Legal Question in Family Law in Illinois

Even if your divorce decree gave you the right, you've been using your married name for some years. The simplest thing is a "name change" procedure which the clerk of court can help with. It requires filing a petition, a time period where you advertise ("publish") your filing, and a short court hearing where the only real issue is why you want this and this is a perfectly reasonable purpose and reason. Then you will get a court order that you can get certified copies of and send to wherever you need to or want to, to change your name (on things like driver's license, stocks, bank accounts, diplomas....). Although the court process itself isn't that costly, and the ads aren't either, there may be costs and fees associated with each change.

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