I keep going around in circles about what order I need to do things in.  Do you publish the announcement in the paper, then make a court date?  Or do you make a court date, then publish the announcement?  And does the announcement have to have already run before you see the judge, or do you just have to prove that you have scheduled it to run? 

I don't know about the laws of individual states, but I had to go to the courthouse to file it, where they gave me the court date and told me to go ahead with the newpaper. I think you have to file first. I had to run the announcement 30 days before my hearing.

Ugh.  I didn't realize it would take so long to get a hearing.  Guess I shouldn't have put it off.    I'm starting to get weird looks from people at work, and am just now getting the "Do you have a cold?" question.  I need to get stuff officially changed over.

Did you have to pay the court fee at the time you got the court date, or when you actually went before the judge?

at the time I filed and got the court date. yeah, I filed on Tuesday and my hearing's not till October.  YMMV

When you file your papers at the courthouse you will have to pay the fee.
That is, unless you fill out a "Financial Waiver Affidavit" and they approve it.
They will give you a form legal ad with the blanks filled in.
Technically you have some choice what paper to bring it to in most cases.
You could insert it in "Bee Keeper's Weekly", but the court will probably squawk.
In most cases, the courthouse clerks will tell you what paper to use.
You bring it to the paper, pay the ad fee (unless you have a coupon from your Financial Waiver that says to bill the courthouse).
After the ad has appeared the required number of times, you will need to get an affidavit from the paper that it has appeared.
You may have to pick this up or the paper may send it directly to the courthouse.
Then, just wait around for your court appearance date and show up proudly.

Depends on your state.  I didn't have to place an ad.  I filled out the form, took it to the court, paid the fee, and they set a date approx a month later.  Could have been sooner but I was going out of town.

So, it depends.


Jay

Quote from: sneakersjay on August 21, 2009, 07:49:33 AM
Depends on your state.

Oh, absolutely.

I just meant that there is no possible way to insert a legal ad before filing your papers.
The ad (if one is necessary) has to have the date, time, judge, court and case number on it.

Thanks for your replies, folks.  I just got back from the court house, and my name will be official on September 28th.  Wish I'd stuck around here long enough to read about the fee waiver.  I'd forgotten that was possible.    I'll be eating lean for the next couple weeks.  Aye-yai-yai this has been an expensive morning!  Still, it's nice to have the ball rolling again.   

Hopefully by the time my court date comes around I'll be passing a little better.  I got ma'amed in the newspaper office.    I swear I'm getting ma'amed more now than I did before T!  Of course, I'm probably just noticing it more now.

Completely depends on state.  Here in MA all I did was bring a name change form and $165 to the courthouse for my county and a couple weeks later I got a certificate of name change in the mail.  No court dates or running it in the paper or anything like that.  Didn't realize how good I had it til I read this thread actually..

Wait a minute... You have to announce your name change in a newspaper?? am I missing something??

depends on the state. I do.

Quote from: northy on August 21, 2009, 12:48:33 PM
You have to announce your name change in a newspaper?

The logic being that somebody that you owe a large amount of money to will not be fooled by your name change.

For those who did or didn't have to advertise with a legal notice, try Googling all the particulars to see if there is a public notice of it anyway online.

Yeah, it does vary state to state.  Here it's actually specified that you have to run the notice for 3 weeks in a paper the town in which you live.    Cost me almost $100 to do it, as well. 

Yeah, and that ain't nothing new, that's always been the rule for name changes.

I requested that the notice in the paper be waived, and the judge obliged.  I was not required to publish my name change at all.  There was also no hearing. NY.

I filled out the petition.  Included a letter from my therapist explaining my situation and requesting that the publication be waived.  Paid my $210.00.  Submitted the paperwork.  Waited about 5 days, got a manila envelope in the mail with the order.  I went downtown, had copies made.  Then proceeded to change my name on EVERYTHING!

If you include a letter from your therapist, get it notarized.


EDIT

Actually, I don't remember if the order came in the mail, or a letter saying that the name change was approved.  Either way, the manila envelope had all the stuff I submitted, and I still had to go to the clerks office to get copies.

Quote from: Valerie Elizabeth on August 22, 2009, 07:56:18 PM
Included a letter from my therapist explaining my situation ...

Well, I guess that's one way to do it.
Maybe you can get some more privacy that way but at the cost of acknowledging everything to the court.

Going the normal way and exercising your right to change your name without reference to anything transsexual is more public in some ways and more private in other ways.

Yeah.  I really didn't want to put my name in the paper.

I don't really mind a whole lot.  I am going to move out of NYS after I get my BS (maybe after my MS).

I'm not really sure how much of a difference it will make whether I stay in the same state or not, but I like to think that moving away from this state will get me a little more privacy.  Maybe not.

in TN it's not required to post in the paper either, and costs $157.50 cash or cashier's check. You need your birth certificate, photo ID, and SS card. The forms are available online as PDF's. Pretty simple procedure all in all.