A family dispute between parents and grandparents may interfere with the relationships between the grandchildren and their grandparents. These one have rights, and it may be necessary to consider a legal action to exercise them. But before getting there, is it possible to hire a private investigator to find your grandchildren and know more about them?
What are the rights of grandparents in France?
In France children have the right to have personal relations with their grandparents, and vice versa, as stated by the article 371-4 of the Civil Code:
The child has the right to have personal relations with his grandparents. Only the interest of the child may be an obstacle to the exercise of this right.
But this may be complicated when the relationship between grandparents and parents is totally broken, whatever the reason. The child may be caught in the middle of a family conflict, and can not see his grandparents. In some cases, the grandparents could not even meet their grandchildren.
In these conditions, grandparents have a few options to exercise their correspondence or visiting rights. First, they can try a family mediation to find an amicable settlement. As a last resort, grandparents may refer to a judge to get their rights regarding their grandchildren.
The priority is to protect the grandchildren interests
Even if the child has the right to have personal relations with his grandparents, the judge will take into account other aspects before taking his decision. His priority will be to preserve the child’s interests. He will for instance make sure that the measures allowing the grandparents to see their grandchildren would not create a crisis environment which would affect the children well-being. Similarly, if the children absolutely refuse to see their grandparents, the judge may object to the visit right.
A legal action will not always be the good solution for grandparents to see their grandchildren, their protection being the priority for the judge.
Hiring a private investigator to know more about your grandchildren
Before considering a legal action which may be uncertain and could escalate the family conflict, grandparents may first try to get reassuring news from their grandchildren. Unfortunately the parents can still act as a barrier if the relation is deeply broken.
Grandparents can hire a private investigator to get news from the children. When the ties are totally severed for a few years, the investigations can even help to know if grandchildren were born without the grandparents know it. To get answers, hiring a private investigator is perfectly legitimate as it aims to preserve the rights defined by the article 371-4 of the Civil Code.
The private investigator can first investigate the names and age of the child. He can also investigate on site to get information about the child’s education, his activities, and for the grandparents to put a face on their descendants.
The investigations will be done with the higher discretion in order to protect the children well-being and without escalating the family dispute.