Grandparents’ rights in Maryland are limited. State law gives grandparents no automatic right to see or care for a grandchild, but Family Law § 9-102 lets a grandparent ask a court for visitation. Winning that petition takes more than showing love or a close bond. You have to overcome the constitutional presumption that fit parents get to decide who spends time with their children, which in practice means proving either that a parent is unfit or that exceptional circumstances exist and the child would be significantly harmed without the relationship.
Why Parents Start With the Upper Hand
Every grandparent visitation case in Maryland begins from the same constitutional floor. In Troxel v. Granville, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment protects a fit parent’s decisions about the care, custody, and control of their children, and that courts must give “at least some special weight to the parent’s own determination.”1Legal Information Institute. Troxel v. Granville
Maryland’s high court applied that principle to the state’s grandparent visitation statute in Koshko v. Haining. Family Law § 9-102 permits an equity court to award visitation if it finds visitation is in the child’s best interests.2Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Family Law 9-102 – Visitation of Grandchild But Koshko added a threshold: before the court reaches the best-interests question, the grandparent must first show either that the parent is unfit or that exceptional circumstances exist and the absence of grandparent visitation would significantly harm the child.3Maryland Courts. Koshko v. Haining No. 1302 September Term 2005 Fail the threshold, and the judge never weighs what is best for the child.
Unfitness or Exceptional Circumstances
You have two ways to clear the threshold, and most grandparents use the second.
Proving a parent unfit means putting forward credible evidence of abuse, neglect, or conduct that puts the child at real risk. It is a serious allegation, and courts treat it that way. If you have that evidence, raise it, but expect close scrutiny.
The exceptional circumstances path shifts the focus off the parent and onto the child. You are not arguing the parent is bad. You are arguing that your specific relationship with this grandchild matters enough to the child’s well-being that severing it would cause real emotional or psychological harm. Courts look at the bond that existed before the dispute and at what losing it would do to the child.4Maryland General Assembly. HB 25 – Family Law – Grandparent Visitation
Depth of involvement is the foundation. A grandparent who covered daily after-school care for years has a very different case from one who visited on holidays. Vague statements about loving your grandchild do not clear the bar. Courts want specifics: how often, how long, what you did, and what changed.
What the Court Weighs Once You Get In
If the threshold is met, the court moves to best interests. Drawing on Fairbanks v. McCarter as cited in Koshko, Maryland courts consider:
- The nature and stability of the child’s relationships with each parent.
- The frequency, regularity, and depth of the child’s contact with you before the dispute.
- Whether court-ordered visitation would help or hurt the child on balance.
- Whether visits would undermine the child’s attachment to the parents and household.
- The physical and emotional health of all the adults involved.
- The child’s living and schooling stability.
The court also examines why the parent cut off contact. The parent’s decision is presumed valid, but a grandparent can offer evidence that the denial is unreasonable or unrelated to the child’s welfare. A cutoff driven by a personal grudge, against the backdrop of a deep and stable bond with the child, is more likely to look exceptional to a judge.
Evidence carries the case. Photographs, emails, texts, school pickup records, and testimony from teachers, counselors, or pediatricians who watched the relationship firsthand are far more persuasive than statements from other relatives.
When a Grandparent Qualifies as a De Facto Parent
A smaller group of grandparents have done more than visit. They have functionally raised the child. Maryland recognizes this through the de facto parent doctrine from Conover v. Conover. A de facto parent skips the unfitness and exceptional circumstances thresholds entirely and goes straight to a best-interests analysis on the same footing as a legal parent.5FindLaw. Conover v. Conover – Maryland Supreme Court Decisions
To qualify, you must prove all four elements:
- The legal parent consented to and fostered your parent-like relationship with the child.
- You and the child lived in the same household.
- You took on significant caregiving duties, including support, education, and development, without expecting payment.
- You held that role long enough to form a dependent, parent-child bond.
The Conover court drew a firm line between “pure third parties” like typical grandparents seeking visitation and people who have genuinely stepped into a parental role.5FindLaw. Conover v. Conover – Maryland Supreme Court Decisions Grandparents who raised a child while a parent was incapacitated, incarcerated, or otherwise absent for years may fit. Occasional caregiving, however loving, does not.
Filing for Visitation
You start by filing a Complaint for Visitation (Form CC-DR-005) at the Circuit Court in the Maryland county where the child lives.6Maryland Judiciary. Complaint for Visitation (Child Access) You will need the full legal names and current addresses of the child and both parents, the child’s date of birth, and information about any prior court cases involving the child. A Civil Domestic Case Information Report (Form CC-DCM-001) goes with it.7Maryland Courts. Complaint for Visitation Instructions
The complaint includes a section explaining why the child should be allowed to visit you. Lay out your exceptional circumstances argument there in detail: the history of the relationship, the frequency and nature of contact, and how the child would be harmed by losing it.
Filing costs $165 to open a new civil case.8Maryland Judiciary. Summary of Charges, Costs, and Fees of the Clerks of the Circuit Court After filing, you have to serve each parent through a private process server or sheriff’s deputy. Parents served in Maryland get 30 days to respond, parents served in another state get 60 days, and parents served outside the country get 90 days.9Maryland Courts. Child Custody – Section: Is There a Deadline for Answering a Complaint?
The court may order mediation under Maryland Rule 9-205 before scheduling a hearing.10New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. Maryland Rule 9-205 If mediation produces an agreement, the court can adopt it. If not, the case proceeds to a hearing where you carry the burden of proof. A guardian ad litem may be appointed to interview the child, the parents, and others, and judges often give those recommendations significant weight.
If a Parent Ignores the Order
An order is only useful if it is followed. If a parent refuses to comply, you can file a Petition for Contempt (Form CC-DR-003) with the court that issued the original order.11Maryland Courts. Petition for Contempt (Denial of Visitation) Instructions The petition has to spell out exactly which provisions were violated and how.
The court then issues an Order to Show Cause, served on the non-compliant parent, and sets a hearing. If the judge finds a willful violation, consequences can include fines, make-up visitation, or jail. The petition includes a place to indicate whether you are asking for jail as an enforcement tool. Keep dated records of every denied visit, along with any communications or excuses, because those records are your evidence at the hearing.
Changing an Existing Order
Either side can ask the court to modify a visitation order, but only after showing a material change in circumstances since the order was entered, one that relates to the child’s needs or a parent’s ability to meet them, and only if modification serves the child’s best interests.12New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. Maryland Code Family Law 9-202 – Modification of Child Custody or Visitation Order A proposed relocation that would make the current schedule impractical automatically counts as a material change. If your situation shifts, go back to court instead of quietly ignoring the existing order.
A Bill That Could Change the Rules
Maryland’s grandparent visitation law may be about to shift. House Bill 25, introduced in the 2026 legislative session, would let a court grant grandparent visitation when the petition is filed after a divorce, annulment, custody, or paternity action by a parent. It would also require a court to grant visitation, on a best-interests finding, when the grandparent’s own child (the child’s parent) has died, or when the child lived with the grandparent for at least 12 months.13Maryland General Assembly. HB0025 – Family Law – Grandparent Visitation As of early 2026, HB 25 had received a committee hearing but had not been enacted. If it passes, it would meaningfully lower the barrier for grandparents in those specific situations, especially where a parent has died and the surviving parent or their family has cut off contact.