Legal Question in Family Law in Indiana

Re: Changing of Childs Last name

It depends on what the Indiana Dept of Vital Records will accept. Possibly, they may accept a an acknowledgment of paternity completed on one of their forms. Possibly they may be willing to change the birth certificate based on a paternity declaration in Miss. If they don't you can still have the paternity adjudicated in Miss., enroll it in Indiana and have an Indiana Court issue an order requiring the Dept. to make the change. On the other hand, it may still be possible to have the Indiana Court adjudicate paternity and order the change if it has jurisdiction over the subject matter. Once paternity has been established, the Court will also want to establish child support obligations unless there is good reason to defer.

Re: Changing of Childs Last name

If neither you, the child nor the father resides in Indiana any longer, there would be no object to filing in Indiana, although it would have jurisdiction because the birth occurred here. A better forum is the state where you currently reside.