Leving Team Reunited Grandparents with Grandchildren

By Laura Reichel

Tragically, a loving Chicago father died leaving behind his two children. Since birth and prior to their father’s passing, the children had lived in their paternal grandparents’ home with both parents.

Their grandparents were deeply devoted to them, forming a close and loving bond that became an essential part of the children’s daily lives.

When the parents were at work, the grandparents fed the children, took them for walks, took them to museums and parks, read to them, and put them to bed.

After dad died, according to court documents, the mother shockingly severed the grandparents from the children’s lives, putting this relationship at risk.

Without notice, she reportedly moved out of the grandparents’ home with the children and attempted to cut the grandparents out of their lives entirely. Despite the grandparents’ years of love and devotion, the mother reportedly refused to allow visits and would not even permit the grandparents to speak with the children.

Chicago based matrimonial attorney Jeffery Leving, President of the Law Offices of Jeffery M. Leving Ltd., will talk about this important court victory on the Dads’ Rights Legal Hour, 9-10 a.m. CDT Saturday, May 2^ndon Power 92.3 FM. This show segment will be available for download on the Dads’ Rights Legal Hour’s Spotify page on dadsrights.com. Listen to Leving’s radio show and follow his fight to protect children everywhere and connect with him on Instagram @dadsrights.

Desperate, the grandparents turned to attorney Jeffery Leving for help. The Leving legal team acted swiftly and decisively to reunite the grandparents with their grandchildren, and won.

Through an aggressive and strategic legal approach, the Leving legal team won this landmark decision that provided the grandparents with grandparent time, holiday grandparent time, and extended time during the summer with their grandchildren. Furthermore, when the children begin to attend school then half of the grandchildren’s winter breaks and alternating spring breaks were court ordered to be with their grandparents. Thanks to the Leving legal team’s powerful advocacy and concern for these grandparents and their grandchildren, the grandparents will be a huge part of their grandchildren’s lives and provide the love, guidance, and stability that every child deserves.

This case highlights a growing and often overlooked issue in family law: the rights of grandparents. In attorney Leving’s book Divorce Wars, published by HarperCollins, Leving underscores how, in the aftermath of death, divorce, or separation, one parent may attempt to exclude the other parent’s family from a child’s life. In these situations, grandparents may seek visitation through the courts—especially when they have been unjustly cut off despite a deep, established bond. The courts acknowledge that under certain circumstances grandparents do indeed have legal rights in these matters, especially if they’ve been an integral part of a child’s life and a strong bond has been established.

This hard-won victory modified for publication expanded the grandparents’ legal rights to be in their grandchildren’s lives and reinforced the belief that grandparents can play an important role in the protection of children and the welfare of the next generation. Grandparents can be a valuable and influential part of their grandchildren’s lives, and they shouldn’t just be tossed overboard in the event of the death of a parent or a parental breakup.

Matrimonial attorney Jeffery M. Leving is the recipient of the U.S. Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award from the President of the United States in recognition of his 7,500 hours of service to this great nation. Leving co-authored the foundational Illinois joint custody law and has dedicated his career to safeguarding children and reuniting them with their fathers.

To learn more about Leving, law and fatherhood, visit dadsrights.com

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Ray Hanania

Ray Hanania is an award-winning opinion columnist, author & former Chicago City Hall reporter (1977-1992). A veteran who served during the Vietnam War and the recipient of four SPJ Peter Lisagor Awards for column writing, Hanania writes weekly opinion columns on mainstream American & Chicagoland topics for the Southwest News-Herald, Des Plaines Valley News, the Regional News, The Reporter Newspapers, and Suburban Chicagoland.

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