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maflor07 · Jun 13, 2007, 11:58 AM

Hello everyone!
I have an 11 yr old son that has his bio father's last name. We have not seen him or heard from him for 10 1/2 yrs. I have full custody of my son. Now that my son is getting older my husband and I would like to change his last name to ours. My husband has cared for my son since he was 1 yr old. He is the only dad he knows. I filed the petition for name change at my local court. I published the notice in the newpaper since it's part of the process. My cort hearing is tomorrow but now I have one major problem, I have no proof of service because I have no idea where the bio father is. I haven't seen or heard from him in a long time. He has never paid child support and has never tried to contact my son. My question is: Now what will happen in court? What will the judge tell me since I have no proof of service?
Please help.

Thank you

vlee · Jun 13, 2007, 02:29 PM

Take in the article you posted in the paper... I would think that is all you can do if you truthfully have no way of being able to find the father.

J_9 · Jun 13, 2007, 02:33 PM

YOu can take your bill in from the paper to show the length of time that it was published. This may satisfy as your proof of service.

maflor07 · Jun 13, 2007, 03:18 PM

Actually the newspaper filed a copy of the notice.

Thank you very much for all your help. I hope everything goes well tomorrow.

ScottGem · Jun 13, 2007, 03:25 PM

I'm curious about something here. Why is your husband not adopting your son, why just changing the name?

You seem to have gotten a list of procedures to attempt to locate the bio father. All you need to do is show the court you followed those procedures.

maflor07 · Jun 13, 2007, 03:38 PM

That's what we wanted to do from the start, but we thought this was going to be much faster. Are you familiar with adoption? What do I have to do? Do I have to get an attorney?

ScottGem · Jun 13, 2007, 06:02 PM

While the adoption process may be longer, I think its worth it. You have to go through a similar process and I would suggest an attorney. But you can talk to the people at family court and they probably have an instructions booklet on what you need to do.

nanajo1 · Jun 13, 2007, 07:46 PM

I agree with scott hon, adoption is the getter way.
It is always best to have a lawyin these situations so that the ex can't come crawling out of the wood work and sue on a technicality later. Never take chances in a family law case.