Legal Question in Family Law in Illinois

adoption/ legal name change

We have a teen age girl we have had in our full legal custody nearly all of her life, she is 14. We want to adopt her. My question is this: Would a legal name change protect her from her mother, or would we have to adopt her? Currently her birth mother nor father has any visitation rights . We really cannot afford adoption but legal name change is only a couple hundred . At this age would the girl have the legal right to not go with her birth parents. Birth mother has not seen her for 12 yrs, father saw her once in last 6 yrs- no contact with any family. They want nothing to do with her ,but my wife is concerned that birth mother will cause trouble some day. She is in and out of prison or jail all of our daughters life. Thank you for your time.


Asked on 3/20/05, 7:29 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Kevin Plachta The Law Office of Kevin F. Plachta

Re: adoption/ legal name change

You will have to complete the adoption process. The name change will not accomplish anything

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Answered on 3/20/05, 8:24 am


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