Boy, am I glad to find you guys! These threads are very informative. However, I haven't found anything similar to my personal situation. So, here goes:
I am the father to a 15 year old son. His mother and I are not together anymore, but still friends. We were never married, but used my last name on his birth certificate. When we went to court to establish child support, his mother mistakenly signed a form that apparently changed his last name to hers. She has talked to some court reps and they say the form said something like, "sign here if the child's name should remain the same." She took that to mean "stay the same as his birth certificate", so she signed it. Now, they are telling her that meant "to stay the same as her last name."
At any rate, he is 15 and while trying to get his driver's permit, this error came up after years of him using my last name in school, etc. Some officials she has talked to say that we must legally change his name from hers to mine, even though the birth certificate has my last name.
It seems to me like this should be able to be corrected without a legal name change, but we will do whatever we need to do so that he has my last name. Any advice would be appreciated.
Thank you in advance!

