The Georgia Court of Appeals affirmed an award of child custody to maternal grandparents in its March 2002 decision in Burke v. King.(1) There, the divorced father of a minor child filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus after his former wife – who had custody of the child – died and her sister...
As previously discussed, Georgia law since 2001 has required a grandparent (or certain other designated relatives) seeking custody of a child against a parent to prove by clear and convincing evidence that the child will suffer physical harm or significant, long-term emotional harm if custody were...
A prior article summarized the principal avenues available to grandparents in Georgia for seeking custodial or visitation rights to a minor child. In this follow up, we address the burdens of proof and evidence needed for a grandparent to obtain custody of a minor child or rights of visitation from...
Effective July 1, 2019, Georgia’s Equitable Caregiver Act (the “ECA”) has expanded the classes to whom courts may award custody of a child. The ECA, codified at Section 19-7-3.1 of the Official Code of Georgia, was enacted to bridge a long-recognized gap in our law, which prevented adults who had ra...