Legal Question in Family Law in Michigan

Remarrying is not the problem - it's changing your name, if you intend to, by taking the last name of your new husband. So long as there's no dispute that you were divorced and are not currently married, I don't see any problems with you getting married. I assume you handled the divorce yourself and did not have a lawyer, and that's how the wrong name ended up on the documents? A divorce complaint requires the parties to state the wife's name prior to her marriage, and whether she is seeking to have it changed, so either that paragraph wasn't included in the complaint, or your lawyer made a mistake.

Since your name was never legally anything other than your married name, you are required to use your maiden/legal name when you apply for a marriage certificate, etc. Technically it was illegal for you to represent yourself under any other name, since it was never your legal name.

Helpful hint: if you do change your name, you must also change it through the Social Security Administration. When you are renewing your driver's license, the name on your DL must match that in the SS database. I had a client who legally changed her name when she got married, but never changed it with SS. She got divorced but never legally changed her name back. When she went to renew her driver's license, they wouldn't let her renew it because her license had her legal name (the married name), but SS still showed her maiden name. Now she has to spend several hundred dollars and wait 2-3 months for her name change petition to go through the courts before she can renew her license (or change it with SS, get her license, and then change both back to her maiden name after her petition is approved). Either way, big hassle. People don't realize that restoring your maiden name after a divorce requires a separate proceeding and is not automatically done, even though it states you can do it in the divorce judgment.

Also, if you have a criminal record, the law "presumes" you are trying to change your name for fraudulent purposes, and you must have a trial (evidentiary hearing) to present evidence and testimony as to why it is not for fraudulent reasons and only if you meet your burden, will the judge grant it.