What are step parents rights for visitation in California?

Dear jellymankelly-ga;

Thank you for allowing me to answer your interesting question. Keep in
mind that we are not attorneys here and we cannot offer legal advice.
The best I can do is to point you to the statutes and try to help
explain how they relate to public law as I interpret it (read our
disclaimer below).

With that out of the way, let?s proceed. In California, the issue is a
bit complicated. Legally speaking, a stepparent has no rightful claim
to visitation with a child not his own and that he has not legally
adopted. (I use the term ?he? here anecdotally, of course).

Under the provisions of Family Code §3020 (beginning there and reading
beyond), the judge DOES have the power to grant a stepparent
reasonable visitation at his discretion, IF the judge believes that is
in the best interest of the child to do so. As a practical matter,
however, this is rare and most courts will overwhelmingly deny a
stepparent?s request for visitation if the biological parent objects
because of its potential to create unnecessary conflicts and problems.

FAMILY CODE SECTION §3020-3032 
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cacodes/fam/3020-3032.html

Family Code §3040-3048 deals with issued relative to considerations
for child custody (and includes issues relative to visitation). Here
you can clearly see that the best interest of the child is the main
focus. For the purposes of this statue, the term ?parent? means a
legal (adoptive or biological), parent, custodian or guardian (The
term includes the mother and child relationship and the father and
child relationship). The factors in determining custody and visitation
are set forth in these statutes and nowhere is a stepparent
relationship recognized as a valid relative, custodian, or guardian
relationship for these purposes.

FAMILY CODE SECTION §3040-3048
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cacodes/fam/3040-3048.html

Under the Uniform Parentage Act a ?parent? is described thusly:

7601.  "Parent and child relationship" as used in this part means the
legal relationship existing between a child and the child's natural or
adoptive parents incident to which the law confers or imposes rights,
privileges, duties, and obligations.  The term includes the mother and
child relationship and the father and child relationship.

[The term ?parent? defined]
FAMILY CODE SECTION §7600-7604.5
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cacodes/fam/7600-7604.5.html

What this means is that a stepparent has no LEGAL right to visitation,
but this same statute goes on to make provisions for certain
situations (perhaps even extraordinary ones) such as the one you
suggested IF (there?s that ?if? again) the court deems it to be in the
best interest of the child. You will note that in doing so, it refers
directly back to Family Code §3020:

7604.  A court may order pendente lite relief consisting of a custody
or visitation order pursuant to Part 2 (commencing with Section 3020)
of Division 8, if the court finds both of the following:
(a) Based on the tests authorized by Section 7541, a parent and child
relationship exists pursuant to Section 7540.
(b) The custody or visitation order would be in the best interest of the child.

What does all this legalese mean? Well, it basically means that, as a
stepparent, you can?t waltz into court and demand visitation because
it is rightfully yours. BUT, it also means that stranger things have
happened and that there does seem to be a provision in the law which
could, theoretically, result in a judge ordering stepparent visitation
if he was convinced it was in the best interest of the child to do so.

If this issue is important to you I recommend, as always, that it is
wise to contact a licensed attorney or legal aid in your area to make
additional inquiries.

I hope you find that my research exceeds your expectations. If you
have any questions about my research please post a clarification
request prior to rating the answer. Otherwise I welcome your rating
and your final comments and I look forward to working with you again
in the near future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.

Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga ? Google Answers Researcher



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UNIFORM PARENTAGE ACT

The answer provided above does not mention the most relevant
California Statute, which is Family Code section 3101, governing
stepparent visitation rights:

=======================================

(a) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the court may
grant reasonable visitation to a stepparent, if visitation by the
stepparent is determined to be in the best interest of the minor
child.

(b) If a protective order, as defined in Section 6218, has been
directed to a stepparent to whom visitation may be granted pursuant
to this section, the court shall consider whether the best interest
of the child requires that any visitation by the stepparent be
denied.

(c) Visitation rights may not be ordered under this section that
would conflict with a right of custody or visitation of a birth
parent who is not a party to the proceeding.

(d) As used in this section:

    (1) "Birth parent" means "birth parent" as defined in Section
8512.

    (2) "Stepparent" means a person who is a party to the marriage
that is the subject of the proceeding, with respect to a minor child
of the other party to the marriage.

=======================================

That statute can be reviewed on the FindLaw website,
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cacodes/fam/3100-3104.html

The California Court of Appeals recently reviewed the stepparent
visitation statute for its constitutionality, in In re Marriage of
James and Claudine W., 114 Cal. App. 4th 68;7 Cal. Rptr. 3d 461
(2003). The Court of Appeals concluded, "section 3101 conforms to
constitutional dictates if the decision to permit visitation applies
the rebuttable presumption favoring parental decisions." That is to
say, if the birth parent (or parents) opposes stepparent visitation,
that decision must be presumed valid, and it is up to the stepparent
to rebut that presumption in court.

You can review that decision on the lexisone.com website, although
free registration is required. (You can find it easily by searching
California state cases for "name(james and claudine)".
http://www.lexisone.com/

As noted above, Sections 3040 through 3048 deal with custody actions,
not parenting time actions. A stepparent does not have standing (legal
authority) under the statute to initiate a custody action, although it
does create the possibility of a grant of custody to a third party
once a custody action has been initiated by the child's parents. The
definition of "parent" under the "Uniform Parentage Act" is intended
to address the historically inequitable treatment of the nonmarital
child - those once deemed "illegitimate".