If Petitioning for a Name Change, Make Sure You Have a Good Reason
Video Transcribed: The crime to use a name change for a fraudulent purpose in Oklahoma. I’m an attorney in Tulsa, Ok James Wirth, and we’re talking about name changes. And it is a crime under Oklahoma law to seek and obtain a name change if you have the intent to use it for a fraudulent or illegal purpose.
And that is codified in the statute and that’s Title 12, Section 1636. And it says that if you get a name change judgment with the intent to use it, even if you don’t actually use it for fraudulent purposes, if you had the intent to use it for a fraudulent or illegal purpose, then that is a crime.
Or obviously, if you do the name change, and then use it for an illegal or fraudulent purpose, that is a crime, falls into the same crime. It does actually require you to obtain the name change judgment though.
So according to this statute, if you made the request for a name change for a fraudulent purpose and it was denied, the crime wasn’t actually committed, you’d actually have to get away with it and get the name change for it to be a crime. And the statute does not list the punishment.
However, it does define it as a misdemeanor. So where there’s a misdemeanor under Oklahoma law, where it does not define the punishment, then it goes to the default misdemeanor punishment in Oklahoma, which is up to one year in the county jail and/or up-to a $500 fine.
So in any case, if you’re petitioning for a name change, you want to make sure that you have a good-faith reason for that, that it’s not for some fraudulent illegal purpose, that you’re not trying to evade creditors, that you have good faith intentions of doing it for the right reasons.
If you’ve got questions about Oklahoma name changes though, in your specific circumstances, you’re going to talk with an Oklahoma attorney. You can get that arranged by going to makelaweasy.com.
