In Nevada, Grandparents–and other relatives–sometimes have the right to seek visitation with minor children. Nevada Revised Statutes 125C.050(1)(a)-(d) permits a relative to seek visitation of a minor child where the parent of the minor child is deceased, divorced from the custodial parent, has relinquished his or her parental rights, or if said parental rights have been terminated by the court. Visitation statutes like 125C.050 were designed for situations where “some event has taken the grandchildren from the custody of the parent from whom the grandparents would normally receive access to their grandchildren.” Steward v. Steward, 111 Nev. 295, 301, 890 P.2d 777, 780 (1995) quoting Olds v. Olds, 356 N.W.2d 571, 574 (Iowa 1984).
The Court in Steward explained that visitation statutes do not provide a means for court intervention when the dispute is between the grandparents and a custodial parent who is their child, but rather, when there is a “dispute over visitation between the grandparents and a custodian of the children who is not the child of the grandparents.” Id. at 302, 781.
NRS 125C.050 does not give Grandparents or relatives the right to seek visitation of grandchildren when the parents agree that it is not in the child’s best interest to have contact with his or her grandparents.
Where, for example, the mother of a child has passed away, or is incarcerated, or has relinquished her parental rights, and the father has full custody, the maternal Grandparents in Nevada can petition the court for visitation if the father refuses.
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