You Have to Give Notice Once a Petition Has Been Filed
Video Transcribed:
What Is the notice requirement for a petition for name change in Oklahoma? I’m an attorney in Tulsa, OK James Wirth and we’re talking about name changes and we talked a little bit before about the petition and now we’re talking about the notice requirement.
So once a petition has been filed, you get the matter set for hearing, and then you have to give notice out. So who is entitled to notice? All right, well, there’s a general notice which means it’s going to be through publication.
That’s what the statute provides and the statute we’re talking about is Title 12 Section 1633 and it says that you need to publish in a legal newspaper in the county that you are filing for the name change, a notice of the petition, and the hearing 10 days prior to the hearing.
That requirement for the notice has got to have the style of the case, it’s got to have the time and dates in place of the hearing and it’s got to have noticed that any person may file a written protest to that. Those are the requirements that are listed by statute.
In addition to the statutory requirements, in regards to changing the name of a minor child, there are additional requirements that have come up under case law and that is you have to provide actual notice to the other parent or if there’s somebody else that potentially has a claim for a right to custody, visitation that you’re going to want to provide notice to them as well.
Name changes for minor children have been overturned on appeal where there wasn’t notice given to those people, even though the statute doesn’t require it. The courts held that it was a violation of those parties’ due process rights in order not to provide for the notice.
So rather than striking down the statute, the court simply indicated that we kind of need to write into the statutory notice requirements to the other parent or somebody else entitled to care and custody of the child if it’s a minor child.
So to summarize, if we’re talking about a name change of an adult with the petitioners filing for themselves, there’s just a general notice requirement, you don’t have to give any specific person, you have to generally do it through publication in a legal newspaper in the county where the case is with the requirements of the statute. If it’s a minor, a little bit more complicated. Do the publication as well to give notice to anybody that could claim to have an interest in care or custody of the child.
So if you’ve got questions about this process, how it may apply to your case, you’re going to want to talk to your attorney about your specific circumstances confidentially. So if you want to talk to an attorney in Tulsa at my office you can get that scheduled by going to MakeLawEasy.com.
