First, it was visitation rights for divorced parents to spend time with their children. Then, it was visitation rights for grandparents to see their grandchildren who were caught up in custody battles between parents. Now, it is visitation rights for adult children to see their parents?
Indeed, particularly when those parents are elderly ... and the step-parents are less than congenial.
Across the country, there has been a noticeable increase in adult children being denied access to their ailing parents.
Consequently, states are beginning to take notice and drafting legislation to open up visitation rights to children.
For more on this matter, we turn to a recent Fox News story titled “'Columbo' daughter pushes for bill that protects the right to visit sick parents.”
Remember the hit television show "Columbo" back in the day, starring Peter Falk?
Before Falk died in 2011, his daughter Catherine and Falk's wife (the "stepmother") faced off in a court battle over conservatorship and access to Mr. Falk for years.
In 2008, when Falk became completely incapacitated from his advanced dementia, Catherine decided to create the Catherine Falk Organization. It advocates for the rights of adult children to see their sick parents.
Catherine was able to get an order for visitation from a court issued at the complete discretion of the judge.
Conservators in California currently are not required to inform family members on the health, hospitalization or death of a relative.
Part of the problem, according to California Assemblyman Mike Gatto, is the frequent tension between the second or third spouse and the children of the first marriage.
That conflict often gets worse when a parent becomes sick, as we have witnessed more recently in the case of Casey Kasem.
Current California law gives the rights relating to the care of loves ones to the spouse.
Children have no legal way to arrange visitation with their ailing parents, to receive notice of hospitalization or even the death of their mom or dad.
Children also have no access to information on the funeral arrangements.
Gatto’s bill, if passed, seeks to reverse the law and create a new legal process for adult children to approach the court for permission to visit a parent under care who is not in a conservatorship.
The Assemblyman thinks the bill will pass and hopes this law will be a blueprint for other states considering similar measures to help ailing seniors.
Contact an experienced elder law attorney who can help make arrangements to keep the family peace should that time come for your family.
Remember: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” When making your financial, tax and estate plans, do not go it alone. Be sure to engage competent professional counsel.
Reference: Fox News (June 7, 2015) “'Columbo' daughter pushes for bill that protects the right to visit sick parents”
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