Hello all. My wife’s aunt had permanent guardianship over our son, but it has finally been terminated. However, the court order states that the aunt still gets the same amount of visitation hours that she had through DCS. We have a bad relationship with the aunt and aren’t comfortable with her having unsupervised visitation. My question is, would we get in trouble if we deny the aunt visitation? According to the DCS resource guide, ‘if a guardianship is terminated, the court cannot order the parent to allow you to see the child.’
The DCS guide doesn’t override the court order. If the court ordered something you think shouldn’t have been, then you should appeal or move to change that order. You should never ignore a court order.
How long has the guardianship been terminated? Did you object to the visitation request when the aunt made it, or did you agree to it to get the guardianship terminated? A court order is needed to change an existing order, so if you want to alter visitation, you’ll need to petition the court.
We got notified of the termination yesterday and received the order today. We didn’t object to the visitation because it was supervised by DCS, and we were trying to work with them since we made the DCS report.
Was the cause number a GU or a JC? Did you have an attorney involved?
GU. Yes, we did have an attorney.
Contact your attorney with your concerns. Since you just received the order, there is still time for your attorney to file motions to clarify or correct any errors, like ensuring there can’t be ongoing visitation in a terminated GU case.
Can you link any sources about ongoing visitation for a terminated GU case, please?
Your attorney should be able to provide those sources. It will involve statutes and case law, which are not easily found online. Whether it’s an error depends on the specifics of the court order and what occurred during your hearing.
Okay, I will. Thank you!