Best interest of the children
• The prior relationship between the grandparents and grandchild
• The effect grandparents time-sharing has on the parent and child relationship
• Whether the parent status is divorced or remarried
• Whether stepparent adoption of the child occurred

Challenges that a time-sharing rights lawyer faces

The U.S. Supreme Court 2000 case of Troxel v. Granville affected how state courts view visitation across the United States, posing significant challenges for grandparents seeking what Florida now calls time-sharing rights.

In this precedent-setting case, Brad Troxel left behind two daughters and their mother when he committed suicide in Washington State in 1993. The couple was unmarried and estranged at the time of death. Yet Brad’s grandparents continued to visit the grandchildren regularly after the suicide. However, when the mother remarried, she limited the grandparents’ visits, and subsequently the grandparents sued for visitation rights. While the Washington State court ruled in the grandparents’ favor based on state statutes, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled the state court’s decision, determining that it violated the mother's due process rights to raise her children.

Today, Florida court judges are often divided in how they interpret grandparents’ time-sharing rights.

Contact a time-sharing rights attorney serving Tarpon Springs

For time-sharing legal assistance as parents or grandparents, we invite you to contact our firm to meet with a Pinellas County family law attorney at (727) 781-0000, or use our online contact form.

Our multiple offices are conveniently located in Largo, Clearwater, Holiday, and Palm Harbor, and we help clients in Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough Counties.