For many children, the only parents they’ll ever know are
the grandparents who raise them. While
these grandparents go about doing the everyday job of raising their
grandchildren – changing diapers, preparing meals, and making sure the
television is on the Cartoon Network - in the eyes of the law they have no
legal authority. The State of Maryland,
however, has endowed its courts with the power to take a child away from its
parents and commit his or her custody to a third person if it’s in child’s best
interest.
There is a long-standing rebuttable presumption that natural
parents should have custody of their child over third parties, such as
grandparents, in custody cases. When a
third party attempts to gain custody of a biological parent’s child, the
parent’s fundamental constitutional right to their child’s care, custody, and
control is the legal standard that must be overcome. In order to overcome this constitutional
presumption in favor of the biological parents, sufficient evidence must be
presented that shows that the natural parents are unfit, or that exceptional
circumstances exist such that maintaining parental control would be detrimental
to the best interests of the child. Once
the court is satisfied that both of the natural parents are unfit, or that
exceptional circumstances exist to warrant a change in custody, it will then
determine the best interests of the child.
In many cases, the best interests of the child is to remain in the
loving care of the grandparents, or other third person, who have been meeting
the child’s day-to-day needs.
On Friday, June 3, 2016, I was able help one exceptional family
overcome the constitutional presumption of parentage and establish a more
secure future for a little girl being raised by the people who love her. In this instance it was the grandparents of a
three-and-a-half year-old little girl, named Chloe, who were seeking custody of
their granddaughter. Sadly, the natural
parents, both struggling with drug addiction, had abandoned Chloe to the care
of her paternal grandparents. While she
flourished in their loving environment, my clients worried that the natural
parents would swoop in take Chloe into their world of drugs, homelessness, and neglect. Had the biological parents chosen to take
Chloe, my clients would have been powerless to stop them. Now, Chloe is home to stay.
- Joshua T. Ortega
