2003 Senate Bill 727 ↩

House Roll Call 216: Passed

To revise the state grandparent visitation law, which applies to child custody disputes, to comply with a ruling from the state Supreme Court in the case of DeRose v DeRose. The court ruled that the previous law excessively limited the authority of parents. The bill would place the burden of proof on a grandparent to show with a "preponderance of the evidence" that grandparenting time is in the child's best interest. Before issuing a grandparenting time order a court would have to consider factors such as the love, affection, and other emotional ties existing between the grandparent and the child; the grandparent’s moral fitness; the grandparent’s mental and physical health; the child’s reasonable preference; the effect on the child of hostility between parent and grandparent; and more.