Never Married & Father in Jail for Murder of Our Child

My question involves name change laws in the State of: Missouri

I have an eight year old son who has his fathers last name. His father is not on the birth certificate (however, he has previously admitted to being the father to child support enforcement) and as I stated above we were never married. The father is currently in jail for second degree murder of one of my other children (his child as well). He's been in jail for almost seven years now.

I'm curious about the best way to go about this or if it is even possible?

Best way to go about what?

Changing his last name from his fathers to mine.

Is the father willing to sign off on the name change?

The court rules governing name change are here - they're pretty straightforward. You may be able to get a "fill in the blanks" petition form at the courthouse.

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Quoting cyjeff

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Is the father willing to sign off on the name change?

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I am not sure what he is willing to do. If I had to assume I would assume he would; however, I have not had any communication with him since he was taking off to jail, nor do I know where he is located to even ask this information. In all honesty, I wouldn't be able to ask. When he was in county jail, I wasn't able to ask why he did what he did let alone now be able to ask for his permission to change our living sons last name.

If I remember correctly he isn't even to have any contact with our living son or me. I need to locate all of the paperwork first.

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Quoting aaron

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The court rules governing name change are here - they're pretty straightforward. You may be able to get a "fill in the blanks" petition form at the courthouse.

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Thank you!

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Quoting aaron

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The court rules governing name change are here - they're pretty straightforward. You may be able to get a "fill in the blanks" petition form at the courthouse.

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Oh shucks lol. I've been to this site already. It wasn't really specific when it came to a single parent wanting to change a minors name. I guess I'm going to just have to spend the money and file and see what happens.

Sorry it wasn't more specific. I looked up the statutes as well, but believe it or not they're even less informative. (They're here, Sec. 527.270, 527.280, 527.290.)

The court rules indicate that you can initiate a name change for a minor by consent, or do it with notice to the other parent if you don't have consent. Generally speaking, in a dispute between parents a court evaluates a contested petition by applying the "best interest" standards - is it in the child's best interest to have the new surname. I suspect that, given the facts you describe, even if the father tries to dispute the petition the judge will grant the name change.

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Quoting aaron

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Sorry it wasn't more specific. I looked up the statutes as well, but believe it or not they're even less informative. (They're here, Sec. 527.270, 527.280, 527.290.)

The court rules indicate that you can initiate a name change for a minor by consent, or do it with notice to the other parent if you don't have consent. Generally speaking, in a dispute between parents a court evaluates a contested petition by applying the "best interest" standards - is it in the child's best interest to have the new surname. I suspect that, given the facts you describe, even if the father tries to dispute the petition the judge will grant the name change.

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Yeah, I found a site called case.net and was able to pull up the criminal record and I completely forgot about the two other charges (Abuse of a child resulting in death and endangering welfare of child-1st degree) so yes I would have to agree that I "think" a court would allow it.

I just don't know how that would work if the father cannot be reached. Maybe the courts could find him.

Thanks for the response...