The statutes of Oregon providing for visitation rights are not limited to grandparents but include any person who has emotional ties with a child that have created a child-parent relationship or an "ongoing personal relationship." The statute defines a child-parent relationship as existing in whole or in part within the six months preceding the filing of a request for visitation. In this relationship, the person should have had physical custody, resided in the same house, or otherwise provided for the child's daily needs, meeting "the child's psychological need for a parent as well as the child's physical needs." The statute defines an "ongoing personal relationship" as one with with "substantial continuity for at least one year," featuring "interaction, companionship, interplay and mutuality."
As is usual, the parents are presumed to have acted in the best interest of the child in refusing visitation, and the person seeking visitation must rebut that presumption. In deciding whether to award visitation or contact rights over the objection of the legal parent, the court may consider factors including the following:
- The grandparent is or recently has been the child’s primary caretaker.
- Denying the request for visitation would be detrimental to the child.
- The relationship between the grandparent and the child has been encouraged or consented to by the parent.
- Visitation would not interfere with the custodial relationship.
- The legal parent has unreasonably denied or limited visitation.
Adoption terminates visitation rights.
See Oregon Statutes. Scroll down to 109.119.
Go back to grandparents rights by state.
