Moving Beyond Troxel: The Uniform Nonparent Custody and Visitation Act

• Author: Jeff Atkinson & Barbara Atwood
• Position: Reporter for the UNCVA; Professor-Reporter for the Illinois Judicial Conference; DePaul University College of Law, Chicago, 1991?2017. - Mary Anne Richey Professor of Law Emerita, University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, and Vice Chair of the Drafting Committee for the UNCVA.
• Pages: 479-517

479

Moving Beyond Troxel:

The Uniform Nonparent Custody and

Visitation Act

JEFF ATKINSON* & BARBARA ATWOOD**

Introduction

I. History

II. Scope of Act

III. Individuals Who May Obtain Relief

A. Consistent Caretaker

B. Substantial Relationship and Showing of Harm

C. Case Law

D. Issue of Standing Based on Disruption in the Family

E. Number of Persons Who May Seek Custody or Visitation

IV. Presumption in Favor of Parent; Burden of Proof

V. Best Interest Factors

VI. Presumptions Against Persons Who Engaged in Domestic

Violence and Related Offenses

VII. Jurisdiction

VIII. Pleadings

IX. Notice

X. Judicial Powers in Proceedings under the Act

XI. Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law

 

XIII. Effect of Adoption of a Child

* Reporter for the UNCVA; Professor-Reporter for the Illinois Judicial Conference;

DePaul University College of Law, Chicago, 1991–2017.

** Mary Anne Richey Professor of Law Emerita, University of Arizona James E. Rogers

College of Law, and Vice Chair of the Drafting Committee for the UNCVA.

Published in Family Law Quarterly, Volume 52, Number 3, Fall 2018. © 2019 American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof

may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.

480 Family Law Quarterly, Volume 52, Number 3, Fall 2018

XIV. Cost of Facilitation of Visitation

XV. Conclusion

Appendix A: UNCVA, Final Act, with Comments

Appendix B: Issues of Style

Introduction

         

2018 to the Uniform Nonparent Custody and Visitation Act (UNCVA),



children.1 In this controversial area, courts and legislatures have taken



with the state’s duty to protect children’s welfare. The enigmatic case of

Troxel v. Granville2



determining when deference to parental decision-making is not required.

Troxel 

the interests of children, parents, and nonparents with whom children have

a close relationship.



          



Demographics indicate that many children in the United States live with

nonparents during all or part of their childhood. In 2018, the U.S. Census

Bureau reported that there were 73,741,000 children in the United States

under age 18.3



a single parent and with grandparents.4





1. See UNCVA (UNIF. L. COMM’N, 2018), https://www.uniformlaws.org/committees/







 

3.

U.S. CENSUS BUREAU, CURRENT POPULATION SURVEY, 2018 ANNUALSOCIALAND

ECONOMIC SUPPLEMENT, 

.

4. Id.





Published in Family Law Quarterly, Volume 52, Number 3, Fall 2018. © 2019 American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof

may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.

Moving Beyond Troxel: The Uniform Nonparent Custody and Visitation Act 481





in coparenting.      

nonparents and children who, while never residing together, have had





opioid addiction in this country, many relatives have stepped forward to

 The legal rights of



          





         

often imposing threshold requirements that have little to do with children’s

7 State

         

         

nonparent contact. Some courts have concluded that the nonparent must

always show that the child will suffer harm if the requested access is not

granted.8



            

parenthood is JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN, ANNA FREUD & ALBERT J. SOLNIT, BEYONDTHEBEST

INTERESTSOFTHE CHILDSee,

e.g., ATTACHMENT THEORYAND RESEARCH: NEW DIRECTIONSAND EMERGING THEMES (Jeffrey

           

legal implications of psychological parenthood for third-party custody and visitation disputes.

See Pamela Laufer-Ukeles, The Relational Rights of Children, 48 CONN. L. REV

(emphasizing children’s perspectives and arguing that states should recognize a range of

     Psychological Parentage, , and the Best

Interests of the Child, 13 GEO. J. GENDER & L





 See Jennifer Egan, Children of the Opioid Epidemic, N.Y. TIMES MAG. (May 9, 2018),



7. Many states condition a nonparent’s access to court on a showing that a parent has died,



circumstances. See, e.g., ARIZ. REV. STAT

                

parents are not married, or a divorce is pending). Parents have successfully challenged some of

these statutes as violating their due process rights. See, e.g

         

separation violated due process).

8. See cases discussed infra at notes 103–04.

Published in Family Law Quarterly, Volume 52, Number 3, Fall 2018. © 2019 American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof

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