Grandparent alienation and the law

[Jarm9]

I have a friend who has a very sad situation. Her adult children won’t allow the grandchildren to know she exists. Her previous husband and mother have aided this behaviour. I feel it is abusive. Her lawyers has advised that she can make contact with her grand daughter letting her know that she is alive and where she lives, in case the grand daughter wants contact. The granddaughter is 17. The lawyer has advised that a legal server cannot serve a document on an person under 18 years, and if the enter a school to pass a letter to the office, the letter could be forwarded to the parent rather than the grandchild who is 17. They also advise that the school might call the police. Can you advise if this is correct? I have contacted the school via email to ask if they would facilitate and support a student if they received a letter if this kind and the school said ‘no’, but if the student approached them - the councillor would assist. How can you let a 17 year old know you are there for them in this situation? It seems that the law allows you to contact the granddaughter if she is over 16 but facilitating this is the issue.

[Blake-RO]

Hey @Jarm9 

Thank you for reaching out and sharing this with us.

I am sorry to hear that your friend is experiencing this, it must be an incredibly difficult thing to be going through.

It sounds like you have been a great support for her during this, even by posting this shows just how hard you are trying to help and support her through this. She is lucky to have such a caring friend in her life.

Whilst we can’t provide any confirmation around the validity of the advice that you received and are unable to provide any legal advice, we really encourage you to connect with the Family Relationship Advice Line (FRAL) to talk through this. FRAL is a national telephone service that will be able to provide you with more appropriate support and guidance, you can call them on 1800 050 321 or find out more information about it here.

All the best.