Arkansas Grandparents' Rights: Visitation Law After Linder v. Linder

A fit parent's decision about grandparent visitation carries real constitutional weight in Arkansas, and grandparents do not have an automatic right to see a grandchild. Arkansas's legislature rewrote the statute in 2019 to add exactly the protections the Arkansas Supreme Court found missing in 2002, and this guide addresses honestly the one question that remains genuinely open: no reported appellate decision has yet tested whether that fix satisfies the constitutional floor the court set.

Information last verified on 2026-08-12. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

What Arkansas's Grandparent Visitation Law Says

Ark. Code Ann. Section 9-13-103 sets a rebuttable presumption that the custodian's, usually a parent's, decision to deny or limit visitation is in the child's best interest. A grandparent must rebut that presumption by a preponderance of the evidence, a lower bar than the clear-and-convincing standard several neighboring states use, but a real burden nonetheless, generally requiring proof of a significant relationship with the grandchild. A separate provision, Section 9-13-107, allows a grandparent or great-grandparent to petition the court that granted custody or guardianship for visitation whenever the child is already living under a non-parent's custody or guardianship, a somewhat different track than an original petition against an intact family.

Standing to file under Section 9-13-103 is limited to specific situations: the death of a parent, a pending divorce or separation, a change in the child's marital-family status, an out-of-wedlock birth, a court finding of parental unfitness by clear and convincing evidence, or a parent's death followed by the surviving parent's remarriage or a stepparent's adoption of the child. A grandparent whose adult child remains married, together, and simply limiting contact generally has no path to file under this section.

Linder v. Linder and the 2019 Legislative Fix

In Linder v. Linder, 348 Ark. 322, 72 S.W.3d 841 (2002), the Arkansas Supreme Court applied strict scrutiny to the Arkansas Grandparental Visitation Act and declined to strike it down on its face, reasoning that the statute could still be applied constitutionally in a narrow category of cases, for example where the child is already in a non-parent's custody and no parent's constitutional interest is directly at stake. But the Court held the Act unconstitutional as applied to the mother in that case, because the version of the statute then in force made no provision for giving a fit parent's decision presumptive or special weight, and the trial court had found her «unfit» only as to the single decision of denying visitation, which the Court held did not satisfy the compelling-interest requirement for an otherwise fit, custodial parent.

That was an as-applied ruling about a 2002-era statute, not a permanent, facial invalidation of Arkansas's grandparent visitation law. The legislature responded directly to the gap Linder identified: Act 679 of 2019, known as «Tara's Law» and approved April 3, 2019, amended Section 9-13-103 to add the rebuttable presumption described above, that a custodian's decision denying or limiting visitation is in the child's best interest, rebuttable by a preponderance of the evidence, together with a legislative-intent statement that a fit parent's decision about grandparent visitation «is entitled to special weight due to a parent's fundamental right to make decisions concerning the rearing of his or her child». That is confirmed against the official enrolled Act text published by the Arkansas General Assembly, and it is exactly the kind of provision Linder found missing, the same pattern Alabama followed after its own statute was struck in 2011. What remains genuinely open is narrower: no reported Arkansas appellate decision has yet reviewed the amended statute, so whether the 2019 fix, applied against a real fit, objecting parent, fully satisfies the constitutional floor Linder set has not been court-confirmed. A reader with a live case should ask a family-law attorney about any post-2019 appellate treatment before relying on it.

This residual question is not unique to Arkansas. The underlying constitutional issue comes from Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57 (2000), where the U.S. Supreme Court held that a fit parent's decision about a child's visitors deserves real constitutional deference, without setting one single nationwide test every state must copy. States that had older, best-interest-only statutes, including Arkansas and Alabama, have generally had to either amend their laws or have them narrowed by their own courts. Arkansas took the legislative-amendment path in 2019; what no court has yet confirmed is whether that amendment would be upheld if challenged, the way Alabama's 2016 rebuild has been implicitly validated by simply not being challenged again.

Custody Is a Separate, Harder Track

No Arkansas statute gives grandparents a grandparent-specific path to custody. The closest available vehicle is the general probate guardianship-of-the-person statute, Ark. Code Ann. Section 28-65-210, which requires the court to be satisfied that a guardianship is desirable to protect the minor's interests, without an elevated, grandparent-specific standard visible in the statute's text. For the fuller picture, see Can Grandparents Get Custody? and Arkansas child custody laws.

What Happens if the Grandchild Is Adopted

Arkansas does not have a blanket rule that adoption automatically ends grandparent visitation. Instead, one of Section 9-13-103's own standing triggers specifically covers the situation where a stepparent adopts the child following a biological parent's death, which preserves rather than cuts off a grandparent's path to petition. That trigger is narrower than it may sound: it applies to a stepparent adoption following a parent's death, not to a stepparent adoption following divorce or remarriage generally, and whether an adoption by an unrelated party (rather than a stepparent) cuts off standing entirely was not confirmed for this guide.

How to Petition for Grandparent Visitation in Arkansas

A grandparent visitation case is filed in Circuit Court, either as an original action under Section 9-13-103 or, where the child is already under a non-parent's custody or guardianship, in the same court that issued that order under Section 9-13-107. No official statewide fee schedule was located for this filing, so confirm the current cost with the circuit clerk's office where you plan to file.

Given the genuine uncertainty this guide has flagged about how Arkansas's current statute would fare if challenged again, mediation or a direct, informal conversation with the parent is worth attempting before filing anything, both because litigation is slow, expensive, and adversarial toward the child's parent, and because a contested case invites exactly the kind of constitutional scrutiny Arkansas's law has already faced once. If a family decides to move forward, a family-law attorney licensed in Arkansas can evaluate the current facts and the current state of the law, and explain realistically what the case will require.

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about Arkansas grandparent visitation and custody law. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. This guide has flagged a genuine open question about how appellate courts will treat the amended statute; verify current details and consult a licensed Arkansas family-law attorney before relying on anything here for a specific situation.

Related Articles

• Grandparents' Rights by State
• Grandparent Visitation Rights
• Can Grandparents Get Custody?
• Arkansas Child Custody Laws
• Arkansas Divorce Laws

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Last updated: 2026-08-12.