HB 721 — Family Law — Grandparent Visitation (Summary)
Status snapshot
- Bill number: HB 721 (Family Law — Grandparent Visitation)
- Introduced: November 12, 2024 (first reader / fiscal note Feb. 16, 2025)
- Hearing: Scheduled Feb. 20, 2025, 1:00 p.m.
- Statute amended: Family Law §9‑102 (Maryland)
- Proposed effective date: October 1, 2025 (per bill text)
- Fiscal: Department of Legislative Services — no material fiscal impact on Judiciary or local circuit courts
Purpose / intent
- To modify Maryland law governing when an equity court may or must award visitation rights to grandparents, by (1) lowering or clarifying barriers for some grandparent visitation petitions and (2) setting procedural limits on denying visitation based on alleged interference with parental rights.
Key provisions — what the bill would change
- Expands when an equity court may grant grandparent visitation:
- An equity court may grant visitation if (A) the grandparent’s petition is filed after a parent of the child has filed for divorce, annulment, custody, or paternity, and (B) the court finds (i) visitation is in the child’s best interests and (ii) visitation would not interfere with the parent–child relationship.
- In deciding best interests, the court must consider the amount of personal contact between the grandparent and child before the petition was filed.
- Establishes circumstances in which the court must grant visitation:
- The court must grant visitation if (1) the child lived with the grandparent for at least 12 consecutive months or the parent who is the child of the grandparent is deceased, and (2) the court finds visitation is in the child’s best interests and would not interfere with the parent–child relationship.
- Raises the evidentiary standard for denying visitation on “interference” grounds:
- A court may not deny visitation solely on allegations that visitation would interfere with the parent–child relationship unless, after a hearing, the court finds by a preponderance of the evidence that such interference would occur.
Relationship to current law and case law
- Current statute allows equity courts to consider and grant reasonable grandparent visitation if in the child’s best interests, but Maryland common-law and court decisions (e.g., Koshko v. Haining) have required a threshold showing of parental unfitness or exceptional circumstances due to parental liberty interests. This bill relaxes and clarifies some barriers by focusing on best interests and specifying circumstances that mandate visitation, while still protecting parental decision‑making through the “would not interfere” requirement and a preponderance standard when interference is alleged.
Who would be affected
- Primary: grandparents seeking visitation and parents (particularly when family court actions such as divorce, custody, paternity are pending or when a parent has died or the child resided with the grandparent).
- Courts: equity courts would apply the new criteria and evidentiary rule.
- Children: potential increase in court-ordered grandparent contact in specified circumstances.
Potential effects / considerations
- May increase the number of grandparent visitation petitions in cases following parental filings or where children lived with grandparents or a parent is deceased.
- Shifts legal emphasis toward prior grandparent‑child contact and a best‑interests test while setting a clearer, but not insurmountable, evidentiary barrier before visitation can be denied on parental‑interference grounds.
- DLS indicates no material fiscal impact on Maryland courts.
Notes
- The bill text appears as an amendment to Family Law §9‑102 and sets October 1, 2025, as the operative date.
