Can Stepparents Get Visitation Rights After a Divorce?

Question Detail: My granddaughter’s father is divorced from her mother, my daughter. The father remarried. His new wife is emotionally, verbally and at times physically abusive to my granddaughter. When this situation was brought to my daughter’s attention, she immediately spoke with her ex-husband, the father. His response was that their daughter was making it up. This went on for 6 months when finally the father and stepmom ended up in divorce court (for issues other than those pertaining to my granddaughter). A restraining order was issued against the stepmom barring her from contact with my granddaughter. The stepmom is now withholding visitation of the couple’s 2 sons unless she can see my granddaughter. The paternal grandmother, my daughter, and I all feel that the stepmother poses a real threat to our granddaughter. Does this stepmother have rights to visitation with her stepdaughter?

ANSWER: The answer to your question lies in Utah Code § 30-5a-103, aptly titled “Custody and visitation for persons other than a parent.” Now whether this statute would be considered constitutional is not something I’ll discuss in this post. We’ll assume the statute is good law for our purposes today. § 30-5a-103 starts out stating that “it is the public policy of this state that parents retain the fundamental right and duty to exercise primary control over the care, supervision, upbringing, and education of their children. There is a rebuttable presumption that a parent’s decisions are in the child’s best interests.” Utah Code § 30-5a-103 provides that “a court may find that this presumption is rebutted and may grant custodial or visitation rights to a person other than a parent who, by clear and convincing evidence, has established all of the following: the person has intentionally assumed the role and obligations of a parent; the person and the child have formed an emotional bond and created a parent-child type relationship; the person contributed emotionally or financially to the child’s well-being; assumption of the parental role is not the result of a financially compensated surrogate care arrangement; continuation of the relationship between the person and the child would be in the child’s best interests; loss or cessation of the relationship between the person and the child would be detrimental to the child; and the parent is absent or is found by a court to have abused or neglected the child.