What Lawyers Aren't Telling You


Current mood: irascible

Category: News and Politics


FROM YAHOO! NEWS:

L.A. man sues to take wife's last nameUpdated 1/12/2007 10:24 AM ET

By Martin Kasindorf, USA TODAY


LOS ANGELES — Michael Buday is petitioning a federal judge for the right to take Diana Bijon's last name in marriage as easily as she could take his last name.

Bijon, 28, an emergency room nurse, asked her fiancé to change his last name to preserve her father's family name because there are no sons. Buday, 29, a technical manager at an advertising firm, promised he would.

"I had a rough childhood with my father," he says. "We never really got along. Diana's father stepped up, gave me career advice. He's family."

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Anyone can change their name at any time, for any reason, providing it's not done to avoid possible prosecution and there is no intent to usurp or exploit another person's identity -- ie., renaming yourself Hillary Rodham Clinton or Justin Timberlake. No lawyer is needed, it doesn't cost a dime and there's no need to put a silly ad in the local paper announcing the name change.