our foster girl did it at 16 or 17 years old ... she just did it through via a deedpoll change of name. I signed a stat dec in support of it, and they called me to speak to me personally ... but I'm not sure whether they wanted to speak to me as hher carer, or as her lawyer.
(she wasn't changing her name to my surname - long complicated and painful story as to why she was changing her name, but she was completely doing the right thing to take care of herself emotionally)
but I second persephone's comments regarding doing an affidavit setting out your efforts to contact her biological father to notify him, and your reasons for thinking that's his last known address.
you just need to satisfy the court that it would have come to his attention, or that you've done everything reasonable to bring it to his attention.
these days, contact can involve email, sms, facebook even, so be creative
and the affidavit can just be in your own words - you don't need to use lawyer-y words for it. just say what you tried and why, what times you phoned, when you posted the letter, etc, and staple a copy of the letter to it.
the registry at the court or your local police station should be able to help you out putting it together, and they also should be can witness the affidavit for you, if you don't want to incur legal fees for doing it.
Friday we went to court after filling the application with the courts in early December.
I had to sign an affidavit stating that We had tried to locate her father and that we couldnt.
My DD came to court with me as she is 12 they wanted to talk to her as well.
The magistrate was great, he closed the court and made her feel comfortable, he asked me several questions then basically asked DD if she knew what it meant and if she wanted to do it, he also asked her about school etc.
SO as of yesterday her surname has been officially changed and she is rapt.
Great news!!! How much did it all cost in the end?
My DS1 & DD1 have hyphenated surnames at the moment and want to drop their fathers name. DS is 17 soon so may wait until he is 18, but DD will want to do it eventually.
Last edited by Lisa; January 15th, 2011 at 05:40 PM.
I did this in qld about 4 yrs ago. I found the process fairly easy.
Essentially just filled out a form from births deaths and marriages and had to show I had been using the name I was changing to ( for me that part was easy as I had nothing in my listed name at all and had never used it).
Oddly enough it was the cost I found most annoying, about $150 I think. Seemed silly for a bit of paper!
Because she is a minor it had to go through the system. If both parents consent they file the papers and it is done easily.
We had tried to get into contact with her Father and he had not made contact with her for several years now.
I had to state how I had tried to locate him etc. To lodge the application in court was $120
WE didn't have to pay any costs for the hearing. I believe we will have to pay around $150 for a new birth certificate with births, deaths and marriages.
She had been using our surname at primary school as our DS also attends the school, this year however she is going to high school and they would not have it down differently to what was stated on her birth certificate, so now I will ring them this week and get them to change all their records before school goes back.
I did tell them that we where going through the process, so they had warning
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